Author Topic: What do we like about Playmobil  (Read 5338 times)

Offline Martin Milner

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What do we like about Playmobil
« on: April 24, 2008, 15:43:33 »
A couple of phrases cropped up on Playmoboard in general discussions about Playmobil, that I'd like to share with you.

1) It's aesthetically pleasing. (quote from me)

It is art - the shiny robust plastic, smiling faces, and the fact that each figure is instantly recognisable for what it is meant to be.

I like looking at klickys, and I like holding them in my hand - they fit so well.

2) They're so well engineered. (quote from DeeinNJ)

I suppose we shouldn't be suprised that a German toy is well engineered, but think again how things fit together, how the tools clip into hands and stay there, neither too big to fit nor so loose they drop out. That klicky hand is a marvel. Think how hats stay on with friction - very rarely does a hat not fit just right. This is precision engineering.


Playmobil fits into my world as a Small Thing of Desire. This description encompasses Swiss Army knives, Parker pens, pocket mp3 players - things you can carry with you, usually that fit in the pocket, that are just nice to have around.



Offline Gepetto

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2008, 16:32:42 »
Playmobil fits into my world as a Small Thing of Desire. This description encompasses Swiss Army knives, Parker pens, pocket mp3 players - things you can carry with you, usually that fit in the pocket, that are just nice to have around.


Very nice Martin, I like that thought!



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Offline Rasputin

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2008, 21:36:10 »
1 - One thing i like about Playmobil is its ability to use as a tool to better understand a child. If one of my sons is having a hard time with a particular situation i can help guide them and give examples of how to deal with it through play . With the interchangeability of all the themes and parts we never lack the actors. Also just through observing a child at play will help better understand their personality, desires and interests .

2- There are not many toys i have come across that cover so many themes . Its a balanced playmobil world .

3- they are small enough to have a large collection that does not require a wharehouse to store and large enough to be able to find the little accesories .

4- they are just so simple .

5- they are realistic enough to apear that at any moment they are just going to come to life .
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Offline Gustavo

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2008, 16:02:38 »
There were two other toys I used to play with: G.I. Joes, and Lego. G.I. Joes were never civilian; Lego are too small to play people. Playmobil offers much more options to imagination. It gives most of the elements of common daily life, and not only today but throughout History as well ... I could live among indians and among pirates. Drink with knights.

Lego is great to building things. I had three main friends, in highschool; two of them went to "the Engeneerings", their favourite toys and plays were with Lego. I went to Languages, and my favourite toy was Playmobil. I liked Lego, but I never took out of it what those guys did. On the other hand, they seemed not to fully understand Playmobil, or take the profit of it that I did.

I was talking with a friend, an(other) "Engeneering guy", and he understood a bit of what I meant, when I told him that if someone takes the figures out of Playmobil, what is left are empty buildings*, and there's nothing** to do with empty buildings***. He told me that, if you take figures out of Lego, you only take one (or three) block(s) out of thousands of other blocks much alike. Playmobil is much about people. Figures are more than 50% of the composition.

I like looking at them, and imagining. Names, stories, ... Many of my stories came out of klickies. They're the most creative writing mates I've ever had, it's great to write with them!

_


* & tools
** almost nothing ... ;)
*** and tools; lots of things to do, especially about tools!
« Last Edit: April 26, 2008, 16:09:53 by Gustavo »
Gus
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Offline cachalote

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2008, 11:39:52 »
i think i see my playmobil worlds as a heterotopia (another space) quite near to michel foucault's concept.
my playmo-pirates allow me, just by watching them, to enter into another small world, different from the one that surrounds me but with a tangible existence.
the size and the design of the klickies has a lot to do with this: they are portable and they seem to last forever, making their world a very "easy" place.
  :)
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Offline playmofire

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2008, 14:32:09 »
i think i see my playmobil worlds as a heterotopia (another space) quite near to michel foucault's concept.
my playmo-pirates allow me, just by watching them, to enter into another small world, different from the one that surrounds me but with a tangible existence.
the size and the design of the klickies has a lot to do with this: they are portable and they seem to last forever, making their world a very "easy" place.
  :)

Agreed, cachelote; nicely put.
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Offline Gustavo

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2008, 16:08:36 »
Oops, there are clickies which belong to the Bronze ages: I was forgetting the Egyptians!!! :-[

Being somewhat ocious tonight, I read this discussion and think that this discussion on construction toys is mostly on definitions.

I suppose a construction toy is one in which you construct a building (or ships). We certainly contruct buildings with Playmobil, so it would be a construction toy.

On the other side, we have that there are many sets with no construction at all. Those cannot be construction toys (except we acept dressing as construction... but this is a seoparate matter of definition... let's by the moment say that dressing is not the same of construction, just by noting there are different words for each action).


It comes the question of degrees. Yeah, it seems that a product with individual bricks leaves you more possibilities of construction than a product with four walls, a floor and a roof (of course it is an oversimplification). Indeed you have to construct more in the former than in the later. Thus, the toy with individual bricks should be more "of construction" than that with the four walls. Even then, we construct with Playmobil.

I am only using the dictionary to state what Playmobil is. You can construct with Playmobil sometimes but not always, Playmobil is a construction toy, but not just this. Can at the same time Playmobil be a construction toy and not being? Well, if one considers the Playmobil line as all its products, we must say it is partly a construction toy (for sets with construction) and partly not. We can also measure "how of construction" Playmobil is when compared with other toys by taking into account the number of originally disassembled parts that constitute each building.

Language is problematic, sometimes can make us fight defending extremes because there is no word to define intermediate "greys", or things that have one part of a way and the other of other way. As the now defunct great evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould said: "it was both things and none at the same time" (when discussing if corals were a single individual or a colony, given that a discussion raised supporting each hypothesis: corals were made of individual parts each comparable to a complete medusa -their relatives- but at the same time, anatomically and physiologically united by a common and continuous "gut"; as shown by Gould, all this problem vanishes if we do not to force reality into names, but names into reality). 8}


I don't think Playmobil is a "building toy", or meant to be so ... It's a "playing toy": it's meant to play with (little klicky*) people, not to build with bricks. Playmobil is people, and people's lives. It's more of theatre, role-playing, story-telling, literature, History, life in general, (modern living ;) ) ...

You can build, with Playmobil, if you like ... Take a look in "Night of the Reaper" ... Wow: the medieval town that fellow built is perfect! ... & The brilliant idea was to make it ... "curved", bent ... Because, in most toys, building is always straight, and the Middle Ages engeneering & urbanism didn't seem to be very accurate. But then, it's customization. The toy gives us basic material. We use imagination.

I have nothing against building toys ... They're great!, for those who take pleasure in them ... In building. In Mathematics and the building parts of Physics. But I like people, and I take pleasure in people ... I don't like Mathematics as much as the mathematicians ... The chemists ... the apotecaries (& co) ... This is the fun, to me.

On another hand, there's no need of a fork, in a building toy. But it is perfect in a playing toy, [see attachments]
because it's a simple important detail of human life ... And therein lies my love for Playmobil.

There's only one thing more complete than Playmobil: life.
For a toy, Pm is the BEST!

_


*"little smiling klicky", as Richard said somewhere else ;D
Gus
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Offline Richard

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2008, 17:44:39 »


Hello, Gus ...


Sylvia and David's "The Night of the Reaper" is perhaps one of the greatest Playmo Photo Stories ever created! Can you imagine how many days of writing, scripting, staging, photographing and editing they must have spent to bring this incredible production to fruition?






Hopefully, someone will come along and create a new Playmo Photo Story that will challenge the wonderful work of Sylvia and David and Just for Kl!cks! ...

Until then, we can enjoy these splendid stories, that they've given us, over and over again ...

All the best,
Richard




Offline Gustavo

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2008, 19:05:14 »

RIGHT! ... It's Sylvia's work  :yup: ... It is so crazy to remember all the authors of so many wonderful works that I've been finding 8} ...

But you're right: their work is THE BEST I've ever seen ... Light is great, storyline is simple, but efficient and funny, and, above all, it respects very much the klicky concept, I mean, they don't customize in bizarre ways, but use the klickies & scenaries in a simple and neat way. It's all Playmobil, pratically (or maybe even no) crafting, and very little Photoshop (I calculate less than 3%).

(Not that I dislike crafting customization ... On the contrary: there's great work made by customizers!)

I really appreciate the work of "Night of the Reaper", and most of the Playmofans communities are probably in agreement with it, I believe. :yup:

... Are they married? :) &, are they Kate & Nasty, shown above, or was it only a coincidence?

Btw, who are the couple in the picture of a pink unicorn & a blacksmith forging a ring with a couple at the back? ...

I'd love to meet you all, you know? But, unlike many Brasillians, I'm ... quite conformed to living in Brasil. Like me' country ;)

Gus
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Offline Richard

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Re: What do we like about Playmobil
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2008, 21:57:03 »



Hello, Gus ...
(Were you left home alone today?) ... :lol:


... Are they married? :)



Sylvia and David? Yes, but NOT to each other. They actually live in different countries with their spouses and families.



Btw, who are the couple in the picture of a pink unicorn & a blacksmith forging a ring with a couple at the back? ...



I'm not sure where you saw the photo, but you may be talking about Playmoliver from Playfans. If it is Playmoliver, the photo was taken when he and his wife got married.

All the best,
Richard