The New Look on the Playmobil Website

[Giorginetto]

The playmo faces were the best . Nowadays playmobil makes rocket launchers and weird robots . Aw well. i suppose its 'evolution' 

[Bolingbroke]

The playmo faces were the best . Nowadays playmobil makes rocket launchers and weird robots . Aw well. i suppose its 'evolution' 

The faces weren't always there. I can imagine your kind of philsitine circa 1982, going: 'gah! i dont like twisty klicky wrists' or something. There was somebody who stopped buying PM in the late 70s because they decided to introduce female klickies, probably.

[Pynedor]

There was somebody who stopped buying PM in the late 70s because they decided to introduce female klickies, probably.

  That would be interesting, to say the least. But as far as the heads, if they had had words first and then moved to the heads, I think I would have liked the change. The heads are just cool, how they are all the same yet different for each theme. It's a nice sense of collectiveness for all Playmobil.

[Bolingbroke]

Mind you, I liked the heads. But then again, I think we're often too hard on PM - myself included. If we think they gave us the Romans a couple of years ago (surely one of the top five themes EVER), we could and should forgive them pretty much anything. And now ... after years of complaining about it, they are giving us cowboys and indians, too. So ...

[Pynedor]

I agree. It'll be sad if the heads go though.

[Bolingbroke]

Win some lose some. Let's imagine we've jumped back to the mid-90s thanks to a time machine. Circa the Robin Hood theme and the steck castle. I would love those ... but Id be very very bleh-y about most other themes, like the construction sets and so on. You can never make all the fans 100% happy with everything, all the time. I would still like to have a decent, database-based DS service, and I would really like a continuation of the Roman theme and so on, but things still look good-ish in general. There's much more to be done, obviously (esp in keeping the adult collectors happy), but I think the rebranding is necessary in keeping up with the times.

BTW i loved how they named the cavemen theme 'history' ... who knows what next year will bring, in terms of historical themes

[Giorginetto]

If we think they gave us the Romans a couple of years ago (surely one of the top five themes EVER), we could and should forgive them pretty much anything. And now ... after years of complaining about it, they are giving us cowboys and indians, too. So ...

Romans as well as egyptians didnt last very long though, no further sets etc were ever made ..... I think the words ' giving us' is a bit misused here in my opinion of course   . Playmobil as a company want to make  toys that  sell and long gone are some standards and ethics set by the creator of it all Hans Beck. Today there are rockets, lasers, auto look like guns, angry faces and some very weird sets if you ask me . BUT not all companies are like playmobil some companies didint trade their product values and principles for profit but worked for maximising profit withing those values/principles instead..

anyways as for the romans the arena was a very poor choice given its bloody history and the so many people who died in them. i think it was a very very  poor choice by playmobil if you ask me and not surprised it obviously didnt sell. other romans sets could have been more appealing like a hippodrome to keep the specators' theme in persective with 4 horsed chariots for example and of course a roman agora ( market ) or roman house ... anyways i love the romans series and have hundreds of them BUT still i think playmobil has gobe a bit off its values if you ask me . i would rather see playmobil shuttign down that turning into a toy line that will have nothing to share with how it started.. anyways.....this whole notion links to the new website too  

I have two complete arenas btw and lots of ds parts for them to make a big custom one . love the set actually  

[Pynedor]

BTW i loved how they named the cavemen theme 'history' ... who knows what next year will bring, in terms of historical themes

Hmm, I didn't notice that before. That does seem promising, but maybe they meant for it to be "prehistory" only.

[Bolingbroke]

Mmm. I dont think ppl are that much bothered about the fact that christians used to die in the arena, really. I mean, a film like Gladiator was still a massive hit, wasn't it?

I think that at the end of the day it's wrong to idealise the 'golden era'. Back in the 70s and 80s, the choice of sets was still very market driven. That's why there was the western theme, because cowboys and stuff were still very popular among kids our age (Im 35). Same goes for Space and what have you.

I agree themes could last for longer ... but then again I think it has to do with decreasing attention spans. Attention spans are diminishing by the minute, in all forms of entertainment. I mean ... if you take a look around you, teleserials are nowadays more popular than feature-length films, partly because they are very well-made but also because they are shorter. Id rather watch a 30 minute show nowadays, than a 90 minute film. I think it has something to do with why a theme seems to last only one year, too. In a roundabout way perhaps, but I still think there is a link.

[Bolingbroke]

Hmm, I didn't notice that before. That does seem promising, but maybe they meant for it to be "prehistory" only.

There's only so much you can do with prehistory, though. And I don't think there were many PM themes that lasted only one 'outing' ... or were there? Any ideas, people?