Author Topic: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED  (Read 9325 times)

Offline Hadoque

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #50 on: May 01, 2021, 19:53:39 »
the Novelmore sub-brand will forever have your stamp on it!

To be honest, I would have preferred Bart had put his stamp on a 'HMS Victory', even a stamped trimaster 'HMS Bounty'-frigate would have been awesome.  Sorry! :uhoh:

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Offline Macruran

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #51 on: May 01, 2021, 20:01:46 »
Gotta concur with Hadoque here, for me Playmobil's essence is the recreation of real world things in simplified toy form, including things like fairy tales which do exist in the real world as stories. Completely new licensed worlds with backstories etc just don't feel PM to me - as cool as many of the Novelmore and other theme sets are.  :2c:
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Offline collectobart

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #52 on: May 02, 2021, 09:44:46 »
For me Playmobil's essence is the recreation of real world things in simplified toy form, including things like fairy tales which do exist in the real world as stories. Completely new licensed worlds with backstories etc just don't feel PM to me - as cool as many of the Novelmore and other theme sets are.  :2c:

I don't know about that. In the 70ies this was true. But today in our media-driven world, kids get bombarded with characters and content. On average a kid sees 200+ characters a day that all come with backstories and exciting adventures. they literally do not have to come up with new ones, like we had to when we were young.

Actually it's George Lucas's fault. With Star Wars he unwittingly kicked in a business model where media began driving toy sales, licensing became very profitable for both the toy and entertainment industry and everyone jumped on that band wagon. And whereas a generic PM Pony Farm has a really hard time trying to get shelf space in certain territories, a SPIRIT licensed toy theme opens that door much more easily. So as a toy company you have 2 choices: either become totally dependent on licenses, or start up your own entertainment properties. LEGO has been successful with creating a mix between those two models, and having 1/3rd of classic themes along side it.

So for PLAYMOBIL to remain relevant, it has to adapt.

There is a big "BUT..." though. In doing this you have to stay true to who you are as a brand. In growing towards the sky you must develop your roots equally. You have to keep classic lines too, and develop them with the same love and dedication as in the past. And this is not happening. This is where PM fails atm. Classic lines are neglected and fall to the level of recolored re-issues. The major part of new molds is reserved for licenses. And when new investments are made into classic themes like Rescue, the new firetruck looks almost the same as the old one (but with all new parts and molds).

Similarly, the in-house created IP's need to be developed so they still fit within the system. And this is less and less a point of attention. The new Fairies fit still somewhat with Spirit, but not with core PLAYMOBIL. In terms of building system less and less tends to fit with each other. The flexibility of Steck and the original System-x has been muddled with ready to go constructions with very little overall compatibility. In other words: there is no system anymore.

LEGO once forgot about their brick, and innovated wildly around the turn of the millenium. they almost went bankrupt because of it, and could only bounce back after humbly rediscovering the brick.. Perhaps PM is on the same trajectory.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2021, 10:12:37 by collectobart »

Offline Indianna

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #53 on: May 02, 2021, 14:34:42 »
Hello Bart - it is wonderful to see you here at PF!  :wave:

Actually you didn’t ever post here in the past.
We certainly didn’t delete any posts.
Must be thinking back to the playmoboard days  ;)

I remember all too well the good/bad old days of PlaymoBoard which, sadly, deteriorated rather quickly.  More importantly, though, I remember Collectobil with great fondness and appreciation.  Thank you for your wonderful creation!  I never had an opportunity to say that to you before.  Is there any chance of restoring Collectobil, if only as an historic archive? 

I hope you will continue to share your Playmo-wisdom with us here as you have unique insight into the Playmobil ethos.   :hatoff:

U.S.A.      Massachusetts

Offline Hadoque

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #54 on: May 02, 2021, 15:49:01 »
On average a kid sees 200+ characters a day that all come with backstories and exciting adventures. they literally do not have to come up with new ones, like we had to when we were young.

I can (not) imagine what consequences that will have.



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Offline collectobart

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #55 on: May 02, 2021, 16:58:27 »
I can (not) imagine what consequences that will have.

True. As far as the function of play is concerned, it is about rehearsing "real life" and discovering ones own inner resources and preferences. I spent a lot of time looking into the archetypal nature of role play, kids have archetypes in their blood, they recognize them and also can switch between archetypal roles in a splits second. From King to Prince, from Hero to Villain, from Rescuer to Rescuee. This is all being developed when playing actively with figures, and it has long term effects on the further psychological maturation.

A child today plays differently, disconnected somewhat from the core archetypes directly and instead becoming mainly inspired by all the media characters they encounter. Some of these characters still have an archetypal element, but many don't. And with the focus on black and white stories (Type Hero vs Villain), many archetypes remain unserved.

I don't know if this ended up onscreen or in product, but i tried to lay that archetypal foundation in Novelmore before anything else.

Offline Macruran

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #56 on: May 02, 2021, 17:19:42 »
You're right of course collectobart, licenses and premade stories are just the way things are now, I am an old fuddy duddy I guess... :skull:

Your other comments about staying true to roots and about archetypes are very interesting. I'm glad that at least someone at PM was thinking deeply during toy creation - that always seemed to be the case in the past, and Novelmore does have a certain solid feel to it that some toy properties don't.
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Offline StJohn

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Re: Everdreamerz Series 4 CANCELED
« Reply #57 on: May 08, 2021, 01:16:42 »
Thank you for contributing to this forum, collectobart. Your testimony is precious: you are the mole, the man in the kitchen, you have seen the works! Fascinating to read what you are willing to disclose.

I am intrigued that Novelmore is your brainchild. It has a very distinctive look – would you say that this is yours, or are the esthetics a team effort? I like Novelmore quite a lot, I think it manages to merge preplanned story lines with the potentiality of old-fashioned "freestyle" play: the fact that the castle parts are still System-X compatible is a great bonus for us adult fans. I wish it all the best.

So, Collectobil is yours? I miss that site a lot! Back around 2010, when I started with PM as an adult, it was my online bible: concise and easy to navigate, it helped me tremendously to find out what I had missed since the early 1980s. I hope you still have the data, and wish it could be resurrected. I think we talked in this forum about hosting the site. Would that be something that could be considered? I think that would be very exciting!