I feel quite confident these are real, and it's simply a matter of scale/material/articulation.
I would not be surprised if they are larger, vinyl, and/or statue-like. Because Lego, Mega Bloks and McFarlane have licensed several of these properties, they may have exclusive right to the scale or style of toys that would normally be produced by Playmobil.
I was pretty excited to see them, yet I do share some disappointment over Playmobil jumping into the realm of licensed characters.