PlaymoFriends
General => What is this??? => Topic started by: BlackPearl2006 on December 23, 2011, 12:14:48
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This would have been my first and ONLY firefighter set I've ever owned, and it was also my very first PM toy EVER.
Believe it or not, at 35 yrs old I am able to remember my years at age 2 (I was playing violin at age 3).
At age 2 my mom let me play with some toys that were sent to me from Germany by my grandfather from overseas before I was even born. The very first toy I ever remember playing with was a playmobil firefighter set. But I dont know which one it was! Help me figure it out!
Ok, this is what I remember: it came with about 4 firemen. Give or take 1, perhaps. They were ALL plain blue (blue legs, blue torsoes, blue arms.) I THINK they came with yellow firefighter hats, and red collars. And I distinctly remember having them all hold the trampoline/net thing (the thing you jump into if you have to jump from a burning building and the firefighters catch you in it). I can't remember the colour though, maybe it was black, or white or yellow? It had multiple handles all around its circumference so that several clickies could hold it at the same time. I remember it came with street signs (white) and fire extinguishers. Sadly, the engine (or was it a car?) I barely remember. It was either a red firefighter car(?) or a very squatty fire engine if that even existed. It came in a blue box which I seem to remember being about shoebox-sized. When I lifted the box top off (it was a seperate piece, not attached to the main box bottom), it had cardboard insert that divided the vehicle from the rest of the accessories.
I honestly did not realize this was playmobil until I started collecting playmobil in recent years and was reminded of this firefighter set I used to play with at age 2. I didn't play with it after age 2 because I lost most of the pieces, and then we moved at age 3 and I never saw it again. I also remember it came with flexible plastic hoses that frustrated me because they were always "wound" no matter how much I tried to straighten them out since they kept re-coiling back to their coiled positions. And I was also frustrated because I could not get them to stay plugged into their nozzles.
I wish I could remember if it was a truck or a car, but I swear the hoses plugged into a base of some sort, maybe an oxygen tank, or maybe directly to the vehicle.
Any longshot ideas of what set it could have been?
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Probably this one, from 1976.
http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-DE-Site/de_DE/Product-Show?pid=3403-A&cgid=1976
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(http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aabe_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-DE-Site/Sites-Catalog/de_DE/v1324541562737/imagesOnline/archiv_products/3403-1.jpg)
hmmm, that may very well be it! I do remember the picks and the shovels, and I remember the grey storage thing that I could never get to close right. I guess I was wrong about their hats being yellow, I guess they were red afterall. And now I remember what the "thing" was that the hoses plugged into: the FIRE HYDRANT!!! awesome!!! So now I wonder what was the vehicle I thought that came with them? Unless my grandfather bought a seperate vehicle to go with it. Just seeing that pic brings back all my toddler memories! Thanks!
Oh, and that also makes sense being from 1976, seeing how that was the year I was born!
And now I am reminded of a train (don't know if it was PM or not) which was mostly blue and white and yellow accents on it. Must investigate more
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Such a nice set. I had that one too when I was a kid.
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hmmm, that may very well be it! I do remember the picks and the shovels, and I remember the grey storage thing that I could never get to close right. I guess I was wrong about their hats being yellow, I guess they were red afterall. So now I wonder what was the vehicle I thought that came with them? Unless my grandfather bought a seperate vehicle to go with it. Just seeing that pic brings back all my toddler memories! Thanks!
Oh, and that also makes sense being from 1976, seeing how that was the year I was born!
And now I am reminded of a train (don't know if it was PM or not) which was mostly blue and white and yellow accents on it. Must investigate more
Your memory is not wrong Blackpearl with the hats. You remember their gasmasks they put on their faces , they were yellow! (See this pic for an example (http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/images/playmobil/pack_38.jpg)) I reckon the truck you got with it was a seperate set: http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-DE-Site/de_DE/Product-Show?pid=3236-A&cgid=1976 perhaps?
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Your memory is not wrong Blackpearl with the hats. You remember their gasmasks they put on their faces , they were yellow! (See this pic for an example (http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/images/playmobil/pack_38.jpg)) I reckon the truck you got with it was a seperate set: http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-DE-Site/de_DE/Product-Show?pid=3236-A&cgid=1976 perhaps?
(http://demandware.edgesuite.net/aabe_prd/on/demandware.static/Sites-DE-Site/Sites-Catalog/de_DE/v1324541562737/imagesOnline/archiv_products/3236-1.jpg)
YES YES!!! That's the truck!!!! (although I don't remember the yellow sticker on the front that says "firetruck"....unless it was never applied on mine, or I ripped it off). but, AWESOME! I can't believe you figured it out! (And I am amazed by my relatively-accurate 2-yr-old toddler memory!) That IS the right truck! Now I remember also being frustrted (as a 2-yr old) because the extendable ladder kept coming out (probably because I pulled it out) and I had difficulty getting it to slide back into the lower ladder frame! I remember the feel of that truck, and the feel of turning the ladder on it's swivel base! And I remember those side bins that open up to store accessories! And I remember the pics and shovels could snap directly onto the truck bed near the rear! WOW!!! And I remember being bothered that there is a windshield, but no roof! (I seem to remember the window kept coming off too, or maybe I kept taking it off).
THANK YOU SO MUCH for helping restore my earliest childhood toy memory from 33 years ago! Amazing!!!!!
(Now I think I want to hunt down those sets for nostalgia....ebay here I come? lol)
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http://images.worthpoint.com/files/pb/979/4434/207.jpg
I found this picture of the Schaper (old USA License) Fireman Super Deluxe set which has the truck in it too... so you could have had this set :)
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Hmmm, I don't remember the ladder being yellow..... I seem to recall it being white. (though the german pic appears to be light grey?) Oh, wow, now that I can see the clickies better in that pic, I do remember too that the firechief had a shiny chrome hat!
I just researched on ebay. There is the clicky set 3403-A going for 140 Euro! (US180 ish)!!! expensive! And the truck set (euro) seems to elude me. However I did find a loose 1404 US version of the truck by itself for US13.00. But it has a yellow ladder :( I swear I remember a white or light grey ladder.
aw, and the american one on ebay is missing it's inner ladder (that slides up and down), no covers on the side storage bins, and no spools for hoses. :/
Oh, and I swear I had a LOT of white street signs, like stop signs, yield, crossing signs, danger signs. Perhaps that was a seperate set too?
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That was my first playmobil too :love: :love: :love:
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the early sets had a lot of color variation in them so it is quite possible that it had a grey or white ladder even though the pic had a yellow one.
The fire truck itself was re-released as a "classic edition" set a few years back
http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showinv.pl?setnum=7786
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I'm happy to have been of assistance :)
Its quite amazing to remember so much detail at such a young age, and even more amazing in how your description triggered my memory. I think I still have an old box of Playmo firefighters in my attic somewhere, although its not the exact set you remember. Will have a look for you.
Merry x-mas and many happy memories!
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I'm so thrilled to know I'm not the only one who remembers my very early years quite clearly! Not to go off topic... but it's quite unusual, and most people think it's strange that I can remember potty training very clearly, even remember having diaper rashes before that and how much it hurt :lol:, remember crying in my crib at night, etc. I don't remember everything, of course, but I remember a lot, and the memories are very clear, going back to around 18 months old or maybe even earlier. I clearly remember an incident with my dad being hospitalized and going to visit him, and being cared for by relatives while my mom stayed with him, that happened when I was 18 months old. And those aren't my earliest memories. I wonder what that means about us? My brother is the same way, btw.
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I have some early memories but wouldnt know about placing it in the right order. I do remember sleeping in a crib and the bunk bed in that room being changed to a white bunk bed with a ladder, which was about age 2.
Not sure about my earliest playmobil memories though.. I do remember the red stage coach which my sister broke.. and I believe my dad always put the cowboys in a long row on horseback with guns. And I dont remember the playmobil ship of my 14 year older brother ever having sails and full rigging. Well there was a small sail still but it was broken, it was just used as a blanket. Benefit of having a brother and sister at least 10 years older and a sister of 2 years older. I had plenty of playmobil to play with growing up before I first received my own sets. :)
The first released ghost might have been my very first set, or a set with two cowboys, one on horseback with a white hat and another on foot with a brown hat.
My avatar probably shows which was my favorite set of all time though, despite it being released when I was eight.. I thought I was younger when I received my most favorite clickies, they where my first knights. Might be that it seems longer ago because I played so much with them. :)