PlaymoFriends
General => News => Topic started by: skypurr on May 29, 2015, 18:41:24
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Thought that fellow collectors might be interested in this.
'Toy like me' is a campaign group run by parents of children with disabilities calling on the Toy Industry for better disability representation in toys. This has been in the news and on social media lately in the UK
As reported today on the group's facebook page "PLAYMOBIL has become the FIRST global toy brand to join the TOY LIKE ME toy box revolution."
Here is Playmobil UK's reply on facebook.
" You may have seen or heard about Toy Like Me in the news and on social media....
We always take on board a lot of feedback from children and fans across the world and design our toys to reflect this. The Toy Like Me campaign has been inspiring for us – we’ve listened to our audience and are delighted to offer our full support.
We are in the planning stages to release a PLAYMOBIL set which will include characters with disabilities, with part of the profits to be donated to a charity hand-selected by Toy Like Me. And moving forward, we will be looking into including more characters with disabilities in our ranges.
We receive a lot of positive comments from guardians of deaf and disabled children on how well our toys stimulate their learning and creativity, so we are thrilled to be able to champion their representation in the toy box"
Well done Playmobil :clap:
It will be interesting to see what they produce.
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Thanks for sharing.
A child klicky with a guide dog would make a nice set. And I don't think there are any child klickies with glasses. Plus there's a lot that can be done with mobility aids.
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This is cool!
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This is very good news. Thanks so much for posting this information, Elaine. :)
Joe
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Oh this is great news. Chris heard about this campaign the other day on the local news and Playmobil was specifically mentioned as one of the companies they were going to try to work a deal with. Glad to hear they are the first to agree to it. Works out well with the pediatric hospital theme too, so it's good timing.
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This is wonderful!
But what particularly excites me is that it isn't exactly new for playmobil. They've done things like kids on crutches, so the parts are there and have been for a while. Playmobil really can represent this mission!
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This is wonderful!
But what particularly excites me is that it isn't exactly new for playmobil. They've done things like kids on crutches, so the parts are there and have been for a while. Playmobil really can represent this mission!
It is true that Playmobil has had children on crutches and in wheelchairs, but, as the organisers of the campaign pointed out, these were in the hospital/clinic theme and so their disabilities were only temporary.
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I thought all klickies were already deaf, seeing as they all lack ears?
One of my cousins kids is autistic but he looks rather "normal" so just wondering how geobra intends on demonstrating disabilities? Kids with white canes, or as mentioned guide dogs and wheel chairs.
Perhaps all building will now have to be ADA (Americans Diablility Act) complient
Very nice move on geobras part to bring awareness to this subject.
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:) this is much better news than the porsche 911.
and, no doubt, a big step in the right direction.
and i am sure playmobil, this time, will be careful with the names they give these new special sets - not to repeat the enormous gaffe with the brown-skin-colored sets ("etnhic" at first and then a "sounds-like-africa" name i don't recall).
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The beauty of clickies is that their mental condition is whatever you want it to be, so I doubt they will do anything with that since its not needed.
However they can of course have children with glasses, wheelchairs outside the hospital theme, fat children, and blind clickies can be represented with sunglasses, a walking stick and helper dog.
Though I gues it would be difficult for actual blind people to play with playmobil, it can help to create understanding for the blind.
Personly being someone who had glasses for as long as I can remember, I never took note of clicky children not having glasses though. It never bothered me but then again, I never had much of an urge to identify myself as a clicky.
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Things that have been mentioned in this campaign are birth marks, cleft palettes, prosthetic limbs, and cochlear implants, though that last one won't work for playmobil. I also would like to see a child with no hair, like they are going through chemotherapy.
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Well done Geobra! With awards in the past for the Visit To The Dentist set, Playmobil is clearly receptive to representing the lives children lead. We have had to buy extra PM wheelchairs to stop arguments between our children, who want to include in their games children they know. So we are always pleased to get extra black, Chinese or red-brown skinned children to give a more representative ethnic mix to the school, zoo, playground or whatever.
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Just the thought of a Child Klicky with glasses is an exciting step. I'm interested in seeing what they come up with.
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Birth marks are something everyone has though but clickies dont have it at all. Due to them being quite small I dont think it would work that well to add such details on clickies who dont have a nose or ears. Its easy enough to give clickies birthmarks though. As for prostethic limbs.. clickies do kind of have that, being able to disassemble.
They could of course have a one time child figures line though, so that we'd get children with changeable parts.
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I think the child with no hair and kids with glasses make sense to Playmobil. Perhaps also a better modern wheelchair (motorized variety). These would probably have the widest impact that could actually be seen on the figures.
A lot of the others wouldn't really work because there would be no way to tell if a klicky had those conditions or not. Though, if they are talking about including the new "teenage" figures as children... there is a lot more room for detail. :)
I am intrigued by the idea of prosthetics, but not really sure how that could be portrayed in a small limited motion toy. It will certainly be interesting to see how/if they address this aspect.
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They have had clickies with prostetic limbs ever since the pirates got introduced with their hooks and peg legs though. ;D
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Talking about birthmarks, they don't mean the little ones that everyone has. They mean the ones that cover large portions of a person's face or are otherwise somewhat disfiguring. I have a friend who has a large dark black birthmark that covers the entire inside of her lower leg. That can make a person very self conscious, especially when they're young.
A klicky, perhaps a teenage girl, with vitiligo might be good too, though it could be customized to some degree by using a light skinned head and dark-skinned hands. Still it would be better if it actually had patches of different colors though.
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Come to think of it geobra has been making handicapped klickies since 1973, it just that they have been throwing them all in the recycle grinder similar to how the Spartans used to throw unwanted babies off the cliffs. I have been asking geobra to sell these parts in job lots similar to "parts play packs" that they used to sell.
Save the unwanted, I know I have a pile of mold-disfigured klickies already. I usually use them in the hospital
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The blind klickies are the ones where the brown plastic did not make it into the eye sockets.
Now that I am thinking of it perhaps the fact that geobra is using stamped eyes and they know they will rub off over time geobra is thinking ahead....." no eyes, well we intended for that to happen...it's late year cataracts"
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Are there any Playmo walkers? There are crutches and wheelchairs, but I can't remember if there are walkers.
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As Rhalius pointed out, the Pirates Theme is full of disabled ones. Peglegs, hook-hands, half-blinds etc.
The next batch to be released in September favours the peglegs again, almost every set (except the soldiers´ ones) contains such a klicky 8}
On a more serious note now, it is nice there will be a some klickies with disabilities like the people in the real - representative - world.
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Are there any Playmo walkers? There are crutches and wheelchairs, but I can't remember if there are walkers.
No, there aren't. I've been wishing for that too. Actually there could be better crutches, too.
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More realistic crutches and walking aids would be great.
My eldest son is deaf and listens to music with his hearing aid on the 'T' setting and with an audio neck loop attached to his ipod to transmit the sound. Playmobil probably don't realise it, but the black neck loop which comes with one of the mystery fi?ures is perfect for this.
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That's interesting, Elaine. I hadn't realized that about the neck loop. Both of my husband's parents are deaf, with very little residual hearing.