PlaymoFriends
General => News => Topic started by: Macruran on September 11, 2016, 02:47:31
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I had some PM when I was a tiny tyke. I know I had the McDonald's sheriff (I can still see his silver badge), and I definitely had some firemen. But which set? I never had a clue until today when I saw this picture:
(http://i.imgur.com/6oYh3FL.jpg)
I remember clear as yesterday that yellow gas mask, the red helmets, the silver helmet, the fireplug, the hose, the radio, the axe and loudspeaker and other tools...the red collars, god I remember them well. Did I have the ladder though? I CAN'T REMEMBER. I can't remember the trampoline either. Medical briefcase? 60% sure I had it. Not sure about the barriers. Sure about the hose reels.
DID I OWN THIS? I will never know.
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I had a cowboy figure, might have been a sheriff.
He had a darker green torso, white arms and black legs. His hair was a very pale yellow. I recall him being in a set very much like the cowboy/mexican set 3241 but he could have come on his own too. The joys of trying to recall things from the distant past when the product was probably made under licence by playpeople or similar.
The torso and hair were unusual colours and I haven't seen them on anything else since.
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Unless you were a child in the UK Macruran, the Playpeople set probably wasn't what you had. If you were in the US it is more likely to have been the version by Schaper instead. See http://www.klickypedia.com/sets/070-sch-fire-fighters-deluxe-set/ (http://www.klickypedia.com/sets/070-sch-fire-fighters-deluxe-set/). The big difference being the ladder is different in the early US sets. Something you mention not remembering from seeing the Playpeople set.
My first experience with Playmobil wasn't until my first job out of college. I worked in a bookstore that sold some sets.
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That's just it, I was a child in the UK. I lived there from about 6 months of age to about five years. And I distinctly recall referring to klickies as "playpeople", which is of course the original British name for them.
But your PM sleuthery is correct: the Schaper set must have been the one I had, because I DO remember those smaller ladders! Those and not the extensible Playpeople one. I even seem to recall experimenting with hairspray flamethrowers in the garage, did I burn klickies? Oh the sins of youth.
BUT! Mystery solved. Thank you Tiermann.
What was it about those early sets that caught your attention?
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Well at that time I wouldn't call it early, it was during the height of the Victorian era. So it was the 5300 dollhouse and related sets plus a few things from other themes. (Victorian fence for $14.95 plus 20% off anyone?) But I didn't start collecting then. That didn't start until around 2000 I think, when I was looking for a current maker of animals and found Playmobil again.
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So animals was your angle huh? Interesting. That was my last major frenzy - I got most of the last Safari theme before the present one, no idea why, I just had to have all the animals. Luckily that cooled off or I'd be in Animobil territory.
The Victorian theme is magical. Hypnotic even. What other toy company would even think of doing something like that? Totally classic.
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Interesting memories there Macruran. I remember you saying once your early childhood was spent in the UK. Perhaps you did have the Shaper version once you moved to the States?
I must say I like the simplicity of those early sets and have collected a few myself (never having ANY PM or PP as a child), more on that sometime in the future.
I wonder who was responsible for designing the box in your photo. It surely should be either Firemen's Super Set or Firemen Super Set? Apostrophe's just are'nt what they us'ed to be.
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My first PM was either a 3312 construction worker or a 3313 roadman, I don't remember exactly. I do remember the toy store however (it closed more than 15 years ago) and that I paid with my own money (I was five or six). I still have the klickys but lost all accessories. Pity, I really loved the beer crate.
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My first two Playmobil sets...Happy days. :)
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Have you not opened them yet Erik? :omg:
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Have you not opened them yet Erik? :omg:
I opened them about 41 years ago, lol!!!!!! ;D
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I have my childhood Playmobil. Some of the other toys I had are rather hazy... The first set was the pony sleigh (unless I got the skiers at the same time). The merry-go-round was also fairly early on. Later, I got the short Victorian house.
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I don't have dim memories of the sets we had as children... :P
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The first set I bought for myself with my own money was 5502 - The Victorian nanny with the Pram. I think it was just after the Victorian range was released, winter time? I remember that it was the first woman in a 'dress' I had. I was already obsessed with Victorian times, so obviously I loved all those sets. I'd love them to re-issue those smaller Victorian sets - I'm hopeful after the release of the Pianist this year.
I inherited quite a lot from my siblings, so we had a lot of school/hospital/nursery sets, in various states of completion. I remember there was one piece we had that was a brown tub with carrying handles - now I think it is meant to be a dough trough or something, but a baby fitted in it so I used it as a bed. It's possible it wasn't even Playmobil, thinking about it.
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Sounds like this one: http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6680 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6680)
unless it was more oval, and then it was the wash womans tub http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6730 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6730)
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Sounds like this one: http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6680 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6680)
unless it was more oval, and then it was the wash womans tub http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6730 (http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-02-6730)
It had long handles at the ends.... so two playmobil could carry it between them. Sort of like a stretcher I guess, but brown and a box
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It had long handles at the ends.... so two playmobil could carry it between them. Sort of like a stretcher I guess, but brown and a box
This one, maybe?
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Interesting memories there Macruran. I remember you saying once your early childhood was spent in the UK. Perhaps you did have the Shaper version once you moved to the States?
Possible. I might have got some PM while in the UK, and then recognized them again in the states. And who knows, maybe I had several small sets and not the big Schaper one. Also, I seem to remember having a fire engine, but I might have just imagined it.
So much plastic. Later I got heavily into the 80s version of GI Joe. :uhoh:
Good point about the apostrophes.
I wonder how much my PMing is an attempt to recapture some of the flavor of childhood. So delicate and quick to pass.
Great memories everyone.
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Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
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This one, maybe?
Yes! Exactly, but dark brown. Even in the context of that set - what is it? For carrying cement?
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Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.
It actually isn't - I was looking up the origin of the concept nostalgia recently and it was something quite different at the beginning - it was a malady Swiss people got, with actual physical symptoms.
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It actually isn't - I was looking up the origin of the concept nostalgia recently and it was something quite different at the beginning - it was a malady Swiss people got, with actual physical symptoms.
Just Swiss people? :lol:
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Just Swiss people? :lol:
Yes.
The term was coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer (1669–1752) in his Basel dissertation. Hofer introduced nostalgia or mal du pays "homesickness" for the condition also known as mal du Suisse "Swiss illness" or Schweizerheimweh "Swiss homesickness," because of its frequent occurrence in Swiss mercenaries who in the plains of lowlands of France or Italy were pining for their native mountain landscapes. Symptoms were also thought to include fainting, high fever, indigestion, stomach pain, and death. Military physicians hypothesized that the malady was due to damage to the victims' brain cells and ear drums by the constant clanging of cowbells in the pastures of Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia#As_a_medical_condition
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Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia#As_a_medical_condition
So the cows did it? ;)
I'm pretty sure battlefield noises, even in the 17th century, would be more likely to damage ear drums and brain cells than cowbells. But let's blame the cows.
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I sense the possibility of a diorama - or even a photo contest theme.
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My first Playmobil figure was the Indian that was available at McDonald's in the early 80's.
The Esso gas stations had promo sets in about 1984 which were several bagged figures of red and gray Esso employees, an orange motorcycle and a lady on a bicycle and there was a huge set of a Esso gas station with a yellow car, a green jeep and a few figures. I got the whole line and they constituted my only childhood Playmobil toys as they were not widely available where I lived.
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I've just remembered that I had a covered wagon.