More Playmobil Knock-offs at TRU

[Luis]

they're just junk - period

[Wesley Myers]

Mighty World makes some VERY nice buildings.  We have their flower shop and it's top notch and just the right size for Playmobil (like Sylvainian Families/Calico Critters).

The accessories are painted and some (ie flower stems) are made of a softer plastic so they won't break (like the old Britains Detail toy soldiers). 

It's hard to find the buildings but if you do buy them - you won't regret it.

[Ace]

they're just junk - period

Agreed  !
Ace

[Bolingbroke]

That 'hair accessory' thing - I think - means that when you remove the hat you can put the 'hair acc' in its place: a bit like PM hat/non-hat hair.

Oh well ... it took PM the best part of 40 years to give us non-hat hair, so ...

[playmofire]

Couldn't playmobil negotiate NOT to be placed near these or megablocks? I wonder if they were willing to pay more than these others wer, if they could win out and not be placed by them. It seems they are on the knock-offs aisle, the one everyone interested in quality passes up.

Would Playmobil want to be away from these products?  It's a matter of competition and being in the same aisle as other, similar items allows ubyers to compare one with another as regards quality (where PM scores) and price (where it may lose out).  If buyers get to the cheapo aisle first, they may well buy and leave the store without even finding the PM aisle.  In mediaeval times the practice was (I think it may even have been a sort of town planning requirement) that shops/stalls of a given sort were all in the same street/row, so all the butchers were together (this also kept all the mess in one street as slaughtering then usually took place on the premises), all bakers together and so on. 

[bonniebeth]

Interesting point. But I guess that's also why it's bad for them to be on the aisle with a bunch of knock-offs, as if they were the also knock-offs.

[playmofire]

Interesting point. But I guess that's also why it's bad for them to be on the aisle with a bunch of knock-offs, as if they were the also knock-offs.

Well, they're not really "knock-offs" which are poor copies of something, fakes if you like, designed to look like the real thing.  They are similar products in competition with Playmobil.  After all, one Western saloon is very much like another whoever makes it.

[tahra]

In mediaeval times the practice was (I think it may even have been a sort of town planning requirement) that shops/stalls of a given sort were all in the same street/row,

OT: Yes, we have a bunch of streets like that in the older part of Lisbon.. named for the shops that used to be there.

[bonniebeth]

Well, they're not really "knock-offs" which are poor copies of something, fakes if you like, designed to look like the real thing.  They are similar products in competition with Playmobil.  After all, one Western saloon is very much like another whoever makes it.

I was referring mostly to stuff like mega-blocks, which is considered to be a lego knock-off.

But on the bright side, Playmobil is aso located near discovery channel toys, lincoln logs, brios, and the like -- toys that are generally considered to encourage imagination and be sort of "smart kid toys." So I guess that's a really good thing.