Specials/Fi?ures.

[Birdie]

I voted Specials and agree with Rasputin and Tahra's reasons.

The only time I buy F?gures is when I really want a specific one and then I usually find them, out of the package and assembled, on a Playmobil fair.
Most of the F?gures are a bit too 'weird' for my taste, I don't have a lot of fantasy stuff.

[PlayMoto]

though i like the concept of the Fi?ures, and it's really fun to go for a feeling-session in the shops with my kids  , i'd prefer the specials too.

[BlueWizard]

I'm really surprised so many of us a choosing Specials over Fi?ures!  Especially those of us who a trying to equalize our numbers by adding more women.  If you look at the coming Specials for this year (internationally) there is a waitress and a yellow princess/lady; next year there will be another princess/lady , a milk maid, a pregnant mother and an award winner - for a total of 6 (none of which really interest me). 

For the Fi?ures this year will have 24 women characters (Series 6 & 7)... including (besides the usual princess/ladies) a Chinese lady, an Aussie koala keeper, and the green enchantress for series 6 and a hippy chick, nun, Indian lady and snake charmer from series 7  And that's not even mentioning the Highlander from the "boys" side! So, even though there are lots of repeats and the usual selection of knights, pirates and princesses, you still get a better selection than you do with the Specials.

I'd like to have both Specials and Fi?ures but right now my focus is on collecting the Fi?ures - my collecting of Specials (and S-Plus) has dropped off quite a bit since the arrival of the surprise figs!  I hope PM doesn't discontinue them!

David

[tahra]

I think the discussion is more the concept than the actual sets, no?

Both "series" suffer from "more of the same" syndrome. But there are a LOT more figures (too many, too fast IMO) than there are thse special (PLUS, these days )... so, apart from the repeats, there's more "space" to add different ones.

(I don't understand playmobil's obsession with.. cooks.)

[bonniebeth]

I wrote don't care because I love them both in different ways. The specials are/were awesome for reasons I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone. But the F?gures are so much fun, with rapid-succession mass releases of a large variety of easily customizable klickys. They don't tend to have as many accessories as specials do, and sometimes they are not as well thought out as the older specials, but I really do love them and would be upset if they were discontinued. I could lose the mystery bag packaging, though.

[Ismene]

I do love the popability of F?gures, and some of the designs are quite fun. But the combination of mystery packaging and lack of local availability means that I have to pay more than retail price (except for the PF co-op).

I think the mystery packaging is fun for kids, but it would be beneficial to us and Playmobil (since a lot of the money in mystery figures goes to Ebayers) if we could order specific F?gures off playmobil.com. Even if it were slightly more expensive than buying them "blind" at a store, people would buy ones they couldn't find.

[cowabounga]

I voted for Specials. Though I like some of the Fi?ures, but I'm fed up with feeling the bags. At least for the first series, on KW, they had cracked the code. Don't know if it's true for all the other series. I usually find the figures I want at playmo fairs, and even though they're more expensive, I only get the ones I want, and only those.

[sunflower]

 The only reason I voted for specials is that I like to see what I buy. I love the figures in the bags but I have too many doubles to enjoy buying anymore; I'm not that patient with feeling bags...

[tahra]

I do love the popability of F?gures, (..)

 

[BlueWizard]

So would everybody be happy if the Specials Plus theme was expanded to have 8, 10 or 12 sets for each release... and adding more women to the series? We'd get a better selection, a better possibility for odd/unusual/creative characters - and we'd see what we were buying.

David