pirates - playmobil vs. lego - how to win

[Rasputin]

I was told that pirates would never burry treasure and never had a plank. It was children's books which reinforced these fairy tales. You seem to be very knowledgable on the pirate life so is there any truth to this theory?

[cachalote]

Surely there were PM dinghies earlier than 2008?

  rowing dinghies have existed forever in the playmo-pirate-world.
  i am sorry - i used the word dinghy because that's how playmobil calls its 4444 set - http://www.klickypedia.com/sets/4444-usa-pirate-dinghy/.
although i also wrote "tender", in both cases the word "sailing" shoulb be added.

  i'm adding pictures of both lego and playmo sets.

[cachalote]

the plank

  like you ras, i have a lot of doubts about the plank.
  others don't - http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/08/pirates-rarely-made-people-walk-the-plank/
  i tend to think that peter pan introduced the plank.
  of the eye-patch as a way to better adapt to different conditions of light and darkness i have no doubts - i tested on board and it simply doesn't work.

  if the plank really existed, i think what others consider the less likely reason to use it is the right answer - forced many times to go to sea at early ages, seamen often had strange beliefs about the law.
to force someone to walk the plank and see him fall without any other intervention other than a ship's motion could be seen as a murder without anyone getting red-handed.

even in the royal navy sailors were naif enough to think that the captain's authority over them ceased to exist if the ship was grounded or wrecked.

[GrahamB]

Wooden legs, hooks for hands, walking the plank... all may have been less common than we think. But neither PM nor Lego are setting out to create strictly historically accurate pirate toys, are they? It's more about meeting the expectations of children who will play with it, and these expectations are fuelled by fictional (stories, films) representations of pirates, as I said earlier.

[cachalote]

i totally agree with you grahamb.
i am not defending a very strict way in which things should look with zero tolerance for small liberties.
when i speak about "historical errors" i am just talking about avoiding gross mistakes.

  and i believe this is one: soldiers have no place on ships.

correcting it doesn't make ships less atractive (on the contrary) and it is easy to do.

  lego also does this mistake.
"strangely" the only royal navy ship that was designed by playmobil before lego pirates appeared is historically correct.
could it be that their design department was so nervous with this sudden competition that they blindly copied whatever lego came up with.
  maybe. maybe not.

  playmobil is designed to please children (who couldn't care less about this issues).
but this doesn't mean that childish mistakes should not be avoided.

  they simply disappoint grown-ups (you know, people who pay for children's toys).
... o.k. and pay for toys for themselves.

[Macruran]

"strangely" the only royal navy ship that was designed by playmobil before lego pirates appeared is historically correct.

Which set is this?

[cachalote]

the 3740 schooner - http://www.klickypedia.com/sets/3740-schooner/
it has 3 sailors, aa officer and a captain.
5 figures.
what a luxury.
released in 1991, it must have been designed in 1989 or 1988.
lego pirates started in 1989.

[Macruran]

That is indeed a beautiful set.

[cachalote]

now, imagine that (taking out the soldiers) stretched until this...
http://brickset.com/sets/10210-1/Imperial-Flagship

[Rhalius]

That large soldier ship is the only good thing lego produced for pirates since the mid ninetees though.

Lego pretty much ruled the pirate theme from 89-96 or such, but then it was gone again while Playmobil stayed quite steady through the years, not as innovative perhaps, but they did keep a pirate theme.

Downfalls being appearantly the ghost pirates, the ship with plastic rolled up sails, and the new upcomeing theme which has a ship thats a huge downgrade from anything before (no cabin!) and an island that has little to it, and overally basicly no accesoires other than weapons and treasure in the entire theme. No food, no compass, no shovels, nothing.

A shame since the previous pirate theme was so strong from playmobil, at least in my opinion. The treasure island is beautifull, the clickies are often inspired, and the pirateship was the most beautifull one they ever produced.

The only thing the upcomeing pirate batch has going for it is the clickies, and nothing else. Its one big disappointment to me. But I am sure they will learn from this and may just as well release a strong pirate theme again in the future.

As for what they could learn from lego:

-Have a trade post and traders. Lego actually had this, something for pirates to actually plunder.
-Larger soldier presence. Playmobil pretty much throws a few soldiers in as an afterthought whereas lego seemed to pretty much keep both sides equal in amount of sets. Sadly they also neglected giving the soldiers a bigger ship untill the earlier mentioned ship of the line. They also always gave the soldiers a smaller ship.
-Pirate hide outs. Lego had many, big and small. I wish to see more of that since PLaymobil could do this better. Little look outs, hiding spots, island camps with rope bridges.. please give us that.
-Islanders. Got to agree about this yes, would be a good addition and might add to the treasure hunting theme. Could have this instead of soldiers.
-Large soldier fort. Lego did it, Playmobil only gave us small forts. While some nice ones, I would like to see them make something as big as a small castle.