Playmobil's response to the "Toy like me" campaign

[skypurr]

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 
It will be interesting to see what they produce.

[Ismene]

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.

[leefert]

This is cool!

[basilsdad]

This is very good news.  Thanks so much for posting this information, Elaine.   

Joe

[bonniebeth]

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.

[indianapierre]

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!

[playmofire]

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.

[Rasputin]

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.

[cachalote]

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).

[Rhalius]

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.