alternate 4884 nativity?

[Macruran]

I just ran across a picture of the 4884 box that shows the grey haired guy as Joseph and the black haired guy as the shepherd. This is clearly wrong. Was this a regional variant, an early edition, or what? Or am I playllucinating?

Weird version: https://www.moodyo.com/product/651abfa2-cac7-11e1-b708-ff012919835a/playmobil-belen-4884

Normal version:
http://playmodb.org/setpics/4/4884.jpg

[playmofire]

Christian tradition tends to assume that Joseph was older than Mary, maybe much so.  On that basis, the "alternate" version might be seen as the "correct" one.

EDIT:  now, that's very interesting. If you click on the arrow to the right of the box, another view of the box appears with the younger man next to Mary!

[Rasputin]

Christian tradition tends to assume that Joseph was older than Mary, maybe much so.  On that basis, the "alternate" version might be seen as the "correct" one.

EDIT:  now, that's very interesting. If you click on the arrow to the right of the box, another view of the box appears with the younger man next to Mary!

Mary seems to get around 

[Macruran]

Christian tradition tends to assume that Joseph was older than Mary, maybe much so.  On that basis, the "alternate" version might be seen as the "correct" one.

I'd still read that as Mary being around sixteen and Joseph being around thirty or thirty five, so still black haired. Not an old geezer. But who am I to say.

EDIT:  now, that's very interesting. If you click on the arrow to the right of the box, another view of the box appears with the younger man next to Mary!

That just makes the mystery weirder as then those aren't pictures of the same box.

[GrahamB]

Well spotted, Macruran! Playmobil.de has the picture with the black-haired man next to Mary and this is the commonest version to show up on Google images. Like the Moodyo site, Amazon.de has both images. A veritable mystery indeed! There seems no difference in the box contents, so why the two different pictures?

[Macruran]

A difference perhaps between suffragan and diocesan?

[tahra]

Wonder if it was an initial version of the box front, that was then "corrected"? I mean, seems a bit farfetched that someone went to the trouble of redoing the pic, or photoshopping it, right?

Actually, on that very image, the pic on the side seems to show the younger guy with the woman... Though the klicky color could be confusing, the one with her clearly has darker hair and a lighter "hat"...

Interesting!

Mary seems to get around 

[Ismene]

That is interesting. I expect when they are creating set photos, they take a lot of photos with different angles and set ups.

I know there are some people who have the idea of Joseph being rather old, but it makes no sense. A carpenter isn't independently wealthy, so why would he start a family when he is reaching an age to be too old to work (carpentry is a physically demanding job)? Also, the average marriage age, even for men, was younger back then. If I had to guess, I would expect him to be in his 20s - old enough to have some stability but young enough to be able to reasonably expect to be able to provide for a large family.

[playmofire]

That is interesting. I expect when they are creating set photos, they take a lot of photos with different angles and set ups.

I know there are some people who have the idea of Joseph being rather old, but it makes no sense. A carpenter isn't independently wealthy, so why would he start a family when he is reaching an age to be too old to work (carpentry is a physically demanding job)? Also, the average marriage age, even for men, was younger back then. If I had to guess, I would expect him to be in his 20s - old enough to have some stability but young enough to be able to reasonably expect to be able to provide for a large family.

I'm not arguing for (EDIT) Joseph being old, just that there is the tradition in some denominations or amongst some individual Christians that he was and that this might explain the two different box fronts.

As regards the position of carpenters in the past, they were some of the most highly skilled craftsmen around, they were the mechanics of their time not just making furniture items or frameworks for buildings and roofs, but also gear wheels and cogs for wells and pumps and mills, as a result, they could, indeed, be independently wealthy and, of course, could employ other men to work for them. 

[Bolingbroke]

That is interesting. I expect when they are creating set photos, they take a lot of photos with different angles and set ups.

I know there are some people who have the idea of Joseph being rather old, but it makes no sense. A carpenter isn't independently wealthy, so why would he start a family when he is reaching an age to be too old to work (carpentry is a physically demanding job)? Also, the average marriage age, even for men, was younger back then. If I had to guess, I would expect him to be in his 20s - old enough to have some stability but young enough to be able to reasonably expect to be able to provide for a large family.

Afaik, it wasn't his decision to start a family, was it???