The End of the No Licensing Era

[Redmao]

Will movie fans go for Playmobil sets or will they stick to the usual toy brands with licensed sets?

I don't know, Playmobil offers a great cast of other medieval characters that would make cool villagers for the heroes of Dragons to interact with instead of just the basic core characters that action figure lines tend to offer.

The same goes for Ghostbusters. Instead of just the five heroes and some ghosts, Playmobil offers a whole bunch of characters and environments to play with. Citizens to hire the team or rescue.
There's a ghost in the flower shop? What about the bank? Quick! To the Ecto-1! Oh no! There's a traffic jam caused by all those Playmobil vehicles.

The fun never stops with Playmobil 

[Ismene]

Is TOO. 

Of course you would say that.  I'm already cringing at the 30+ price tag. If it goes into the 40's (with cross-Atlantic shipping), the small child will get a different dragon.

The fun never stops with Playmobil 

Yeah, there's a lot of flexibility and possibilities in Playmobil, though much of North America has been ignoring this. It would help if Playmobil were in more stores.

[Macruran]

Well, no toy line licensing. They did license corporate brand names - Shell oil, Pirelli tires, Blaupunkt, obviously BMW and Porsche. Last couple years NHL. They just didn't do media properties.

I thought about this and I think it's the fantasy element that bugs me. Porsche, NHL, Shell - to me these fit into the larger PM ethos, which I see as one based in reality. From the First Triumvirate of Indian, Construction Worker and Knight, through Arabs, Eskimos, Victorians, police, shopping, schools, und so weiter, PM has usually been connected to the real world in some way. You're simulating something that exists, or once existed, or might exist (Playmospace - okay the aliens are a bit of a stretch but bear with me). To me, NHL players stand shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther or Henry the Lion or the Schwabacher Goldbeater.

Ghostbusters breaks with this. Ghostbusters is imaginary. It has no referent in the real world. It's just a Hollywood property.

I admit that the line is blurry - the sea serpent isn't real, nor are Zeus or Athena (well maybe). But even there, the myths they represent are real myths. People once believed in such things. No one will ever believe in proton packs.

And yes, the laser rockets on the new Arctic base bother me for a similar reason. Top Agents would have heavy weapons, but scientists wouldn't.

[playmofire]

A number of good points, well made.

It's interesting what you say about Zeus and Athena.  As a youngster, well before secondary/senior school (i.e. 11 upwards) I was reading these stories, obviously in a simplified form.  I can still picture some of the illustrations from a version of Jason and the Golden Fleece that I had.

When you look at a lot of the fantasy stories, they are (consciously or otherwise) reworkings of the ancient myths, but not to my  mind as good as them.

[Birdie]

You know, the licensing is not the thing that bugs me as a collector. There are (and always have been) a number of themes that don't interest me, and that I rarely buy from. As long as they keep investing in existing themes that I like, it doesn't stand in my way.

The thing that worries me is the trend of designing sets (in all themes) that are aimed at younger children: Fisher-price looks (even Fisher Price rip-offs, remember the last middle ages troll and castle), Fisher Price 'sturdiness' (less detailed buildings with stickers for windows and a bare minimum of walls, carry-along boxes, more and more pinkness everywhere...). Those items are useless for me as a collector, because they don't fit in with original Playmobil and they are impossible to fit into a proper diorama.

Actually that ties in with the 'realism' Macruran was talking about, but in a different way.

[Ismene]

The thing that worries me is the trend of designing sets (in all themes) that are aimed at younger children: Fisher-price looks (even Fisher Price rip-offs, remember the last middle ages troll and castle), Fisher Price 'sturdiness' (less detailed buildings with stickers for windows and a bare minimum of walls, carry-along boxes, more and more pinkness everywhere...). Those items are useless for me as a collector, because they don't fit in with original Playmobil and they are impossible to fit into a proper diorama.

Actually that ties in with the 'realism' Macruran was talking about, but in a different way.

That worries me too. Along the same lines, the move towards one-piece buildings. They can't be customized, and they're less educational.

[playmofire]

Birdie and Ismene have summed things up very accurately.

Too many new items are bland, lacking in detail and just not Playmobil-like any more.

[tahra]

Yes, I think that sums it up... Though I have NO problem with all the fantasy and unbelievable stuff - except the obvious non playmo (my-not-so-little-hairy-ponies) and the religious propaganda ones. Not that I don't have those , but still.

The buildings tendency is especially worrisome.

[Hadoque]

The buildings tendency is especially worrisome.

And the ships as well. The latest pirates´ ship has minimal rigging, only 1 true topmast, stick-on fake cannon-mouths, no interior cabin anymore and stickers are used as windows.
Here too it starts to look like crappy Fischerprice. I have multiples of every one of the previous twomasters, but just 1 of this latest variant and I won´t buy an additional.
I´m already looking forward to whatever replacement they might come up with next, good chance it wil have dragonwings instead of masts & sails... 

[Birdie]

...good chance it wil have dragonwings instead of masts & sails... 

Don't give them any ideas