PlaymoFriends
General => News => Topic started by: Iclaudius on October 30, 2016, 13:48:24
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I have just picked up The Magic of Toys Christmas catalogue from Tesco, a major league supermarket in Great Britain. Playmobil does not feature at all!
There are pages of the unmentionable xxxx products. I am so shocked and disappointed that there is not even half a page of the latest Playmobil sets.
Tesco have been selling the Fi?gures packs but I am very disappointed that the Christmas publicity ignores Playmobil completely.
Any insight appreciated?
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Whoever is in charge of getting Playmobil into stores in the UK is pretty badl at it, to be honest. While the big department stores (Fenwick, John Lewis) normally have a decent range, other stores are very hit and miss. 'The Entertainer' toy shop chain have a pretty terrible and random collection in most stores. Sainsbury's don't stock it at all, not even online. So this news hardly suprises me.
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Both Jarrolds and Langleys in your fair city have good PM stocks (we visited both over half term :wave:) which you know I am sure Iclaudius. Indeed when you find them, independent or regional stores seem to offer quite good ranges of PM. But why the national chains like Tesco (and Argos) are so lukewarm about PM is a mystery. Toys R Us seem to have reasonable stocks and there are quite a few online retailers, but PM never gets as much limelight as L*** (I will risk one letter). Of course they are very different toys backed by very different marketing strategies. But surely Christmas is a time when parents etc. may be thinking of spending a bit more and getting quality toys (which don't take forever to assemble and fall apart when you breathe on them)?
I guess companies like Tesco will sell PM if they get a good enough deal from PM(UK), allowing them to sell the toys with competitive pricing. But Playmobil is not -even now- such a well-known Toy brand in the UK as the likes of other brands, especially L**o!
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Of course they are very different toys backed by very different marketing strategies.
Yes.. Lego (I risk the full name! :0 ) likes money, AND knows how to get it!
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This shocks me, because back in the seventies Marx Toys was a pioneer in making accessoires for Playmobil as well. But nowadays not mention Playmobil at a Christmas sale is a real missed opportunity.
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Your comments are very interesting and thought-provoking.
I am sure you are right about the companies who hold the reigns as far as pricing power goes. The weak pound slashes profit margins and smaller companies are less able to compete.
Norwich certainly is blessed with regional stores selling Playmobil but it is sad that children in other areas not so lucky will have less choice.
Quality and variety count for little in the face of overwhelming publicity and marketing and the children are the losers, very disappointing.
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Marx Toys, Britain's, Meccano, Bayko, Sylvanian, etc. The list of British toy brands which have disappeared or been taken over by other companies with a different vision is ever growing, like the list of British manufacturers generally.
But for successful toy companies like Lego and Geobra (and Mattel, Tonka, etc) success seems to depend on that Black Art, Marketing (aka selling stuff to people who didn't know they wanted it). Children form a big potential market. Lego have practised Marketing on Children very successfully, exploiting the numerous opportunities for licensed products presented by film spin offs and the like.
Geobra are not as successful, perhaps because their Marketing Practices are less bullish, perhaps because Playmobil had not until recently dabbled in licensed movie tie-ins. And perhaps because they really don't see Making Money as their primary goal (They Don't Like Money, as Tahra puts it!), though I doubt that view will long survive the passing of HOB, if it ever existed!
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You are absolutely right Graham.
The free Playmobil dvds are attractive and entertaining and encourage additional purchases but my daughter says no-one watches dvds now.
Pester power is racked up by TV viewing and the latest film tie ins, competition on a massive scale. Maybe the older children are attracted by that but the younger age range aren't catered for and therefore miss out. Watching the fun my grandson had re-creating the travelling circus which he recently attended from our 20 year old Playmobil Romani Circus proved to me that quality toys stand the test of time.
The simplicity of Playmobil helps children make sense of the world. Where will Star Wars be in 20 years time other than in a vague haze of muddled memory?
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Actually I think Star Wars is an interesting thing to think about. The first movie came out in 1977, and it's still here and they are pumping out new movies these days at a rate of every year or so now that it's part of the Disney kingdom. I doubt very much it will be going away at any point. There will be different generations growing up on different aspects of the total property but I see no reason to believe it will fade and am willing to bet Disney will do everything in their power to keep it alive for a long time. Mickey Mouse is 88 years old and still out there bringing in revenue for Disney. Star Wars will be the same. If any property were a safe license deal I would think Star Wars would be.
I'm telling you man, a 40 year old movie is the wave of the future! ;)
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The free Playmobil dvds are attractive and entertaining and encourage additional purchases but my daughter says no-one watches dvds now.
They should probably provide a website where the short films can be viewed, include a password with the receipt. Lego has some game which allows you to play as a minifig character. Many of the characters require you to find the actual minifig in a blind bag by buying it as the unlock code for the character is inside the bag.
Geobra have a long way to go.
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Where will Star Wars be in 20 years time other than in a vague haze of muddled memory?
;D ;D ;D
Sorry but this cracked me up. Star Wars has been a commercial juggernaut for the past 40 years. It has made the fortunes of Hasbro and Lego, the top two toy companies in the world. And as has already been said, with Disney's takeover and the film per year, Im positive it can keep going strong for the next forty, unless there's the Apocalypse or something like that.
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Well we just received the IndigoKids Christmas catalogue this past week and Playmobil got half a page but appeared first on page 12 where as Lego got two pages and appeared on page 24 and 25. So being first in the catalogue has to count for something right?
(https://i.imgur.com/s2X2vno.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/WMkoDl7.png)
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People keep going on about lego and licensing, but look at those pictures, 2/3 of it is in-house, non-licensed products and lines, and video games and other multimedia stuff. Eh, it's probably envy speaking most of the time guys :P
And playmobil? What's that? A scammel? Is that right? As a christmas present? No way ;D ;D ;D
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I recently got the catalogue for Mastermind Toys, a small Canadian chain that carries higher-end and educational toys. The catalogue was only 40 pages, but Playmobil was well represented.
They had a half page just for them, featuring the summer waterpark theme as well as the children's hospital. Then on a page of hockey toys there were several from the Playmo theme, including the Stanley Cup Presentation, which I didn't even know about. And then on a Christmas page there were the advent calendars.
I was in Costco yesterday and surprised not to see the annual sets there yet.
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I agree with Iclaudius that it is a shame that many children never have the chance to play with Playmobil. What I care most about is that Playmobil should survive in a world which is increasingly dominated by other brands, some of which are, frankly, trash.
Take the non-Playmobil options on that Indigokids page T_M_H just showed; toys which encourage a child to role-play a Superhero (Batman), experience being a person who sweeps and cleans the house, develop into someone obsessed with their own hair and make-up or someone who thinks being a vet might be glamorous. Yes, I am being judgemental and there need to be a variety of toys to suit all tastes, but as in many aspects of parenting, I am often dumbstruck by the poor choices adults let their children make (or even encourage them to make). My dad wouldn't allow me to have toy guns as a child, which at least made me think about the issues around firearms (me and my brothers had to find gun-shaped sticks to use instead.... :-[). We did have Lego, but that was in a Time Before Playmobil. :gent:
Selling toys is about making money. Tesco promote the toys which are best sellers in their Christmas brochure. Even dedicated toyshops stock what will sell, so not all of their offerings are 'sensible' toys. Early Learning Centre (a UK toy chainstore, also with a presence in the US for a few years, now subsumed by the Mothercare chain) used to have a policy of selling neither Barbies nor gun-toting Action Man; in fact their TV adverts featured representatives of each toy trying to walk into an ELC shop and being barred entry. But that policy lasted only a few years and then they started stocking Barbie dolls. Money won over principles.
I quite often pick up second-hand Playmobil lots I have won on eBay. Most of the homes I visit to do this are occupied by families in higher income brackets (detached houses, big gardens, 2+ vehicles), which goes to show that maybe Playmobil is largely bought new by people who have higher incomes (or perhaps people who go to the trouble of selling unwanted items on eBay and are therefore careful with money). Maybe I shouldn't generalise from that, but I do think Playmobil is seen as a pricey toy by UK families.
And I do think Lego is a great toy on the whole, but presenting one scene from one movie in a Lego set seems to miss the potential for encouraging children to think for themselves.
And one final thought- many Playmobil sets reflect the world in which children live, not a fantasy/movie world (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Hobbit/LOTR, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). It seems that for some children, playing with a model School is far more attractive than playing with a Flying Car Lands in Womping Willow set. That's just a feeling I have. But perhaps role-playing real world scenarios might be more popular with girls than boys? That Indigokids catalogue page might suggest as much.
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On the one hand you are criticising a brand because it doesn't offer enough creativity, and on the other you praise another because it is grounded in real life?
At the end of the day, creativity is a strange thing. Creative people can be creative with a licensesd set. Uncreative ones, you cna give them anything and they will still not manage to squeeze an ounce of cretaivity out of a playmobil scammel set.
Quentin Tarantino played with Evil Knievel action figures, doesnt seem to have hampered his creativity one bit.
It's true about high income families and toys, though. But it was always like that. We weren't well off, which explains why i only had thee or four proper pm sets and the rest was factory rejects bought from flea markets in malta.
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Sorry but this cracked me up. Star Wars has been a commercial juggernaut for the past 40 years. It has made the fortunes of Hasbro and Lego, the top two toy companies in the world. And as has already been said, with Disney's takeover and the film per year, Im positive it can keep going strong for the next forty, unless there's the Apocalypse or something like that.
On this point, just note that nobody quotes lines or reimagines scenes from the prequels, even less so from the recent offerings. Star Wars is dwindling.
This is pretty good though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9dUG3_KNA
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On this point, just note that nobody quotes lines or reimagines scenes from the prequels, even less so from the recent offerings. Star Wars is dwindling.
If the prequels were lame, the last one was a piece of... (language)... you know. Unbelievably horrible. Lame I expected, but never thought it could be so bad.
But we did have The Clone Wars series, the best of all of it....
But it will never "dwindle". The merch from the original movies is STILL selling. For some reason.
(no, I am not a Star Wars fan. I just love (most of) The Clone Wars ;D )
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But it will never "dwindle".
Everything dwindles, or dies.
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Everything dwindles, or dies.
Well... probably. But I won't live to see it. :P
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I'm strictly Original Trilogy, but support for the prequels and prequel characters among action figure collectors, millenials mostly, is massive.
It's like music, my dad thought music died with the 60s, but every generation wants its idols, heroes etc.
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I'm strictly Original Trilogy, but support for the prequels and prequel characters among action figure collectors, millenials mostly, is massive.
Not just the prequels... They sold stuff from that last disaster by the boatloads.... That stupid rolling ball thing alone must have made GAZILLIONS (which is probably the reason we were stuck with it ::) )
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I'm strictly Original Trilogy, but support for the prequels and prequel characters among action figure collectors, millenials mostly, is massive.
It's like music, my dad thought music died with the 60s, but every generation wants its idols, heroes etc.
It's true, Jar Jar is considered a real role model.
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It's true, Jar Jar is considered a real role model.
I kinda like Jar Jar... A highlight in the prequels... and with better acting skills than most. :P
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I didn't mind the last film. It was a rehash mostly, but I liked some of the designs and they produced some good action figures out of them. Star Wars is about aesthetics as much as anything else. Looking forward to Rogue One.