. . . Oh but profit will come at the expense of a great toy brand.
Rasputin, I completely share your concerns about the direction that Playmobil seems to be taking with its newer offerings but I don't believe that profits are the primary motivation. Playmobil is privately owned (by Brandstetter and/or his 2 children) so there are not any stockholders to satisfy. Horst has said that he has taken steps to ensure that the company will follow his philosophy after he dies - I remember reading somewhere that the company will actually be owned by some sort of non-profit trust with an emphasis on benefitting children when he dies. Certainly the profit motive was not HOB's concern when he originally supported Hans Beck's invention of the klicky (despite its initial lack of success) and all that followed during Beck's time with the company. That initial leap of faith is the type of innovation that is reminiscent of Steve Jobs and all the Apple products that are now so successful but that nobody thought they wanted until Jobs put those beautifully executed products into their hands.
Also, I don't believe that the purchasing desires of children drive Playmobil's decision-making - while children are the primary end-users of their products, Playmobil's main customer base is actually the retail outlets that sell the toys. While the genius of Hans Beck was to come up with something new that children didn't know they wanted until they had the toys in their hands, the large toy retailers seem to be more concerned with making people buy more and more stuff regardless of the inherent quality or play value of the toys they sell. That's why we see the relentless sparkly/pink/lavender/unicorn/fairy/princess stuff directed toward girls and the black/red/purple/pirates/soldiers stuff directed toward boys. The big retailers also want high volume and quick turnover so that is why many themes only last a short time and why, at least here in the USA, nothing stays on the shelf for more than a few seasons and then gets clearance-priced until it's gone to make room for newer stock.
Playmobil used to get a lot of awards from groups that evaluate the creative play value of toys but those awards seem to be fewer as time passes. Playmobil's marketing department seems more concerned about trends and gimmicks than by what children really want to play with (as opposed to the junk that children have been
convinced they want to play with.) New styles of figures and new themes can be fantastic as long as they have some long-lasting creative play value but if Playmobil continues to dumb-down it's toys, children will quickly get bored with them and parents will stop buying them. It is the parents (and adult collectors!) who make most of the Playmobil purchasing decisions so if the quality and play-value (for kids
and adults
) continue to decline, then retail sales will also decline. If Playmobil's retail sales decline, then retail stores will stop carrying Playmobil. Here in the USA, large retailers such as Target and Walmart stopped selling Playmobil several years ago. ToysRUs had also stopped selling it several years ago but then re-instated it after a couple of years. Based on my own anecdotal experience with ToysRUs, however, Playmobil does not seem to sell well there and sets usually gets clearance-priced after a year or so on the shelf. Not a good sign.
