Mad Nick showed an interesting article and it was full of info , here is just a few
NYT Feb. 2006"Seventy percent of the world's toys are manufactured in China, according to Ms. Schauer, which raises the question of why Playmobil has not moved production there. Labor costs in Chinese toy factories average $1 an hour, she said, compared with $25 an hour at the factory in Germany."
"Yet German consumers remain in a funk. The unemployment rate is 12 percent, near a post-World War II record, and people are worried about losing their jobs."
"Ms. Schauer said she was not ready to rule out producing in China at some point in the future. But "for the next five years," she said, "we feel that it's better to make the investment here."
NYT Sep. 2007"What the companies discovered, though, was while China’s unit labor costs were a fraction of those in the West — the equivalent of $1.50 an hour compared with $30 an hour in western Germany —"
"Playmobil’s medieval knights and Roman warriors are coated with shiny paint — brilliant reds, jaunty yellows and such — which Ms. Schauer said contained lead, albeit well below levels hazardous to children. To ensure the safety of its coating process, she said, Playmobil kept close watch over its manufacturing process."
"German banks did not want to lend money to companies to build toy factories at home."
