5247 Native American Camp

[bonniebeth]

That might work, with a lot of modification.

[Tiermann]

Well....no. Totem poles go with Longhouses.
http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_nwc2.html

Basically it's the same shape as 4305 - Freight Terminal but make new walls smooth with the designs on the outside and a roundish front center door, no windows.

[bonniebeth]

Ah, longhouses. See, there's an opportunity here for playmobil to do something really educational if thy would do a series of historically accurate indian tribes.

[Rasputin]

Ah, longhouses. See, there's an opportunity here for playmobil to do something really educational if thy would do a series of historically accurate indian tribes.

and...an opportunity to re-release the 4305 for the customizers 

[nunney]

Ah, longhouses. See, there's an opportunity here for playmobil to do something really educational if thy would do a series of historically accurate indian tribes.

i was just thinking the same thing as i read through this. even if it was a subseries of special figures. i suspect that they may not see the financial incentive to do so and will continue to use a really attractive though mashed up and generalized representation to stand in for all indigenous peoples of north america. this will always be touchy stuff. some will call foul on the generic indian tribe, some will say it's romanticized but just think of the outcry this very traditional toy company would elicit if they made,say, a contemporary native american community - casino and all.

btw, i do see the introduction of a native 'family' set (sorry, i don't have the set in front of me) as a positive move towards further humanizing the 'savage'. 

[cardensb]

I love this set but have held back on buying it.  Is the tipi the same one that was offered as an Add-on from the official store last year?  If so, what a great tipi compared to the ones I have from childhood.

[CountBogro]

I think it has more to do with the expectations of kids buying these sets.
The do have to have the tipi, totempole, etc. That's 'real' to them - never mind if it's correct  .
If they were to leave out the tipi (for example) they would definitly get a lot of requests for it, or at least a remark that it's a pity they 'forgot' them.

It's the same with the horned helmets of the vikings. They didn't have them in real life, but still - a viking without a horned helmet isn't a viking to most people.
So ... they more or less had to make them. Although Playmobil has a educational value too - it's a toy that needs to be sold in the first place.

But I still think it's great to discuss and find what is right and what isn't.

Bogro

[Rhalius]

The viking helmets can easily be changed to similar ones without horns though, with the indians its a bit harder to correct.

If they do eventually release accurate indian tribes, it might be a good idea to provide some information about the featured tribe on the box or in a little book that comes with it, to explain a little about where the tribe lived, why they chose the kind of houses they lived in, and what they where known for.

[bonniebeth]

Thing is, I was more up on the different indian tribes and the kinds of houses they live in when I was 7 than I am now. We studied that in school every year in elementary school, in the US. There would be projects involving drawing pictures of or recreating these types of dwellings.  Around thanksgiving we always learned about the east coast indian tribes that met the pilgrims. So it seems to me that kids, at least here, would relate very well to a theme involving different tribes rather than just hollywood stereotypes. And they could possibly even use them in school projects.

[Bolingbroke]

You also have to keep in mind that this is a very country-specifc thing, too. The average European child/adult cares about the differences between Apache and Cherokee dwellings as much as the average American child/adult cares about the differences between Spanish and Visigoth armour.