Gnomes (and other little men)

[GrahamB]

Having been captivated by the little red Gnome (which is now my Avatar) since my children played with it many years ago, I thought I would find out more about these figures. I soon found myself trying to get them all! Twelve Gnomes, in sets 4950 to 4953 and 4956 to 4963 were issued between 1997 and 2001 in three groups of four.

Sets 4950-4953, 3975, 3025
The first group of four gnomes appeared in 1997 when Karstadt Gmbh, a chain of department stores in Germany, started giving away free PLAYMOBIL Gnome sets with Kids Meals in their restaurants. Four different figures were offered in sets numbered 4950 to 4953, each packaged in a blue Playmobil box with a red ribbon across the front:



These four sets were also released in Germany (exclusively?) in 1997 as Easter Specials, under set number 3975. The set equivalent to 4950 came in a red plastic egg, the 4951 equivalent in a blue egg, 4952 in a green egg and the 4953 in a yellow egg.

I suspect these four Gnomes are easier to come by secondhand now because they were issued both in Karstadt restaurants and as Easter specials. The 1998 Halloween set 3025 also included the gnome from 4951, with his wand, hat, hatband, cloak and beard (but none of the other accessories from 4951).

Sets 4956 to 4963
Karstadt gave away four new figures in 2000 (4956 to 4959) and then four more in 2001 (4960 to 4963). If you have Axel Hennel’s Collector 3rd Edition, on page 328 there is a picture of a Karstadt menu from 2001 featuring the last four sets.

The basic figures
All 12 gnomes are child-size ‘boy’ klickies with printed eyes (white sclera and central black pupils), printed mouths (white), red-brown faces and hands (one has black hands, one has white hands).
Two have bare feet, two have long skirts, three have boots and five have shoes: all have feet of different colour from their legs.
Two have long skirts, 8 have leg printing, 5 have torso printing (belts) and 2 have additional face printing (black around the mouth). Six have white hair, 5 have black hair and one has yellow hair. Two have broad collars (cannot be removed without removing the head).
Here are the 12 gnomes ( in set number order)



Wearable accessories
All the gnomes have wearable accessories: ten have beards, 9 have full-length cloaks with pockets, 9 have pointy hats. 6 have trailing hat bands, 2 have hatbands with flat bows, 1 has a double bow hatband and one has a hatband with a feather in it. Here they are (in set number order again) wearing their hats, cloaks and beards:

[GrahamB]

Part 2
Other accessories
Each gnome came with several other accessories (the Devil has the least- just a trident and a campfire) and here are the twelve sets complete (PlaymoDB names and German Names from Collectobil are given for each set):
4950 Magic Gnome, Zauberwichtel

4951 Alchemist Gnome, Zauberwichtel

4952 Robber Gnome, Raubwichtel

4953 Knight Gnome, Ritterwichtel

4956 Pirate Gnome, Piratenwichtel

4957 Druid Gnome, Druidenwichtel

4958 Guard Gnome, Wachterwichtel

4959 Farmer Gnome, Bauernwichtel

4960 Devil Gnome, Teufelwichtel

4961 Bandito Gnome, Banditwichtel

4962 Keyholder Gnome, Schlusselwichtel

4963 Garden Gnome, Gartenwichtel


Unique parts
Most of the parts have been used in other sets, before or since, but 21 parts in the 12 sets appear to be in colours unique to the gnome sets (see the following four pictures); 3 clip-on beards, 3 cloaks with pockets, 2 pointy hats,  3 hatbands and 11 other parts.
One part (Which I have called “Flames in ring for rim of goblet” (clear red)) in 4950 may have been made with a mould unique to this set as I can’t find anything similar in any other PM set. Please let me know if you have seen this part in another set.




Some of the ‘unique’ parts are real gems: the red round-topped case in 4950,  the black screen in 4962 and the large red (not orange) flame in 4960 are three of my favourites.

Set inventories
All the Gnome set inventories in PlaymoDB are currently incomplete. No instructions were issued with these 12 sets, so part numbers have to be allocated with some guesswork. I have created complete lists (see attached file- PM me if you need it in a different format, pdf file was too large to attach) by reference to the box pictures and a MISB 4961 (the only set I have as MISB).  If I have made any errors I would be grateful to anyone who can point these out (e.g. by reference to MISB sets).

In creating lists of parts, I have used the existing PlaymoDB inventories, added the 22 ‘unique’ parts mentioned above, inventing part numbers in the format p49nnx (in line with other parts in PlaymoDB where numbers have had to be invented). I have identified eight other parts which are to be found elsewhere in the database (and these have 30 nn nnnn part numbers) but were not included with these sets’ inventories.
 
One part listed in PlaymiDB (30 61 3280 Bush, large (3 parts) (green)) in 4956 is incorrect and I have added the two correct parts needed to replace this.

Building a collection of gnomes

I collected a full set of gnomes by carefully watching ebay, using saved searches in several languages. Some parts I got from ‘non-Gnome’ sets (e.g the hood in 4962 came from the alien in 3283). The part I found hardest to come by was the black screen for the keyholder gnome (4962) Eventually, I made one for myself (by spraying a white version of the screen black and creating stickers using graphics software). The following day, one appeared in a lot on ebay! My forgery is shown here:
http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/index.php?topic=13037.msg244074#msg244074
The easiest sets to come by are the four (4950 to 4953) which were also released as eggs in set 3975. A few sets appear on ebay as MISB, but I only bought one of these as I am not usually bothered about sets being MISB (nor rich enough to afford them!). Whilst it is, unsurprisingly, German sellers who are most often offering these Gnome sets  for sale, I obtained some from British and French sellers too.

[GrahamB]

Other small figures; dwarfs, goblins and gnomes
For the sake of completeness, I should mention that there are twelve other figures which resemble the Karstadt gnomes in some way; 7 dwarfs, 2 goblins, 2 more gnomes and a Halloween Devil. These are all child-sized figures with dark skin and ‘special’ face printing.
2 dwarfs appeared in set 4211 (Snow White) in 2006, with the five more appearing later as a DS item 7849 (perhaps in response to a demand for the ‘correct’ number of dwarfs). Here they are:



The two on the left are from 4211, the other five are from 7849. The guy on the extreme right differs from the others as he has the ‘normal’ face (injection-moulded eyes and mouth). Here they are wearing their hats and beards:


In 1997, two ‘magic’ sets were released, 3897 had a blue gnome and 3898 had the ‘Tree Stump Goblin’ (he has a tree stump like the Robber gnome 4952, but with green printing on it).
There was a Halloween Devil special (4561) in 1999 (reminiscent of the Devil Gnome 4960, but differing in every respect apart from his hair, hat and trident!), another gnome came in an Advent Calendar (3974) in 1998 and an ‘alien goblin’ in the 3283 set of 2001. These five klickies are shown below:

3897      3898      4561      3974      3283



I have not included in this report the Series 3 Mystery Figure Dwarf (5243) (which was essentially an adult klicky with short legs), nor such klickies as those in 3027/5741 or 5411 or elf or fairy klickies which are  essentially child klickies with ‘standard’ faces.

[Pynedor]

Fantastic pictures! These gnomes (and the others) are awesome.

[Tiermann]

Wonderful synopsis of the gnomes, thanks! It's great to see them all along with their accessories.

[Indianna]

   Excellent photos and a wonderful contribution to the annals of Playmo-scholarship! 

[el jefe]

Wow that's a lot of gnomes!  Some of these are completely new to me.  Thanks for sharing.  My favorite is the Bandito Gnome.  He's just weird and cool. 

[Pynedor]

My favorite is the Bandito Gnome.  He's just weird and cool.

Haha, think that he has enough revolvers? I've always thought that it was really strange to include so many.

[Rhalius]

Definatly some nice figures there, I don't think they ever where for sale here in the Netherlands, or at least I didnt see them. Was during the time I wasnt involved with playmobil though.

The ones with the huge smile kind of freak me out.

[Ismene]

Excellent post! I suspect this info may come in handy for other collectors.

I love the cloaks with the little pockets.