Have they started liking money?

[GrahamB]

I made a DS order a couple of weeks ago. Having run low on white flowerheads (standard type) I ordered in a couple of dozen- by ordering four of 30-05-9720, thinking these were six-on-a-sprue. £0.10 sounded a reasonable price.
But what I got was four individual flowerheads! 

I have lost count of the number of times I have ordered 4 of something, only to receive 4 sets of 4 (or whatever), but this is the reverse. PlaymoDB states for this part number "composed of 8 pieces" but that's not what I got. I will check with DS, but 10p for a single flowerhead seems excessive.

I also ordered two sets of 5 of part number 30-02-6600 (blue 'lily' flowerheads) and received 2 singles (playmoDB states composed of 5 parts'). I will definitely complain to DS about this because their website describes this part as 'Lilies (5)'

[sbblabotw]

That does seem expensive! I'll change my descriptions, Graham, thanks for the notice. According to my deductions about part numbers, I'm not surprised they turned out to be singles - but as you say, the official descriptions are plural, so I'll be interested to hear of any response to your complaint.

[Tiermann]

This can happen with other small items too. In the past I've ordered the dark brown Steck 'toast' , when I order 6 I got 6 individual ones. I ordered again a couple of years later and the second time I got 6 small bags of 6 toast each. I think it depends in part on how the person picking the order for you interprets the items listed on their pick sheet, as much as it does the official designation.

[playmofire]

This happened to me and I contacted UK DS and they sent me the correct parts.  It then happened again with the same item on a later order and I contacted UK DS again.  They sent me the correct parts and in an email mentioned that if this happened again there would be repercussions for the picker.  SDo obviously these things are monitored.

[GrahamB]

Thanks for your comments on what is a small matter. I will try reordering and see what happens, but I suspect its an 'intermittent fault' down to the picker (two pickers in this case*), as Tiermann suggested, so if it happens again I will definitely complain. DS (UK) have in the past been very good at supplying parts missing from an order- when it is their fault.
What puzzles me here is that the white flowerheads come on a sprue (I think its a sprue of 8 not 6, my mistake. PlaymoDB probably has it correct, Heather), so the picker must have pulled a couple off or scooped them out of the bottom of the bin....

* Just in case anyone wondered about this... the printed invoice which comes with the order has parts listed in order of picking location, I believe. Each item has a reference number next to it- for example M8/60 for "Lillies (5)" and Q1/30 for "Flowers: white". These numbers are crossed off by hand, presumably by the picker. The parts with similar picking numbers come in separate plastic bags. Perhaps at slack times, one picker works their way round all the bins (if I ever get on a Zirndorf factory tour, this is the place I want to visit!) and fulfills one person's order, but at others I think the list is passed from picker to picker, because sometimes a list comes back with different pen/pencil marks from each picker. The picking locations are useful when trying to match parts to Geobra's descriptions (where no picture exists). I did this with an order which contained several hair parts a few months ago; by carefully looking at what else was in each bag with a given hair part, I could track it down to the invoice list and pin down its Geobra name. Another way to do this would be to order one part at a time!

[sbblabotw]

Their ordering system is using technology to improve, but the back-end seems not as far along!

From the Ersatzenteile pages at playmobil.de, I've harvested quite a few "set of" parts that seem to be just multiples of existing parts. "30 51" parts always have more than one distinct sub-part; these "set of" parts I'm talking about almost never appear on instructions, and have the same German name as the single part. The flower ones can be seen here:

http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/textsearch.pl?text=flower+blossom;pics=on;sortby=partnum;lang=en;page=2

But of course I can't tell from a name and part number, what colour of flower they are, and how many! I've figured out a few, from their presence in sets with only one colour of flower, but most are mysteries. Unfortunately, it sounds like ordering one of these might not provide an authoritative answer either.

As for whether "30 0" and "30 2" parts are singles or sprues: some instructions (even recent ones) give counts, some don't... very confusing. I'm going to assume the former, though, just because of the way part numbers seem to work.

[GrahamB]

Yes, I wish Geobra exercised some consistency in stating the number of parts. For some sets, using the box illustrations is the best way of knowing what the set includes. But  sometimes the back box picture shows just one of an item though the set contains multiples. Sometimes there is a '2x' or 3x' next to the picture of an item, but not always.

Here's an example, something I was looking at recently, set 4138.
The back box picture shows one plank and one building block: http://playmodb.org//backs/4/4138_back.jpg
The building instructions state there are three planks but do not state how many building blocks there should be (the picture shows only 3). http://playmobil.scene7.com/is/content/Playmobil/4138pdf.pdf
The front box picture shows 9 or 10 blocks (and three planks). http://playmodb.org/setpics/4/4138.jpg
If you bought it new, you would know how many blocks there should be. If you play with it, you realise you will need at least 10 blocks to complete both walls.

Heather, thanks for the 'sets of flowers' list and the tip about '51' numbers (I always forget those tips!). Of the 89 parts listed, 25 are without pictures and 18 of those are without colours too. It would be great if we could fill gaps like these by ordering the parts from DS, but that would be a big job with a couple of potential problems. First, as you say, DS might send one flower instead of 6 or 8, so it might take a couple of orders of each part number to make (more) certain. Another problem is that one could not order more than a couple of part numbers at a time without running the risk of receiving an order where you can't tell which flowers are which (even with the picking data I mentioned in my last post).

Some sort of 'crowd sourcing' needed here, but I don't think many PM enthusiasts are interested in part numbers enough to join in, or is that me being defeatist? And I acknowledge that its only the people with access to the German parts service (much of Western Europe including UK) who could probably make much of a contribution. Maybe Geobra will include more pictures online as time goes on...

I reckon industrial espionage is the answer. I will gain entry to DS in Germany and photograph the contents of every spare part bin, with part number-- then repeat the process every year as new parts are added and others are retired!

[Tiermann]

Here's what the parts department at Dietenhofen looks like:

Dietenhofen Playmobil Factory Tour May 8 2014 no48b by TimSpfd, on Flickr

The big tower on the left with windows and the three sections to the right are huge multistory rotating racks. You just have to stand in front of each rack opening and take a picture of every level as it spins through.

This is a single section:

Dietenhofen Playmobil Factory Tour May 8 2014 no50 by TimSpfd, on Flickr

Here for instance we have a couple of boxes of trailer hitches and some stars for turbans:

Dietenhofen Playmobil Factory Tour May 8 2014 no49 by TimSpfd, on Flickr

Probably be best if you opened each box to take a photo of the contents while you are at it. Shouldn't take more than a week or two... 


I have done just what you have mentioned though with animals. For instance we know that there are three part numbers for new style colts but not which number goes to which color. So I order just one in a parts order, and when I get it we can assign that number correctly. It takes a few orders especially since they are often out of stock here int he US. It's the sort of project best done by people ordering directly from Germany.

[GrahamB]

So I'd have to open every box on that Paternoster rotating rack jobby? Forget it!
I'm glad to hear you too are actively working to fill those gaps, Tiermann! I think the benefits of doing this are tremendous - quite a few 'discontinued' parts are showing up under new part numbers as well as some sets of parts which work out cheaper than buying singles.

[GrahamB]

I reordered  the following a few days ago
Part no.      Quantity    PM website description    Colour   Unit price
30059720   3               Flowers: White                 white     £0.15
30026600   2               Lilies (5)                           blue      £0.10

What I got today was 3 SINGLE white flowers (on a sprue, with 5 missing!) and 2 SINGLE blue lilies. AGAIN,
I have sent a message to PM(UK) asking for clarification on what these part numbers actually mean, given the use of the plural in both descriptions and the number (5) for the lilies.
I have now ordered (or so I thought) 56 white flowers and 20 blue lilies. Cost £1.45. What I received was 7 white flowers and 4 blue lilies. If I bought the flowers I think I am missing at this rate it would cost me another £8.95. Something wrong here. I will report on the reply if and when I get one,,,,