playmobil's global reponsability

[cachalote]

playmobil's response to the "Toy like me" campaign thread - started by skypurr - inspired this topic.

i believe we all agree playmobil / geobra should always be a responsible company in regard to global human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption matters.

being a part of the united nations global compact - https://www.unglobalcompact.org/index.html - could be a good way to ensure this.
it's a little bit more than just words - although words, made into a statement, usually tend to facilitate action.

lego is a very active member there.
basf - the maker of playmobil plastic - is a member of the board.

[Rhalius]

If anything, I prefer they would do more about gender roles and stop forcing boys and girls to play with seperate toys, discouraging boys from playing with "girl themes" due to heavy use of pink and lilac, and discouraging girls from playing with "boys themes" by focusing exclusively on war and not including any female characters.

[tahra]

If anything, I prefer they would do more about gender roles and stop forcing boys and girls to play with seperate toys, discouraging boys from playing with "girl themes" due to heavy use of pink and lilac, and discouraging girls from playing with "boys themes" by focusing exclusively on war and not including any female characters.

YES. Completely agree. I said it before, it is sad to see that ... (uhm.. polite word... failing me...)  THAT coming from my beloved playmobil.

And it goes BEYOND just the colors and "war only" - they actually SAID boys and girls bags (those fairies and samurais, I think, or was it the next batch?)

It is sad, insulting and wrong. Though they didn't get to Lego's disgusting level. Yet?

[Rhalius]

The saddest part is that they did not do this in the past and only adopted this policy later, I believe around 2000 or such. And to me it just seems like a step backwards which is just strange considering how gender stereotypes are actually more often spoken up about and broken as time progresses.

[cachalote]

well, geobra was never a model of virtue in so many of these issues.
skin color, gender, religion...
as a random example - city action, .de site:
only 3 in 87 klickies have brown skin color.
only 6 in 84 have feminine looks.
this is way to low.
maybe in the other families ratios are more even, although i doubt it.
lego states that the children of today are the builders of the future.
so, thinking about the importance that role-play has in playmobil toys (horst brandstatter says it's its main feature), children of today are actually the people of the future.
... and geobra could give them a better role-model.
... and being a part of an organization that promotes so many good things could help them gain some awareness for their (let's put it this way) lack of sensibility.

[Macruran]

as a random example - city action, .de site:
only 3 in 87 klickies have brown skin color.
...
this is way to low.

I have to say I disagree that this is way too low. Geobra is a German company that sells mostly in Europe. Three out of 87 is probably roughly accurate to the real life proportions of brown skinned people in Germany and Europe as a whole.

To put it another way, would anyone express dissatisfaction that a Nigerian or Korean toy company didn't have enough white-skinned figures? I don't think so.

Also there's the fact that when Geobra DOES do nonwhite klickies, they almost always get raked over the coals for being insensitive in some way - sometimes in this very forum.

I say this as someone who really likes historical ethnic klickies and who was salivating at the prospect of a real Asian theme, and who thinks that a full-fledged African tribe theme (on the model of the Indian theme) would be great. I just don't think tokenism for its own sake helps anyone.

[Rhalius]

Agreed, it should feel out of place and it makes sense for a german company to mostly have white clickies. They did increase ethnic diversity quite a bit over the years though, in the common city themes families of all skincolors can be found.

The Asian dragonland theme is filled with asian clickies, though sadly no women or children or civilians.. but still.

With pirates they probably handle it best.. there is always a female pirate in each batch, many pirates are tanned and theres some black and asian pirates too.
They could have some more black pirates though, they did not have one in several batches, this is the first batch in a while to include a black pirate and its on an ugly ship. Luckily DS does offer a black pirate too so I'll get one there.

What I believe they have NOT done yet though is put black women in action roles. I dont think there has been a black woman yet as a cop, pirate, special agent or such.

For racial diversity, the best they can do is release cool new themes where it fits in perfectly. 

I'd still love to see an arabian nights or other medieval middle eastern theme. Bandits or thieves could be the villains, to avoid any political statements. I think if its done respectfully it could result in plenty of praise from middle eastern countries and the global muslim community.
It would be a toy portrayal of their history in a positive way which may serve to educate after all.

[Ismene]

I have to say I disagree that this is way too low. Geobra is a German company that sells mostly in Europe. Three out of 87 is probably roughly accurate to the real life proportions of brown skinned people in Germany and Europe as a whole.

I don't know about Germany, but Playmobil is the highest selling toy company in France, and France ain't that white. There are a ton of African immigrants. There's people from the Middle East and Asia, plus some darker toned Europeans (that could be represented with the new ''tanned'' skin color). In modern themes, it would not be inaccurate to increase the percentages of darker toned klickies. And the percentage of blondes among female klickies seems too high to me.

I always found it strange that there are no Chinese immigrants in the Western sets.
It would be controversial, but historically African Americans fought on both sides of the Civil War.

The whole dragonland theme is a bundle of disappointment. They finally make a bunch of Asian klickies, and instead of being interesting, it's like a bad B action movie.

[Macruran]

I don't know about Germany, but Playmobil is the highest selling toy company in France, and France ain't that white. There are a ton of African immigrants. There's people from the Middle East and Asia, plus some darker toned Europeans (that could be represented with the new ''tanned'' skin color). In modern themes, it would not be inaccurate to increase the percentages of darker toned klickies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_France#Ethnic_groups

85%-90% white French. Approximately 3% black. Comparable to the 3 out of 87 ratio mentioned above.

And the percentage of blondes among female klickies seems too high to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Light_hair_coloration_map.png

Germany has a higher percentage of blondes than most other countries in the world, as do most of Geobra's primary markets, so it's natural that they will create more blonde toys.

The whole dragonland theme is a bundle of disappointment. They finally make a bunch of Asian klickies, and instead of being interesting, it's like a bad B action movie.

I couldn't agree more. It signals a sad move away from historically accurate brilliance like the Egypt and Rome themes. Even the Knights theme is getting wackier.

[cachalote]

playmobil is a "global" toy.

geobra's attention could/should also be global.

fortunately, in some markets, the percentages are so very much different from what we see in germany.
and, fortunately, skin color is harder to define and has less importance.
i'm thinking about brazil - one of the fastest growing world economies, an enormous potential market.
and spain - one of the most traditional european markets for playmobil.

if geobra needs a reason to "get it right", maybe money would be a good incentive.

And i don't think the way to go is to create more "ethnic" themes to fill them with non-white-non-blond klickies.
all would be well just as long we keep the

variety is just great, that's what i feel.
and actually, the inter-changeable fugure series allow just this (although they are so very clumsy sold in 2 diffrent color packages).

it was not magellan, a portuguese "white", the first human ever to have sailed around the world.
actually he died in the phillippines and so, he missed it by an entire ocean.
and it was not juan sebastián elcano either (one of his surviving captains).
it was an magellan's personal slave, enrique.
despite his name, he was from malacca or sumatra (on malaisia or indonesia).
so, when they crossed those longitudes he was the first human to go around the 360º.
did he had light pink skin and blonde hair?
i really don't think so.

and i think that, if an excess of "ethnic" figures is made from now on in every theme, it would only be a small "mistake" when compared with the 2 700 000 000 klickies geobra has already produced in the past with the "wrong" percentage of skin colors.

would anyone be annoyed by this?
i know i wouldn't.