Family diversity

[leefert]

Seeing how all bald clickies are pirates you might as well twist that into saying that Geobra thinks bald people are criminals. And should all wear colorfull bandanas.

Not totally true... The Monk and a Basketball Player and Professor X

[Erik]

There simply is no ill intent behind this. Geobra is not part of a conspiracy that says people should only marry with those of their own race and should have both a boy and a girl of about the same age, and on rare occasions a toddler that may be either gender if you want to look at it that critically. They don't tend to release families with only sons or only daughters after all.

Seeing how all bald clickies are pirates you might as well twist that into saying that Geobra thinks bald people are criminals. And should all wear colorfull bandanas.

My thoughts exactly.   

[bonniebeth]

And that applies to many communities, even countries, in the real world.  A more or less uniform skin colour, hair colour etc., is the norm for many people because that's the way it is.

Exactly. Playmobil sometimes doesn't seem diverse enough to me, but then I live in a city that is more than half African American, with large numbers of people from Mexico, China, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, as well as smaller populations from many other countries. But then I remind myself that playmobil isn't made here, and though I honestly don't know that much about the exact cultural and racial demographics in Germany, I would venture to guess there are a lot more Caucasians than what I am used to seeing in my daily life.

[Ismene]

There simply is no ill intent behind this. Geobra is not part of a conspiracy that says people should only marry with those of their own race and should have both a boy and a girl of about the same age, and on rare occasions a toddler that may be either gender if you want to look at it that critically. They don't tend to release families with only sons or only daughters after all.

Seeing how all bald clickies are pirates you might as well twist that into saying that Geobra thinks bald people are criminals. And should all wear colorfull bandanas.

No, it's not ill intent, but Geobra can be a bit oblivious. If they want to expand into other markets (or get a stronger hold in markets like the US), they need to think about different populations.

[Rhalius]

Considering what a crazy amount of american exclusives they give to the US, it can't really be said they are neglecting that market. They seem to get more exclusives than any other country.

[Ismene]

Considering what a crazy amount of american exclusives they give to the US, it can't really be said they are neglecting that market. They seem to get more exclusives than any other country.

That's not what I meant. They forget that some countries have very diverse populations and might find certain omissions (like the complete lack of non-caucasian brides, angels, or fantasy princesses [the Princess theme]) rather shocking.

For the most part, the US exclusives are just reconfigured versions of other sets. They aren't culturally specific.

[Rhalius]

True, but slow and steady there does seem to be improvement in presentation of other races.

I agree that they could do more with it, I'm personally hoping to see black female pirates. I want more black pirates either way though since I have not been able to get any yet.

Black women seem to be a real shortage of, there seem to be many more black men than black women.

[Rasputin]

If playmobil brand is a German made toy to present to the world what Germany "is" then fine, go on producing 90% white with token races/ethnicities mixed in from time to time. Teach us all what Germany is all about. You just have to realize the consequences of such a stances. The other day I was watching a cartoon my son asked me to watch (American dad) and in it there is a German fish. The other day I heard a line he said that was a joke about the purity of the German blood line and let me tell you it goes right along the same line geobra promotes. In the us it's a negative joke. So now geobra wonders why so few buy the toy in the us? Well maybe they narrowed down their sights so much that they alienated the other 90% of the us market....it's a big world out there and you may find you blood line being a minority outside the comfort of your home.

I am pretty sure if they kept putting Asian in sets as prisoners Asians would not like the brand. Now if you represented Asians as store owners, business people, expensive car drivers, living in mansions, private jet flying, with white employees......HUMANS then I guess a different outcome of emotional response

There is a saying I am not too sure about but it sounds ??

"Think globally....act locally ".....

.the globe is a divers place

[Rhalius]

Just consider what the huge American entertainment market puts out and how appealing it may be to other regions of the world. A lot of it is strongly focused on the American market. Its what the people making it grew up with.
When playing the sims for example, its clearly geared towards typical american neighbourhoods and houses, and the american way of life.

And Geobra being german, the people working there take into consideration what they grew up with. They think back about their own childhood no doubt as a source of inspiration.

[playmofire]

From what I can make out, Playmobil USA seems to operate far more at an arm's length from Geobra  than the European companies.  In fact, I've often thought that it was pretty well independent.  But if diversity is so important an element in the US market, why doesn't Playmobil USA ask Geobra to produce sets of diverse families for sale in the US?