PREVIEW: 2016/2017 Novelties & Assortment Catalogue

[bogol]

Hello Giorginetto!

Congratulations for you second daughter! We also have two girls (2 and 6) and both are heavily into PM. :-)

I have to disagree on the polar sets though. PM have once stated that they have this "no (modern) war" policy. Well, what about the "ice pirates" then? An expedition post with a missile launcher? And that thing on top of the 9059 truck looks just like a TOW anti-tank missile. Why does almost every new adventure theme include fighting? I'm totally missing a polar research vessel here. Or an observatory (with a functioning telescope maybe). Or inuit. Or more polar wildlife. But no - what we get are ice pirates just like straight out from some weird Mad Max parody.

Love the 911 GT3 Cup though. And the stretch limo. And the glass-bottom boat. And the hang gliders. And the RC racers. But the ice pirates are an abomination.

[Macruran]

PM have once stated that they have this "no (modern) war" policy.

I agree that the ICE WAR theme is a travesty. But the fact is that Horst and Hans are gone, and the Old Ways are being changed. The company lacks a clear vision and in search of one they're breaking a lot of the old rules. Expect many more years of this chaos.

One rule that they need to break ASAP is the "PM is a toy only for children" rule. I respected their principled stand on that, but in the New Era of licensing, war toys, bent arms, Super 4, et cetera, they need to drop the pretense and open up an adult department that markets directly to adults.

[Ismene]

I would much rather they did historical or literary sets for adults than weird polar warring and licensed sets. Their number one selling set is Luther. That says something.

[Oliver]

One rule that they need to break ASAP is the "PM is a toy only for children" rule. I respected their principled stand on that, but in the New Era of licensing, war toys, bent arms, Super 4, et cetera, they need to drop the pretense and open up an adult department that markets directly to adults.

In a way they're inching towards that, with Direct Service sort-of becoming explicitly for collectors. I do wonder how big the adult market really is though - the fact that much-sought after re-issues have been sitting in the sale section of the German site for 2 years raises alarm bells in my mind as to the viability of sets aimed exclusively at adults.

I do completely agree that a toy that previously had a very cohesive image is looking increasingly lost in its approach, and does seem to be throwing everything and anything at the wall to see what'll stick.

[playmofire]

the fact that much-sought after re-issues have been sitting in the sale section of the German site for 2 years raises alarm bells in my mind as to the viability of sets aimed exclusively at adults.

Do you have a link to that, please?

[Oliver]

http://www.playmobil.de/online-shop/ergaenzungen-und-zubehoer/supersonderangebote?cgid=Ds_Supersonderangebote

I'm particularly thinking of the Western School (6279) and the Advertising Column (6306), both of which I bought from the sale section over a year ago. They also had the Western Windmill/ Water Tower in there, and I'm reasonably sure that the green Victorian car was reduced.

I've never seen any of the Medieval stuff there, so either it sells out or they can produce them in smaller runs.

[Macruran]

That's a good point about the potential size of the adult market. Just looking at the fan sites, their number is dwarfed by e.g. L*go fan sites. We are few, though proud. Still, they could start with historical German figures which as Ismene reminds us sell like hotcakes. Build up the home market. The Greek gods are a step in that direction too.

[Ismene]

I wonder about the Western stuff. At least in the US, it isn't terribly popular anymore. And the Victorian collectors (again at least in the US) got the green car in the FAO set, so they wouldn't need to buy it separately. The Add-ons aren't in the main categories, and there's hardly any content for the search to search that it's hard to find add-ons unless you already know they exist. If you search "victorian" on the US site, NOTHING comes out. Who, but a collector, would search for an advertising column or a "Group of Outlaws"?

They need set descriptions or metadata because search cannot operate without content.

[Macruran]

Excellent points.

[Oliver]

That's a good point about the potential size of the adult market. Just looking at the fan sites, their number is dwarfed by e.g. L*go fan sites. We are few, though proud. Still, they could start with historical German figures which as Ismene reminds us sell like hotcakes. Build up the home market. The Greek gods are a step in that direction too.

Even with Lego the orginal 'adult' sets had to use pieces that were in production anyway.

I think the hope has to be that they'll go back to a more 'core' set of values at some point. For example, I find it hard to believe that a Victorian range wouldn't sell generally - museum's are teeming with children dressed up pretending to be Victorians. Heck, go all out on the educational element and produce leaflets to go with the sets explaining what an oil lamp or a mangel is for!

I think the random historical figures are a slightly different market, since I suspect there are adults who played with Playmobil who might buy one figure, like Luther or the Greek Gods, who would never buy bigger sets (in much the same way you see random Lego figures in people's houses)