I agree with Iclaudius that it is a shame that many children never have the chance to play with Playmobil. What I care most about is that Playmobil should survive in a world which is increasingly dominated by other brands, some of which are, frankly, trash.
Take the non-Playmobil options on that Indigokids page T_M_H just showed; toys which encourage a child to role-play a Superhero (Batman), experience being a person who sweeps and cleans the house, develop into someone obsessed with their own hair and make-up or someone who thinks being a vet might be glamorous. Yes, I am being judgemental and there need to be a variety of toys to suit all tastes, but as in many aspects of parenting, I am often dumbstruck by the poor choices adults let their children make (or even
encourage them to make). My dad wouldn't allow me to have toy guns as a child, which at least made me think about the issues around firearms (me and my brothers had to find gun-shaped sticks to use instead....
). We did have Lego, but that was in a Time Before Playmobil.
Selling toys is about making money. Tesco promote the toys which are
best sellers in their Christmas brochure. Even dedicated toyshops stock what will sell, so not all of their offerings are 'sensible' toys. Early Learning Centre (a UK toy chainstore, also with a presence in the US for a few years, now subsumed by the Mothercare chain) used to have a policy of selling neither Barbies nor gun-toting Action Man; in fact their TV adverts featured representatives of each toy trying to walk into an ELC shop and being barred entry. But that policy lasted only a few years and then they started stocking Barbie dolls. Money won over principles.
I quite often pick up second-hand Playmobil lots I have won on eBay. Most of the homes I visit to do this are occupied by families in higher income brackets (detached houses, big gardens, 2+ vehicles), which goes to show that maybe Playmobil is largely bought new by people who have higher incomes (or perhaps people who go to the trouble of selling unwanted items on eBay and are therefore careful with money). Maybe I shouldn't generalise from that, but I do think Playmobil is seen as a pricey toy by UK families.
And I do think Lego is a great toy on the whole, but presenting one scene from one movie in a Lego set seems to miss the potential for encouraging children to think for themselves.
And one final thought- many Playmobil sets reflect the world in which children live, not a fantasy/movie world (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Hobbit/LOTR, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.). It seems that for some children, playing with a model School is far more attractive than playing with a Flying Car Lands in Womping Willow set. That's just a feeling I have. But perhaps role-playing real world scenarios might be more popular with girls than boys? That Indigokids catalogue page might suggest as much.
