Non-Mystery Figures

[Oliver]

While I was at the shops today in China I spotted these;

https://imgur.com/SRPxPJ2


https://imgur.com/z5vRAwq

I hope the links work - but they are the Fi?ures but in boxes and identified on the front. There seems to be a big market here for collecting figures, so maybe it's an attempt to cash in on that, though it seems a surprising from Playmobil.

Pros - obviously you can buy what you want. Also, rather than unrecyclable plastic bags, they come in cardboard boxes and then a little resealable plastic bag - and probably the only Playmobil set I've seen in the smallest possible box! They still have the original Fi?ures leaflets inside. The shop only had the female figures, I've no idea if they also offer the men. I'll keep an eye out.

Strangely enough, the blind bags are for sale in a few places and are probably the most widespread Playmobil sets available in China.

[Indianna]

That's a really interesting development - thanks for sharing the info with us, Oliver!   

[tahra]

  Love them! And such pretty pretty boxes    (note to self: SHUT THE HADES UP. You don't have room for the boxes you have, you do NOT need more. )

Are those an official release?! Never saw them before!

Are they assembled in the zipper? I suppose not... with the hat they wouldn't fit... and the Ice King, for example just the klicky would not fit assembled...

Is the price the "normal" figure price over there? What is the normal figure price over there?


Sorry, so many questions.   

[StJohn]

Thanks for showing, Oliver! Very interesting.

Are those an official release?!

I share a sense of suspicion. The boxes, though nice, look different from regular Playmobil. The zipper bag shouts cottage industry. Plus, this is in China, I mean: China! Not Playmobil homeland. Couldn't we be looking at some entrepreneurial re-packaging of regular Figures?

Do they come with grey inlays and Figures heads? If white, resp. normal, then they are unique and must be commissioned/official. If not, then they could be irregular.

Any EAN number, or other manufacturer information on the box?

Very intriguing! I think this is a case of unregulated – or, perhaps more likely: licensed repackaging. There must be tons of excess Figures in the factory at Malta. Perhaps Geobra made a deal with some Chinese entrepreneur in order to offload them.

[Ismene]

I agree that the zip bags are suspect, but considering I often have to hunt Figures on Ebay, I like this idea.

[Macruran]

I'm putting my money on illegitimate, but gosh darn I wish PM did that over here.

[Oliver]

In answer

- they come unassembled, like a normal Mystery Figure.

- They were 30 RMB, which is (very roughly) £3, and I think the normal price for a Mystery Figure - I bought one recently in a bookshop and I'm sure that's what I paid


- I only bought the Flapper Girl and the Egyptian Woman (I assume that's what she is) which have non-standard bodies, so I didn't see if the frames were grey, but everything looked 'normal' to my eyes.

I've posted pictures of the rest of the box

https://imgur.com/77h2l19

But the front and back have the Figure on, one side has some generic information, and the other has the 'small parts' warning, and it seems to say that they were manufactured in Malta and has the Zirndorf address (based on the translation app). There's also a number on the top, I guess indicating you can 'collect' all of them.

Very intriguing! I think this is a case of unregulated – or, perhaps more likely: licensed repackaging. There must be tons of excess Figures in the factory at Malta. Perhaps Geobra made a deal with some Chinese entrepreneur in order to offload them.

This is what I would lean towards. The shop did sell regular Playmobil too, and the fact that it's in a shop and explicitly labelled as 'Playmobil' rather than a different brand name (the Lego piece-for-piece rip offs never actually said 'Lego' on the box).

https://imgur.com/Yte8GbJ

You can see here there seems to be a distributer (Ningbo Classic International Trade Co. Ltd) - I'd guess they're repacking them?

It would surprise me that Playmobil would make something explicitly aimed at the Chinese market when they aren't really focussed on it (it seems to have disappeared from 'Toys R Us' here, and there's certainly been no effort to make sets aimed at the Chinese market like Lego has with the New Year sets they make)

[tahra]

Thank you for all the answers

I would also find it odd that playmobil would go to such trouble to get foreign money?!  Unlikely, right? 

It is awesome though!  And from different series...  A mystery!


The speedo figures also have a grey frame - well, the flapper does, the other has no frame (I mean the connector is the feet part)... But if they came unassembled they are probably figures (can you pop them easily, with bare hands? )

[GrahamB]

That warning looks like it was done by someone with a limited grasp of English, "room rest hazard" sounds strange, for example

[Hadoque]

Intriguing...