Review of 70640 Citroen 2CV

[playmofire]

Those parts were really hard to put in all the cars

I hate it (along with the tires) - and I always fear they will break

You went with the yellow lights - are those the french version? I think I will go for that one..


Thank you for such a detailed review

Thank you, tahra.    Yellow headlights were compulsory in France until 1993 but then they switched to the EU standard white lights.

[tahra]

Thank you, tahra.    Yellow headlights were compulsory in France until 1993 but then they switched to the EU standard white lights.

Thank you for the info - I really know nothing of cars...   But this gets important when playmocars are involved!

[GrahamB]

Ah, nostalgia! My wife and I had our honeymoon in France in a bright green 2CV back in the 1980s! It was a right-hand drive version for British roads, with clear headlamp glass which we had to paint yellow with a kit from Halfords. We landed in Calais and wandered as far south as the Dordogne, my wife doing most of the driving after I scared her by driving on the left, briefly.

Thanks for a great review, Gordon. The PM version seems very true to the original. I will be getting one soon (currently out of stock    ), then visiting Halfords again for a can of green spray paint....

[playmofire]

Ah, nostalgia! My wife and I had our honeymoon in France in a bright green 2CV back in the 1980s! It was a right-hand drive version for British roads, with clear headlamp glass which we had to paint yellow with a kit from Halfords. We landed in Calais and wandered as far south as the Dordogne, my wife doing most of the driving after I scared her by driving on the left, briefly.

Thanks for a great review, Gordon. The PM version seems very true to the original. I will be getting one soon (currently out of stock    ), then visiting Halfords again for a can of green spray paint....

Thank you, Graham.  I'm sure the driving to the left wasn't your fault, merely the car feeling it was good to be back home!

My first car was a VW 1300 Beetle bought from my father with 75,000 miles on the clock.  I'm seriously thinking with the present sale on of buying one and, a you suggest, a trip to Halford's for the correct coloured paint.

[playmofire]

On with the review, delayed a while because I had to retake some photos because I had missed that there was a sticker to go on the gendarme's kepi. 

A look now round the outside of the car, beginning with the boot:



You can fit in two milk churns or one milk churn and the young lady's sports type bag.

Moving forward, the interior has grey upholstery with a dark blue speckled appearance which is also on the floor and below the dashboard area.   Looking on the internet, there was a pale chequered upholstery pattern with a dark blue line in it and the Playmobil design may be based on this:



In the front, the dashboard reflects the real thing and there is the push-pull gear change knob nicely to hand for the klicky driver.   Maybe rather disappointingly, the steering wheel is a standard Playmobil three spoke one with a cut out for the driver's legs.  The real car had a two spoke wheel and it would have been a nice detail in Playmobil had altered the moulding they used by removing the third spoke from the centre to the top of the wheel:



Lastly in this post, a photo of the driver and passenger in the car:

[Rasputin]

Thanks for the review , will have to add it to the collection seeing as its Playmobil

Perhaps Geobra could make this Citroen next

[playmofire]

Well, I'll try and finish this now.  Apologies for the slowness of posting, but other things have interfered and I'm recovering from Covid at the beginning of March.  It was an unwelcome 79th birthday present from someone unknown and although it only lasted for a fortnight, it's taking time to recover from; basically, I get little or nothing done after lunchtime other than a sleep of an hour or an hour and a half.

So we're looking at accessories and detailing parts, and we'll start with the latter.

Two lots of stickers are provided, one consisting mainly of registration plates and country identifiers and the other of decorative stickers.

So the registration plates etc.:



There are no UK plates which isn't really surprising but there are country identifiers for France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.  Unfortunately, Playmobil don't identify the actual registration plates by country and I suspect all may possible be French plates from different eras.

The black and white sticker marked 2 at the bottom is not a moustache for a figure, but a band to go on the gendarme's kepi.

The decorative stickers next:



In fact, they are not all decorative, I suppose, as the two cows on the right are to go on the milk churns.  I haven't used any of them.

[playmofire]

Now the accessories:



As you can see, there are three figures, three livestock, a weekend bag and two milk churns.

The gendarme is a new figure and his uniform is the one worn in the 1960s.  You can see the black and white sticker on his kepi; it is very difficult to get it on perfectly correct - I didn't.

A few more photos to finish, starting with a view of the car with the sun roof alongside which presses into position.  On the real car, it rolled back being canvas.



Next a comparison of the model with the VW ambulance (I will post a side view later).  As you can see, the Citroen is a bit over scale.  Measuring it up against the actual car, the Citroen varies between 1/15th and 1/19th its size, although, overall, Playmobil has captured the shape and character of the car.



A couple of photos of the car in use first as  the young lady asks her way and then as the gendarme pretends he is General de Gaulle on Bastille Day.





I will post a side view comparison but it will be next weekend as we are away for most of next week and if anyone would like more photos of the gendarme (or any other aspect of the set)  just let me know and I will post some.  Meanwhile, thanks for looking.

[GrahamB]

It was worth the wait! Sorry to hear how badly Covid affected you, Gordon.

I didn't know that ambulance was based on a VW.

[playmofire]

It was worth the wait! Sorry to hear how badly Covid affected you, Gordon.

I didn't know that ambulance was based on a VW.

Thank you, Graham.  A couple of things I forgot to mention were that all glass areas on the real car are glazed on the Playmobil one other than those on the front doors, and that the body and interior/underfloor come ready assembled.  I forgot to look before adding wheels etc. whether these could be separated easily if at all.  So there may be implications here for repainting the body.  I have a VW Beetle ordered which is due to arrive Wednesday coming which also comes with body and interior/underfloor ready assembled, so that may give some clues.

I think the ambulance is based on the VW T Transporter.  Here's a not very well-angled photo of one:

https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/158/3185/31162212-1981-volkswagen-transporter-thumb.jpg