This is the same argument we had with LEGO. I spoke to the CEO of LEGO a couple of years ago at a LEGO convention. He stated that LEGO is made as a kid's product.
My question was to him then and now to PM, how do you know if a parent takes their child to a store and buys LEGO or PM sets, how do they know if it is for the child or the parent.
Keep in mind that ultimately it is the parent who buys the product. Both LEGO and Playmobil do a great job selling the safety factor to parents.
My answer to LEGO was to continue supporting their sets, targeting the child level, but as they have witness visiting the 4 different annual AFOL (adult fans of LEGO) run conventions in the US, give us, the adult collectors, the pieces to build our displays. And LEGO has done so by making elements available to us in bulk called Pick-a-Brick in their stores and in their online store. So we can build our creations by using LEGO sets and many extra parts.
Playmobil has done some of this by keeping some parts available from their Direct Sales outlets. But I think they need to expand the list of items. Perhaps keeping certain klickies longer depending on sales, continue covering parts we need to expand existing themes. For instance, it may be too expensive to re-release a western building set, but what if the different parts of that building could be made available? So one coming into Playmobil for the first time could buy the parts to build a western town for instance, piece by piece. Many of the building sections were used on more than one building.
One of the major problens I find with the US DS is the unknown. When I call DS, I give them a list, item by item, they look it up, tell me if it is in stock, how many they have and the cost... then on to the next item. It would be a lot easier if we could go onto a website, see the items, quantity, the cost per, and click on our choices and move to checkout and finish the transaction. I often wonder how many pieces I could use, sit on a shelf, unknown til someone asks.
My 2¢ worth...
-- Donmobil
