Violent Playmobil.

[Sir Gareth]

I completely agree with playmofire.


Oh, by the way, as far as I know, Playmobil ran into their first scandal when having an
advert where a construction worker fell from the scaffold on which he was drinking beer.
Some people then raised the question, why there has to be a box of beer in a construction
workers set...   
Hmm... Okay, just realized there where actually 3 boxes of beer in the set...
http://www.collectobil.com/catalogue/items/3400.htm
 

best regards,
socrates

 Yes, the green beer bottles in the German produced set's for the builders was an outrageous thing to have. So being very English and proper when Playpeople produced the builders set's we had white milk bottles instead, we couldn't have our builders drinking beer on the job.

[Meg]

I think I may have one of the Lowenbrau crates

I knew about the beer, but didnt realize it came from a constuction set 

Socrates,
its good for girls to learn codes of honor, too

But their codes of honor can be different than a boys code of honor.

I would rather having boys playing with pretend swords, than with pretend guns.
A wierd bias, I admit

M

[Sylvia]

Oh, by the way, as far as I know, Playmobil ran into their first scandal when having an
advert where a construction worker fell from the scaffold on which he was drinking beer.
Some people then raised the question, why there has to be a box of beer in a construction
workers set...  

Hadn't heard about this before. How very naughty of them!

Yes, the green beer bottles in the German produced set's for the builders was an outrageous thing to have. So being very English and proper when Playpeople produced the builders set's we had white milk bottles instead, we couldn't have our builders drinking beer on the job.

I never knew that either!

I love learning about all these bits of trivia related to the sets.

[Morgan]

Beer you say? He he... I have one of them constructionsets with bottles, I allways assumed it was mineralwater.  The innocent mind of a child  As the matter of fact, I did not realize it could be beer until tonight 

However, it makes you think. There are some sets that may not live up to the ethical standards a serious toy should.... 

1) The pirates. Yes, they represents thrilling adventures on the high seas, love and passion, treasury, arrrrr mighty and a barrel of rum...  But a few hundreds years ago pirates were murderers, kidnappers, thieves and wild beasts. They spread fear among civilian ships, raping and plundering where they so wanted. Several of the pirate captains were known for their inhumane treatment of prisoners, torture and mutilation. And today we have funparks to remember them, games that glorifies their life and behavior, and toys so that we can be like them, do like they did. Toys so our very own children may pretend to be a bloodthirsty pirate... Hmm.... Does this mean we will build funparks etc in honour of the Nazis four hundred years from now  I doubt it, but there is a (dangerous) connection and makes you think.   

2) Mutilated klickies. Missing a hand, an eye, a leg. What an enormous personal tragedy to loose your leg or eye...

3) The struggle for survival and the battle between classes. The poor homeless man, his only comfort in life is a bottle and a bench. But the officials are allways after him, because the rich mansion owners in their huge mansion full of servants and expensive furnitures, does not want to be reminded about the cruel life for so many poor folks in this world. 

4) "Jus primae noctis"  Oh yeah  I just realized that a set represents prima noctis. I will take pictures for documentation and post them one of the following days  (Unless the very subject is unsuited on this board  )

BUT: If Playmobil allways was to be political and ethical right, what a dull and boring toy it would be. I think it is great that kids can learn about the real world, and they can even make an impact and change it  Who says that playmobilpirates allways win? Or that they even are evil?

[playmofire]

And Playmobil, whether we like it or not, is as the world is or was, while avoiding the extremes of violence.

[socrates]

Socrates,
its good for girls to learn codes of honor, too

Hi Meg! Of course you are right... This have not been a educational view, but
more the limited view of a son's father...

But, thinking about it, I think Playmobil focussed more on being a boys toy, this
is why they had to add the pink boxes... 

Did you guys realized another detail on the box?
One of the construction workers is even working with a bottle of beer in his hand.
How really provocative these guys have been... 

@kvart: Just recently I read that the number of piracy incidents (real ones!)
world wide is at about 17.000 a year! And I bet, the pirates have not become
better ones...

socrates

[Meg]

I know what you mean about a parents perspective

Only have a daughter, but having had 3 older brothers, I am slightly familiar with boys.

A girls code of conduct can be very different from a boys.

[Psyche]

Great trivia folks. I didn't know about the construction workers beer break but it's actully very realistic based on the constucton workers I've known.

2) Mutilated klickies. Missing a hand, an eye, a leg. What an enormous personal tragedy to loose your leg or eye...

Actually I take the view that they should have more representations of disabilities (and more senior citizens too) as at some point most of us will have at least a temporary disability. I work with kids with disabilities and also with many adults. Few think of themselves as tragic but rather just really want to fit in. Losing a limb or and eye or being deaf or whatever is just another aspect of many people's lives.

Kids feel less "strange" where there are toys "like them" which is why toymakers started making ethnically diverse figures, boy dolls, and such. Once the only type of Barbie (for example) was white...but some bright person realized that by integrating Barbie's world more kids of color were included (and made good customers ) and studies have shown that kids who have dolls of several races tend to be more comfortable with and accepting of people of various races. The same is true for disabling conditions but we've not really got past the token wheel chair figure once in a while...with the possbile exception of pirates. 

The poor homeless man, his only comfort in life is a bottle and a bench. But the officials are allways after him, because the rich mansion owners in their huge mansion full of servants and expensive furnitures, does not want to be reminded about the cruel life for so many poor folks in this world. 

I'm with you! I always want to say, "Hey, leave the guy in peace, he's not hurting anyone. "


One of my vary favorite "realistic"dioramas is from the 3627 Merry Men's Feast/Keg Party! I love the priest with his mug of beer! 

Oh, and MBL, I'd never seen the hat the western woman is wearing! Cool.

[Sir Gareth]

Well now I think it's time to let you see the whole picture on the box side.

 It does seem on a lot of the older boxes, mainly western when there was a charge of Cavalry at the Indians and other similar battle scenes, playmobil decided such images are OK if they are in a film.

 it sort of Say's IMHO, it's OK for kids to see violent images such as a knife held to the throat of a lady if it's in a film, because you know it's not real?.

[Sylvia]

Oh, and MBL, I'd never seen the hat the western woman is wearing! Cool.

I think it's the same as the one in set 3345.

it sort of Say's IMHO, it's OK for kids to see violent images such as a knife held to the throat of a lady if it's in a film, because you know it's not real?.

Seems like that might be the thinking behind it.
Thanks for sharing the pic. I've never seen that one before.