Playmobil exhibition in Hoorn, Netherlands-

[Gustavo]

But is it good that there is so much concentration on one city, and one that is expensive and overcrowded?  On an international basis, the "greater audience" approach would mean everything of international importance would be held in China!  And I'm sure that in other countries you don't have this concentration of Exhibitions on the capital.  It's not as if these exhibitions put on by the British Museum or the Tate or the Science Museum travel around the country.   Even where the London museums and galleries do have "outposts" they're not all that well sited.  There are four Tate galleries, two in London, one in St Ives (Cornwall), 420 miles away, and one in Liverpool.  St Ives has a population of 11,165!  The Liverpool gallery couldn't be less central for the north of England, why not Manchester?  There are "branches" of the National Portrait Gallery in Wales, Somerset and near York, but the accommodation for these is provided by other organisations, mainly the National Trust.


Only if you live in London, Martin.  And a museum of coal mining in London?  A museum of shipbuilding there?  I think not.

Civilisation doesn't stop at the Watford Gap (not when you're travelling north, anyway ), nor does culture and entertainment nor art.  And as for the countryside, well best keep it quiet or we'll be flooded out by visitors from London!

Brasil is a big country. When we think in expos, we think about main cities, specially (right in this order) Sampaulo, Rio and Belo Horizonte, and (in any order) Salvador and Recife (Northeast region), Brasilia (the DC, central region), Porto Alegre and Florianopolis (South of Brasil) ... Noone thinks about anything in Manaus (Amazonia), but that foreigners have been accused of being buying it and it to be against the law (...). In my view point, we (Portuguese American) didn't accomplish colonization. I don't consider Amazonia well colonized, because Brasilian people don't want to go there ... It's different with California, in the US. People at least say that it might be nice to see the Golden Gate ... But I'm straying completely ...

In Rio, one nice place to make an expo of Playmobil would be CCBB downtown. (Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil.) But it would/will (ever?) go to Sampaulo first, as most everything in Brasil. Sampaulo is very (economically) attractive, they offer good conditions for anything & (most) everything.

To think an expo in a little city would lead me to think about Petropolis, in Rio de Janeiro State mountains, which is an important town because, when the Portuguese king came to Brasil (because Napoleon had invaded Portugal), one of his homes was at Petropolis and, since then (1808, we're in cerimonies of the bicentenary ...) Petropolis became an important place.

There are other places ... But I'd stray too long in Brasilian History and Geography, and I believe it isn't the point here ...

G.

[playmofire]

Unfortunately when you compare those train prices with £300 return flight to Miami, or £280 to New York, or around £200 to Houston, or £350 to Fort Lauderdale, and in all those locations I can get a double en-suite room for less than £40 a night, you can see how Yorkshire still seems remote to a Londoner.

I love England, and my wife and I visited York last year, sadly before I knew Gordon or I'd have suggested meeting up, but rail fares are still way too high. If two or more people are travelling, it's almost always cheaper and more convenient to rent a car, even with the ever rising gas prices.

But you pay that train fare if you come to North Yorkshire for two or three weeks holiday.  In the other direction, someone up pays that same fare for a day's visit to, say, the Islamic art exhibition at the National Gallery.

[playmofire]

Of course I'm not suggesting a coal mining museum in London, the obvious choice would be Newcastle. Shipbuilding? Glasgow Docks, or Portsmouth if you're looking at wooden warships. I'm planning a trip to see HMS Victory later this year - I'm not suggesting it should be moved to London to suit me (we do have HMS Belfast which I visited last year). I feel you're putting words in my mouth, but I think you understand exactly what I'm trying to say. Maybe I should have said non-specific local, rather than national interest.


If you were a Playmobil executive trying to reach the largest audience possible, would you choose London or North Yorkshire? Honestly?

Yes, it was a rather sweeping statement, Martin.     But even when you look at the London museums, often what they deal with is of national interest and even national origin.  Much in the Science museum relates to the Industrial Revolution which was very much a North East, Northern and Midlands thing, so why a museum in the south? 

I'm not suggesting that North Yorkshire is the place for an exhibition (although Harrogate is one of the largest conference centres in the UK) but rather that there are other places (maybe better places) than London for lots of things.  The population figures you quote do not give a true picture as they are not comparing like with like.  You're comparing the Greater London conurbation with individual cities.  If you compare Greater London with, say, the West Yorkshire conurbation, that has 1.5m population.  Less than 50 miles away is the Greater Manchester conurbation, 2.25m population, and the Sheffield area adds about 650,000, and about two hours drive away from Leeds you have the Tyne and Wear conurbation, 1.1m population.  So that gives 5.5m population, which surely makes an adequate catchment area for an exhibition?

[CountBogro]

here's a great link to the museum. It's contains a small movie as well:

http://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/nieuws/stadstreek/enkhuizen-westfriesland/article3679003.ece/Playmobil_ware_publiekstrekker_in_Hoorn

The man that's being shown is the director of the Museum.

The newspaper article below that says:

"HOORN - the Museum of the twentieth century has created another block buster.The museum managed to attract loads of visitors in the past with other, childfriendly expo's, but this time they're receiving hundreds of families a day. Last tuesday more then a 1000 visitors came by. The last few days people had often wait a while before allowed entry. The bad weather clearly played it´s role as well.

It´s the first time a Dutch museum is allowed to have a expo by the German company that released the popular toy some 35 years ago. There have been some expo´s in German museums when Playmobil celebrated it´s 30th birthday. This expo will remain opened until the 26th of October."

Wilma saw it and proposed to visit it again in October; but this time with Brynn. We'll see ...

Bogro

[Richard]

Hello, Bogro ... 

Thank you very much for the link! ... 

I really enjoyed the video (I watched it several times).

I would love to be able to see ALL of that Pirate movie ... 

Are all the children in the Netherlands that well behaved, have such good manners and that beautiful?

Thanks again, Mark ... it was almost like being there.

All the best,
Richard

BTW, have you noticed that Playmobil trains on display almost always use electrified tracks rather than RC with batteries?
(Makes me wonder why Playmobil doesn't offer both in their catalogue.)
 
see attachment


Edit: Left out a word (coloured red) ...

[LHAAP]

I would love to be able to see ALL of that Pirate movie ... 

Hello Richard

There are two videos available with the new pirates. One of them is the news presentation for 2007 and it can be found HERE, the other one is part of the (very nice ) game HERE.

Have fun!

[Richard]

Thank you very much, Lars ... 

The videos look like the work of Collectobart (Bart de Smet from Collectobil)!

I wish that there was a way to download and save these videos.
Unfortunately, wonderful videos like these seem to disappear when the sets are no longer being produced.

Thanks again, Lars! I really enjoyed the two great videos (and the game).

All the best,
Richard