the novelties german catalouge 2008/2009 !

[Gustavo]

You've been using "polemic" a lot lately--"an aggressive refute of current opinion.  The art or practice of disputation or controversy."

Is this what you mean?

I meant it as simply as Greek "pólemos, polémou", Tim.

Never read Captain Blood (1922) by Rafael Sabatini, or seen the Douglas Fairbanks pirate movie The Black Pirate from 1926, or seen Roman Polanski's "Pirates" movie, or CutThroat Island (with Geena Davis) Gus? Pirates were presented as heroes decades before POTC.

Undead pirates? Anything Ghost-Piratey following it has to give POTC at least a nod of appreciation, though the first Playmobil Ghost pirate (4572 Special in 1999) pre-dates the POTC Franchise, so maybe POTC should give a nod to Playmobil...

No, Martin, but, after I wrote what I wrote, it did come to my mind some thoughts of general culture, about b&w 1920s movies ... Even so, in my generation (born in '76), I never had heard anything questioning so plainly, and even in those works I doubt that there is anything like this: "He's a pirate!" "But a good man!" ...

It's very original to me. Not that pirates weren't used as heroes before, but never (argumentatively) defended as good men before, no, that I don't think that has been produced. I don't know. Maybe I'm only ignorant of former productions.

I have to admit that the model to MY playmobil pirate world is more like (Charlton Heston's version of) Long John Silver, in a "Treasure Island" movie version from the '80s (or late '70s) ... That is, in my conception, maybe the best production on pirates I have as (reasonably) trustworthy reference. PotC, although I like it (very much) isn't reference to me, because it's completely fantastic (= related to pure fantasy).

I use to watch "Master & Commander" usually, too ... It's better reference to my pirate world, in many things. But I have to say that my writings on piracy are very superficial, at least compared to my fantasy on "Medievaliae" ... I write on medieval stuff for a while, and have a better production, in my self evaluation.

In other words, you're not completely wrong in bringing all those references. They're valuable.

& Different.

Anyways ... (going nuts)


 


Gus



[Ps. It also makes me think, Martin, that you, as well as me, admit, somehow, that the new catalogue contents is very interesting, no matter that, maybe ... unexpected ...]

[Timotheos]

It's very original to me. Not that pirates weren't used as heroes before, but never (argumentatively) defended as good men before, no, that I don't think that has been produced. I don't know. Maybe I'm only ignorant of former productions.

I think we need to chip in and buy Gus a nice quiet, peaceful vacation to somewhere for about a month.  Somewhere where the women smile alot, where the drinks are mild, yet refreshing, and where the waves wash in and wash back out again, and again, and again.

Unrelated:
Somebody's task, should they choose to accept it, is to build a life-size, functional catapult with tiny wheels and hitch five Siberian Huskies to it and see how far it moves.

-Tim

 

[Richard]

I think we need to chip in and buy Gus a nice quiet, peaceful vacation to somewhere for about a month.  Somewhere where the women smile alot, where the drinks are mild, yet refreshing, and where the waves wash in and wash back out again, and again, and again.

Timmy, are you sending Gus to see me here in the Virgin Islands? ... 

Somebody's task, should they choose to accept it, is to build a life-size, functional catapult with tiny wheels and hitch five Siberian Huskies to it and see how far it moves.

Timmy, I'm looking at a 9 inch model of a Roman onager ... Click HERE.

The shipping weight is about 2 pounds.

If the scale of the 9 inch model is 1 inch equals 1 foot, then the length of the full scale Roman onager would be about 9 feet (which seems somewhat correct for a small mobile onager). Therefore, if a 9 foot full scale onager is 12 times the size of a 9 inch scale model. And, if the scale model weighs 2 pounds then a full scale model would only weigh about 24 pounds.

Even though the scale model is made from oak, most of us would admit that 24 pounds for the weight of a full scale onager (even a small one) doesn't seem to make any sense at all. So let's just arbitrarily say that the full scale 9 foot onager weighs 500 pounds.

A team of ONE Alaskan Malemute can pull a sledge that weighs more than 2000 pounds.
(A Malemute is about the size of a wolf.) Click HERE.

Therefore, a team of five Wolves could probably pull a catapult that weighed in excess of 10,000 pounds!

So, it would appear that the Playmobil designers may have done their homework on this one.

All the best,
Richard

see attachment

[playmofire]

A team of ONE Alaskan Malemute can pull a sledge that weighs more than 2000 pounds.
(A Malemute is about the size of a wolf.) Click HERE.

Therefore, a team of five Wolves could probably pull a catapult that weighed in excess of 10,000 pounds!

So, it would appear that the Playmobil designers may have done their homework on this one.

All the best,
Richard

see attachment

But the small wheels are the problem, they'd always be getting caught in the smallest dip and hollow or hole and awkward to get up and over obstacles.  People are finally waking up to the problem of small wheels in the pram and pushchair (baby buggy) area.  The old fashioned prams and pushchairs with large wheels was easy to push over uneven ground or up kerbs, but not so the  modern style baby buggy which almost seems to run on castors.  And the problem of small wheels and uneven ground gets worse with weight.

[socrates]

No, Martin, but, after I wrote what I wrote, it did come to my mind some thoughts of general culture, about b&w 1920s movies ... Even so, in my generation (born in '76), I never had heard anything questioning so plainly, and even in those works I doubt that there is anything like this: "He's a pirate!" "But a good man!" ...

There has been a controversal discussion about the 3940 pirate ship somewhere in Asia (indonesia?)... There the government thought about forbidding the pirate ship as it displays the pirates in such a romantic way... This sounds very strange for a german, as we do not even have a secret isle close to germany where pirates could hide (well, maybe scotland?  ), but in a country where still every year thousands of people get killed by pirates, I comlpetely agree that such a cute toy might be insensitive...
From our point of view it is more like a romantic carribean adventure playing in a long lost past, with honour that counts and all this stuff... ...hmm, and I think, the pirates are always the heros...
Astrid Lindgren wrote her famous story about the little "longstocking" in 1945 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Longstocking) and from this day on, there always were good pirates...

best,
socrates

[Martin Milner]

I suspect we've thought a lot more about the catapault and the practicalities than the designers ever did.

If the wolves were not dragging it miles across rough terrain, but from the place it was assembled (just outside of shot of the castle walls) to the place it need to be used (just inside of shot of the castle walls) would that be permissible?

It's waaaaay to small to be of any use in a siege anyway.

There has been a controversal discussion about the 3940 pirate ship somewhere in Asia (indonesia?)... There the government thought about forbidding the pirate ship as it displays the pirates in such a romantic way... This sounds very strange for a german, as we do not even have a secret isle close to germany where pirates could hide (well, maybe scotland?  ), but in a country where still every year thousands of people get killed by pirates, I comlpetely agree that such a cute toy might be insensitive...
From our point of view it is more like a romantic carribean adventure playing in a long lost past, with honour that counts and all this stuff... ...hmm, and I think, the pirates are always the heros...
Astrid Lindgren wrote her famous story about the little "longstocking" in 1945 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Longstocking) and from this day on, there always were good pirates...

best,
socrates

I don't think the historical Pirates can be compared to the modern pirates in Asia, but maybe it is too close to the bone for them, and each country must have its won politically correct madness... goodness knows the UK leads the field on stupid ideas (baa baa rainbow sheep, anyone?).

Captain Blood was published in 1922. The hero is a doctor, captured treating a wounded soldier after a battle in England, accused of being on the wrong (i.e. losing) side, sold into slavery and transported to the West Indies, escaped, and became a pirate to exact his revenge. Definitely a hero, not a bad guy. Any advance on 1922?

I have books about pirates written before that, by people who had experienced piracy first hand, and there's little doubt in my mind the majority of pirates were vicious, bloodthirsty, greedy people who lived hard and died young - but life in the navies of that era was hard, and people died young, but poorer. Piracy certainly had many attractions.

[macgayver]

By the way what is Spiel & Sammelspass ( play & collecting passport ) ?

= play and collecting Fun

spiel = play
sammel = collect
spass = fun

My German is approving these last months 



concerning the new releases , Love them all

lot of new parts
lot of new custompossibilities

If I look at the new schip ................  maybe if I close all the holes in it
she might be sea worthy 

or ........
or..............


time will tell 

[surfergirl]

i am quite surprised how long it has taken me to decide if ilike these sets or not...usually its love at first sight for me.

anyways, i am really looking forward to the merpeople theme. and i think i like the ghost pirates which is strange as i don't generally collect pirate sets. and i really want to see the baby unicorn from the 4777 tower in closer detail as it looks like it may have a horn, just like the adult unicorn. previously these babies have just had a star printed where the horn would be.

i am most looking forward to the main catalogue to see where they take us with the masai tribesman special as i think he could be taken into a really interesting theme. here's hoping anyway

and i am still sure that we will get a new fire theme so maybe next year won't be as easy on my bank balance as i had hoped

claire

[Rasputin]

Richard those figures of Pull Dogs seem to be under controlled environments. I do not think that in times of battle thousands of years ago they would have found many level concrete like surfaces to have a dog pull 3000 LBS . I do not discount the notion of using dogs as i have used them myself to pull myself . I had a cart with 24 inch pneumatic tires with a 100 lb. german short haired x with American bull dog ( aka Pit bull ) and he did fine pulling me around . I also used him for carrying Abalone out of canyons at about 1/3 his body weight with side packs on . Any heavier and he would loose his side balance . Now most of these harnesses & packs were engineered to fit a dogs body perfectly so i have no idea what a primitive set up would look like or fit like . It could be done and if you did not have a larger more vulnerable animal why not . A K9 serves many purposes on top of pulling ( attacking , sending messages or supplies, looking intimidating, keeping other predators away at camp, and etc.... )

My vote is why not and after all  this is a toy that is supposed to inspire the imagination and i encourage my kids to think out side the box . For peets sake according to my 3 year old everything flies 

[seawarrior]

i want it all except the modern stuff and mermaids, but my sister does so we might buy every new thing in the catalog     

 but that is ok