the novelties german catalouge 2008/2009 !

[Timotheos]

A K9 serves many purposes on top of pulling ( attacking , sending messages or supplies, looking intimidating, keeping other predators away at camp, and etc.... )

Hi Rasputin

So you're thinking that the reason dogs weren't used on a large scale historically, considering what good draft animals they make, is because with so many better uses (hunting, guarding, attacking) it made better sense to use ox or donkeys?

I'm being won over to the notion that dogs can pull hard loads.  I was initially doubtful because the Romans had mastiffs but don't appear to have used them as draft animals to any great extent.  Maybe also dogs were a lot smaller in those days.  Roman cavalry horses appear to have not been much larger than mules.  Julius Caesar mounted his baggage handlers on mules once to trick the Gauls into believing he had more cavalry than he actually did and the ruse worked.   

-Tim

[Knightmo]

I dont have time to read through every post, so I may repeat stuff thats been said..

samurai sword! whoo-hoo!

Asian heads more available! whoo-hoo!

*one track mind*


anyway..the pirates themselves would be less goofy looking seperately. All the stuff together does look a little silly, but I still think they are cool.

[Rasputin]

Hello Tim , I am no historian so i am not quoting a resource . Its just in time of war you use what you have and you use it however you can imagine it will help . If a dog will help your cause out, then throw a rope around its neck and utilize it . If the catapult no longer reaches the wall do to better defenses than the catapult needs to become bigger and heavier and the animal will need to become larger but slower .

And yes you still do need to feed an invading army so you cannot just stop hunting . Also with all the blood and carnage around i could imagine a tiger tearing a hole in your fly net in the middle of the night and making off with your officers arm .

 When it comes down to it I could imagine troops of 10 year olds with flying pigeons holding rabid mice doing battle, if thats all you have .

I do not think they make good draft animals but mediocre draft animals . If i had lamas i sure wouldn't have spent time designing a chariot and harness for my poor dogs .

[Tiermann]

Some interesting developments for the Magic-Fantasy themes. The two sizes of the sea-hydra continues the trend towards parent and baby they have been on for a while now. The new unicorn foal likewise - the problem with the previous ones having the painted stars is that paint seems like it might wear off with play. there's a new paint job on one of the fish. The giant seahorses I don't like, they seem a little too 1-2-3 for the theme. It's the execution there rather than the concept I don't like. I really like the wolf knights - the heraldry for them is a big improvement over the last batch. I'm sure I will end up with all of those. I haven't checked the wolves yet to see if there's a new variation but I suspect there is.

[Gustavo]

I'm seriously thinking of splitting the Knights theme into pre- and post-2004, when System X and the Lion and Dragon knights started.  They're getting more and more different from the basic knights-in-shining-armour idea.  Not necessarily bad, just not the same theme, and the Wolf knights are continuing along the same trend.  I bet little boys will eat them up.

In my opinion, Heather, if you can manage somehow to make the knights to be in one section until future release(s) of new castles, it'd be wiser.

The new styles proposed by Playmobil are different, but we still can't say where it's going to take us, and I don't despise (or I want to believe) that they consider the collectors sector of their market (...)

As well as I'd wait to see how Playmobil will display and classify their fantasy knights in their own site, once they begin to appear. Very possibly there will be some sort of difference between fantasy knights and medieval castles, unless they became a bunch complete fools. So, my advice, if I may, would be to wait a bit.

But its discussion that we'll probably come back to, until they make any new move in Playmobil.com ...

Gus