New DS & other sets spotted on Playmobil UK spotted today

[Martin Milner]

You can now buy three Egyptian DS sets, even though they haven't released the rest of the Egyptian theme, including the nice Pharoah archer figure.

There's also:

7385 three tough looking Police,
7379 Yellow Timber Frame House,
7830 & 7831 new pirates  (new to me anyway), and some pirate buildings, plus  7373 a grapnel launcher
7361 a nifty 7361 Archeologist DS set including a couple of canopic jars,
and (timing being everything in the Playmobil UK world) various Halloween pumpkin sets.

For Gordon there's the 5705 US fire starter set with flat house front and US style firefighters.

[Timotheos]

7379 Yellow Timber Frame House,

Hey Martin, how much does the Yellow Frame Work cost in UK?  I wonder if our prices are catching up to the UK, or whether you've seen same price leaps.

I reluctantly ordered my yellow framework this morning.  The $36 price tag is steep, considering in 2007, the frameworks ran for $24 from PM USA, and $15 - $20 from bargain retailers.

-Tim

[highlandcattle]

Oooh there is also the train wagon 7988 in the UK-DS.
MArtin could you tell me the price of the 7377,please ?
When will these sets be available in Belgium?

[Martin Milner]

Highland - 7377 is £12.50. With the Euro strong against the £ right now that's about €13.00

Tim - the yellow framework house is £30 - and you thought $36 was steep, this is the equivalent of $45. I don't think that's a price hike, I think the framework houses have been that price for a while. The other new sets and figures are at last year's prices (£2 for a single DS figure, £6 for the 3 figure groups, £8 for a family group), except for last chance items where the 3 figure DS groups are now £6.85

The Halloween pumpkins are £5 each, and they've cut out all the old specials so we're down to 12 for now.

[playmofire]

For Gordon there's the 5705 US fire starter set with flat house front and US style firefighters.

Thanks for thinking of me, Martin, but I managed to get one at a competitive price from the US when it first came out and then acquired another through, I think, as a trade.  I've been intending to do a review but haven't got round to it yet.

What does interest me as the base for a fire conversion is the circus lorry in the DS section here:

http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Product-Show?pid=7399&cgid=Ds_Fahrzeuge_und_Boote

Some sets seem very good value for money, for example the offroad motor bike set at £6.50 here:

http://www.playmobil.de/on/demandware.store/Sites-GB-Site/en_GB/Product-Show?pid=7396&cgid=Ds_Sport_und_Freizeit

[Martin Milner]

Though I'm itching to get my hands on some of the new figures, especially that "Archeologist" i.e. modern day tomb raider, I'm going to wait until February when the new Specials should be released before placing an order.


After all, I do have a whole bunch of Egyptians, winged-knights, a couple of loose-wing chicken dragons and Elves in underpants still barely played with  (and not even packed away neatly)

[sbblabotw]

7830 & 7831 new pirates  (new to me anyway)

Martin, don't give me a fright like that!  They are actually 7380 and 7381, pirates that have been out in Germany for some time.  (Very cool though, especially Sinbad.)

[Timotheos]

Highland - 7377 is £12.50. With the Euro strong against the £ right now that's about €13.00

You're joking, right?  Is the US dollar trading $10 / 1 Euro yet?

Tim - the yellow framework house is £30 - and you thought $36 was steep, this is the equivalent of $45. I don't think that's a price hike, I think the framework houses have been that price for a while. The other new sets and figures are at last year's prices (£2 for a single DS figure, £6 for the 3 figure groups, £8 for a family group), except for last chance items where the 3 figure DS groups are now £6.85

The Halloween pumpkins are £5 each, and they've cut out all the old specials so we're down to 12 for now.

Does VAT explain this?  Has anyone identified why the UK is so expensive?  Visiting the US for you must be like visiting India for us.  Well, strike that.  The rupee has risen against the dollar too...

[playmofire]

Does VAT explain this?  Has anyone identified why the UK is so expensive?  Visiting the US for you must be like visiting India for us.  Well, strike that.  The rupee has risen against the dollar too...

VAT certainly adds to prices as it's a sales tax, but surely there is a sales tax on DS parts in the US too.

In the past what Playmobil seemed to do was to take the euro price and replace the euro sign by a £ sign, which meant that the UK price was above the euro price.  Today, with the euro and £ being more or less equal in value, this doesn't really work to our disadvantage.  (Playmobil weren't the only company to do this, and it also worked in reverse with other currencies.  For example, when Malta had  its own currency, Maltese prices were about 1/3 less than UK ones according to the exchange rates, but UK firms would simply replace the £ sign by the Maltese lira sign.)

[Martin Milner]

Martin, don't give me a fright like that!  They are actually 7380 and 7381, pirates that have been out in Germany for some time.  (Very cool though, especially Sinbad.)

Well I did say new to me! 

Maybe I should have specified new to the UK website, where the label NEW appears next to them. 

I'm guessing nothing ever gets to the UK that is really new, it'll always be available somewhere else first. 


VAT is currently 15%, dropped from 17.5% recently, but of course nobody is reflecting this drop in their prices, retailers and other companies benefit but not the public, we still pay the same price.

Sales Tax in the US is added AFTER the shelf price in stores (a matter of major confusion to me) but for internet sales presumably it's already been included?


Not Joking about the Euro - check the exchange rate online - today about 1.10 Euro to the £, but it was as low as 1.05 at the weekend.

The currency sign swap is a very common trick, they do it with $/£ too - very annoying when £1 was worth $2.