![Well done! :clap:](http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/Smileys/classic/clap.gif)
Wow! I just watched the entire Jake McKee video - many many many thanks to highlandcattle for providing the link!
We've had so many vibrant discussions over the years about the differences and similarities between Playmobil and LEGO. Many of us are fans of both toys - I know I am!
![Smiley :)](http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/Smileys/classic/smiley.gif)
Near the beginning of the video, Jake makes a point which, to me, crystallizes the ultimate truth about both toys: they are "creative mediums." That is the key point! LEGO may be more of a construction toy, but people love those minifigs. Playmobil may traditionally be about the klickies, but there are so many construction possibilities. Both toy worlds get people thinking "outside the box" (literally!) There are certainly people in the world who can set up a LEGO or Playmobil set and think "Oh, that's nice," and then put it away and never want to have another (or they just don't like the "messiness" of all those tiny pieces.) We true fans, however, set it up and think "Oh, if I just had one more of this piece or a different color of that thing or 100 of these items then I would be able to . . . " It is the creative aspect of both toys that really gets the juices flowing.
So many things that Jake mentioned about LEGO are also true, though perhaps on a smaller scale, for Playmobil. We have many fan discussion boards in several languages, collectobil, playmodb, etc., all of which have been developed without much, if any, assistance from Geobra. We have all of the amazing displays created by the fan community - there are too many to even begin to list them here. Do they inspire people to buy Playmobil? YES! I cannot begin to tell you how many sets I have purchased over the years because of the photos I have seen here at Playmofriends and elsewhere. Even though I still don't call myself a "collector" I have amassed an embarrassing amount of unopened boxes, not to mention the boxes and boxes of used pieces that I acquired in order to get some Steck balconies, or more Steck castle walls, or silver dishes, etc.
I truly believe that Playmobil could take the same approach as LEGO did and it would be very successful. Playmobil seems to suffer from the sort of corporate culture that Jake talks about where people are worried about stuff that doesn't really matter very much, such as the way that Geobra won't allow people to post instruction plans online even though there is no logical reason to prohibit this (after all, if somebody in China is going to knock off a Playmobil set they are going to go buy one and then they will have a hard copy of the instructions, right?) We need to find a way to get Jake and Playmobil together!
![Agree :yup:](http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/Smileys/classic/yup.gif)
Thanks, Gordon, for bringing the "mothers and daughters" into the conversation! Let's remember the mother/son and dad/daughter combos, too!
![Cool 8-)](http://www.playmofriends.com/forum/Smileys/classic/cool.gif)