2011 ?

[tonguello]

wow! that's a lot! I hope they will release a few whole new themes!!! Like Japanese or Greek!!!!   

[bonniebeth]

Yes! It makes room for more great themes! 

And you did say some of them are going to be updated. I seriously doubt pirates or fairytale castle or farm would be discontinued. Those are pretty permanent themes.

Treasure hunters... is that the weird jungle theme with the giant lizards? It hasn't been around long, but I'm not surprised. It was pretty stupid.

[Hadoque]

Correction:

Treasure-hunters-theme is not discontinued; only 2 sets are going:

* Camp with giant snake
* Temple Guard with green lightweapon


Concerning Fairytale Castle -theme, I hope it won't be replaced with a "glittering Barbie-like farty...fairytale" -theme"  like some think it will... 


Egyptian civilisation is already completely annihilated... perhaps the design-team died of a mysterious disease and so the pyramid and tombes have to go. Or is it a biblic plague that stroke this theme so soon?


About the fearless Pirates and their ship, the theme was only renewed just a few years ago...   The ship wasn't as realistic as it's predecessor the 3940 (US 3286) and lacked a true gundeck, but the pirate-klickies themself were pretty good IHMO.
The Ghostpirates seem to have been released of their curse and are retired to Hell. 

Question now is, what the new pirateship will look like (assuming there will be a new one, I can't believe they would discontinue the theme without replacement).
Will it be more realistic from our viewpoint and resemble the "3940 frigate" or be an updated 3940  OR could it be perhaps a superior one like an English trimaster (ship of The Line) f.e.    ,

OR... will it be as or even more kiddish/Fisherprice as the present one?! 

[bonniebeth]

Maybe it will be expandable, like we've been wishing for. Hey, we can dream, can't we?

[Hadoque]

Maybe it will be expandable, like we've been wishing for.

I hope so.    But this idea was brought up during the past year, if I remember well. If there's to be a new pirateship, it was probably designed earlier...

we can dream, can't we?

Yes we can!   

[Wesley Myers]

Are you saying they are discontinueing the entire Pirate theme?!?! 

[Christina]

I hope not! I've been waiting on getting any pirates (except the one that's your avatar -- he jumped into my cart at Chapters a few weeks ago) because I don't think my son's ready for them yet.  I'm not yet able to justify getting a pirate ship just for me, though if I keep reading here it's probably just a matter of time.

How soon after they discontinue sets are they out of the shops in Germany?  I'm tagging along on a business trip my husband's doing in early May to Germany & Italy.  I was already looking forward to being able to get not-yet-released-everywhere-else sets, but if there's a chance of getting some discounted discontinued ones that would be great too.

If anyone has any great toy stores to recommend in Stuttgart or Munich, I'm all ears.

[Wesley Myers]

I am sure Playmobil will be EVERYWHERE there.  At least nothing like we have here.

I would take the time and visit:

http://www.playmobil-funpark.de/

I would certainly hope they are not going to get rid of the pirates altogether but introduce all new sets. 

If they get rid of them for next year in Germany, then it will be the year after next here.  I guess a good thing could be that if they discontinue things then we can always get what has been discontinued at Winners come the Fall.

[Bolingbroke]

Lack of planning, short-sightedness and what have you.

Instead of introducing silly, still-born themese like ghost pirates and jungle thieves (or whatever that was), they should have been expanding other themes, like the Roman ones. Let's face it and be realistic guys, there is little chance of ever seeing a Japanese or Oriental theme - it's too specialised and the kids care little about pagodas, samurais and suchlike. But with the Roman theme, there was so much that couldve been done with it.

Such a shame!

[Gis]

L*%$ is introducing a ninja theme by the looks of it....we all know there seems to be a tendency of the two companies to release similar things...so who knows....

I just really think it's funny if they make a Ninja theme and replace the pirates with it :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_VS_Ninjas