Thanks for the excellent review and set of pictures Panos!
I too have several sets of these Wolf Knights, but haven't played with them enough to notice any wearing of the bronze finish. I thought the bronze was integral to the moulding, but if it's an additional finish there's presumably a new production process. I'll have to examine mine carefully and see if they exhibit wear, maybe I should carry one in my pocket for a week or so to see how much rubbing it requires to "age" them.
We haven't had a proper review of these Wolf Knights before, but they have been discussed several times in the News forum. The Iron Knights (sets 5886 through 5889) that Elric mentions actually came out in the US before the Wolf Knights were available (though we were waiting impatiently for them), and I also have several sets of those. The Iron Knights copied the Wolf Knights almost exactly in design, but having no catapult in the blister packs, the one box set 5889 in the series contained ALL the colored stones with the catapult and a couple of wolves (but no means for them to pull the catapult), and a seventh Iron Knight compared to the six Wolf Knights.
To my mind, Playmobil have been moving dangerously away from the Specials in recent years, and many stores do not carry them at all. This year there aren't yet ANY new specials in some countries, only a re-release of some old ones (welcome though they may be in their own right) which still hadn't reached the shelves by June. Introductory pocket-money priced sets can spark a bigger parental outlay at Birthday and Christmas, but are necessary to get people with smaller budgets (frequently children) to invest in some Playmobil on a more regular basis. I think Playmobil should have many more of these smaller sets (in $5 to $10 price range) to keep children interested in new releases throughout the year, and visitng the Playmobil aisle (or in the US the tiny Playmobil 2' shelf section).
The two figure blister packs (and the carry boxes) have been an attempt to tap that market, and also to instil the idea of collecting, so that Playmobil may benefit from the huge market devoted to trading cards, Pokemon etc. Sets 5888 and 5889 sport a yellow star with the motto Collect them all! but unfortunately don't explain what all encompasses. This may be deliberate, allowing them to expand the range of all indefinitely.
As previously mentioned, the Mermaids followed the same "collecting" principle with a more feminine angle, and had their blister equivalents (5882-5885), and for people who don't want to buy the sets individually there are sets 5001 (Wolf Knights) and 5002 (Mermaids) that combined the subsets, though these have not yet been made available in all countries.
Can we expect more themed collections? Maybe Pirates or Policemen? I hope so. My childhood collection of Playmobil ran more along these lines, with just a handful of characters to play out my stories, without the hundreds of background extras and dozens of buildings that I can now afford.
The archer's shield is called a Pavis shield.
