5580 - The Republican Guard / Hussards

[bonniebeth]

Cool!! I never saw those windmills before!

[Wolf Knight]

I love the 4001 Lyra set with the children with balloons, windmills and skipping ropes.

http://www.toymuseum.gr/playmobil-bigsets-new.htm

Were these accessories only produced by Lyra?

Elaine

I doudt you'll love it once you see the quality of it Elaine...maybe some pieces and parts would be broken... Still, it is a lovely set if designed accourding to good specifications and pass through good quality control!

As for the accessories, once again, we cannot say for sure... maybe they were moulds created from Lyra or moulds that Geobra never produced...

[sweetking]

Thanks for the pictures WolfKnight !

some facts

Standard Lyra boxes present only standard boxes or parts from playmobil, but the colour of some accessories.
You may find one-piece-armes figures and some rotating-hands figures in these boxes
Theses boxes do have the licence mention.

New Lyra boxes introduce new components (windmill, skipping ropes, shakos, etc.) that were never used by playmobil (shakos and guard shelters do exist but with some differences)
This "new" boxes present both type of figures and event mix of both types in the same box
These boxes don't have the "licence" text on them

I am not sure we can figure the truth but we can make some suppositions :

Lyra produced sets under licence from 1976, some were exact copies of german boxes, some were rearrangement of Geobra parts.
Around 1978, they started to produce some really local boxes (the "new ones"), probably without informing Geobra
In 1985/86 Lyra was on a dire strait and had probably some legal issues with Playmobil Hellas, which was created in 1985.
Following this point, playmobil took over the production (please see that no standard box released after 85/86 is known with Lyra logo) but probably because of the legal continuation of Lyra, Geobra had to let Lyra sell some "new" boxes.
Regarding the specific components, I would believe some moulds were specially created by Lyra.

[Wolf Knight]

Just to correct you there Arthur, Playmobil Hellas is not Lyra. The people who owned Lyra are either dead or in jail.

Lyra was in legal issues with Geobra, not with Playmobil Hellas.
Playmobil Hellas was founded by Geobra in 1989, not 1985, and they never produced playmobil in Greece, nor sold Lyra sets. All sets were, and are, imported from Germany. Playmobil Hellas are not the continuation of Lyra.
Lyra had to shut down because they were heavily indebted to Geobra and went bankrupt. So the factory was shut down.
Herr B was furious with the people of Lyra producing and selling low quality playmobil products from his moulds, and they were indeed his moulds as a playmobil hellas official has informed me.

Lyra might have created and used their own moulds but nobody has confirmed that to me.

Something else, the ''new boxes might write 1978 on them but that does not mean that they did not come out of the assembly line in the early or mid 1980's ... this explans why one could find Lyra sets in some toy shops until 1990-1992.

[Rasputin]

HI

The more you know how Mr B does business the more you see why there is less and less Playmobil independent distributors in the US .

Thanks for the interesting info

Rasputin "The Mad Monk"

[playmo1989]

this explans why one could find Lyra sets in some toy shops until 1990-1992.

i found all my lyra sets in a toystore in 1999-2000 

[Wolf Knight]

i found all my lyra sets in a toystore in 1999-2000 

Probably noone was interested in buying them Alex.

[sweetking]

i found all my lyra sets in a toystore in 1999-2000 

This may happen (I found so far 5 old boxes in shops - youngest one is dated 1991) when shop is not well known, when toys is only a part of their activity, when it is in a small isolated town, and so on.


Regarding difference between Lyra and Playmobil Hellas I fully understand it. When I said that Playmobil took over production, I mis-said my thinking : I meant "they took over commercialization and distribution of Playmobil in Greece".

I thought P.H. was created in 1985/1986, not 1989.

What is strange is that Lyra stopped introducing new official release from Geobra in 1986... which could mean that no new official released reached Greece in between 1986 and 1989.

Regarding the commercialization of the "new lyra" boxes from before 1982 (fix hands) it could be one of the main reason of legal pursuit engaged by G.B. against Lyra.
Legal procedure and justice decision could also be the reason why Lyra could continue to sell the "new" boxes after G.B. the license from them... as Playmobil must have been the main activity for Lyra, which legally entangled G.B to sustain Lyra company even after removing authorization to sell Playmobils... sustainance could have been these parallel versions...

[Wesley Myers]

Just to correct you there Arthur, Playmobil Hellas is not Lyra. The people who owned Lyra are either dead or in jail.

Lyra might have created and used their own moulds but nobody has confirmed that to me.

If they are in jail, then it should be pretty easy to book an appointment with them and find out what really happened.   

They would probably be happy to have someone come see them on visitation days. 

[playmo1989]

This may happen when shop is not well known, when toys is only a part of their activity, when it is in a small isolated town, and so on.

yes the strange thing is that they were in a central place not somewhere isolated store ,in the central steet  (i don't know if you know from athens pano ,in agia paraskevi agiou ioannou )