Thanks for an excellent review and pics, Lavandiere!
It is disappointing that they've gone the cheap route, but I can understand why. Playmobil is vanishing from the shelves faster than you can say "Wha...?" and they need to compete somehow. I suspect the vast majority of parents shop down to a price, and will buy a $20 item where they might not have bought this bus if it was produced to a $40-$50 quality.
I can forgive ther back door not opening, that's the emergency exit and rarely opened anyway. I can forgive the single black stripe, a Google search shows School buses with anything from no stripe to three stripes. I can forgive the side door that doesn't open the way bus doors actually open, that would have been much more expensive to reproduce.
It's a shame about the poor plastic quality and shoddy paintwork, that's what you get when you farm out the work and don't check the quality. That'll hurt Playmobil's reputation without doubt. Every sub-par set lodges in our collective memory.
I'm disappointed in the lack of wing mirrors. This toy could have been used to show kids how the bus does its rounds, and that requires showing all the safety features to be present and working. If the driver is required to pull out without checking his mirrors, I predict a lot of accidents.
Will I buy one? Almost certainly. I'd like to have a new school bus (I have the old one), and this is the option that Playmobil have given me. Would I have bought it at $50 with more features and better quality? Yes, but I'd have to think about it more, and probably wait for a sale.
The shame is that this might just be the one and only set a US child ends up with, and think that the quality of this set represents ALL Playmobil quality. That would hurt Playmobil's future sales.
I understand why Playmobil try to produce these cheaper sets for the US market, and wish they didn't have to.
