PREVIEW: 2016/2017 Novelties & Assortment Catalogue

[Indianna]

. . . Dear Playmobil, please let me fix your SEO. You need set descriptions and metadata.

While you're doing that important work, maybe you can fix their store locator function, as well.  If I enter my zip code into their store locator, it takes several minutes to load the results and, besides showing the stores near to me, those results show stores over 200 miles away (most online store locator functions provide a way to limit distance, but not Playmobil USA's.)  Of the first 50 or so results, about half are either closed, no longer carry Playmobil, or have the wrong address or store name (I got obsessed with this a few years ago and did the research - most of the mistakes I found then are still in the store locator results now.)  Within that 200+ mile circle around my zip code there are 232 ToysRUs stores (according to the TRU website which does provide a distance limiter) but not a single ToysRUs appears in the list of stores that Playmobil USA provides.  One would think that it would help customers who are eager to purchase Playmobil if they have accurate information about where to buy it, but, as tahra so often points out, Playmobil doesn't like money.    It seems to me that a store locator could somehow be linked to stores that actually place wholesale orders with Playmobil - if nothing else, an employee could just do a manual cross-check.

PM unfortunately doesn't have the brand footprint that L*go does. A toy store in town here (Child's Play on 23rd and Kearney in PDX for you Oregonians) recently stopped carrying PM because "it wasn't moving fast enough". . . 

That's a real blast from the past for me - my first apartment was a few blocks away at 22nd & Glisan and then I moved to 21st & Hoyt.  A very long time ago. 

. . . That leaves only two stores that carry PM that I know of (apart from TRU), plus one west of town. . . . While looking them up, I found that the large klicky outside Let's Play has had his face obscured by the Google Street View algorithm! link

That is hilarious!   

[Bolingbroke]

This hasn't worked too well for Playmobil in the USA. There was a second Funpark in an Orlando mall that closed down. I think at least twice there has been a Funstore in New Jersey but those haven't lasted long either.

you hear it quite often from punters that 'pm is boring' or that 'sets stay on the market too long, there's never anything to buy.' might be public perception, might be an element of truth, but so many people can't be wrong. i was at the maltese playmobil funpark some weeks ago cause my daughter likes it there. i hadnt been in ages. didnt find anything worth buying, nothing: zero. the knights sets are ugly and dumbed down compared to what we used to get twenty years ago, the generally excellt western theme is no more, the pirates sets have gone the way of the knights and so on and so forth. then there is the point, made quite even in here, that pm doesnt want to attract the older collector. i dont know why, dont they think there is a market? who do they think is buyinh those huge lego models, the 400 euro ghostbusters HQ, the 350 euro star wars sandcrawler? 10 year old kids?

ps: i was surprised the forum didnt autocorrect my 'lego' to l*go ... i had assumed it was a built in function.

[Marco_4124]

They forgot one....

[tahra]

While looking them up, I found that the large klicky outside Let's Play has had his face obscured by the Google Street View algorithm! link

I get a 400 Bad Request on that...

[Klickteryx]

you hear it quite often from punters that 'pm is boring' or that 'sets stay on the market too long, there's never anything to buy.'

I think it's a snowball effect. Lego got into licencing at least 15 years ago and became associated as a fun toy in the minds of an entire generation that grew up with Harry Potter and the newer Star Wars trilogy. Now there is so much lego around that is the toy to get a kid and for kids it means having the toy that everyone else has so they get to fit in.

Playmobil kept up with traditional themes like Western despite there being next to no western shows or children friendly films around these days for children to identify with.
I also feel they sabotaged the mediæval sets, first with the purple Vikings, then later with the lime green knights. I love the mediæval period, I hate most of the knights produced over the last few years, the larger castles are nice though. Playmobil comes from a part of Germany that is famous for its mediæval associations, so why such horrible modern banners and shields and strange fantasy armour when actual examples can be seen all around Franconia?
I wish they'd scrap their knights line and replace it with an expanded King's Land from Super 4.


As for boring, maybe less sets with someone walking a dog and more sets where you can actually do something with the set or engage your imagination such as having Victorian style tea parties with tie-ins to modern pop-culture like gothic lolita, super heroes with people to actually save - there is still a huge hole in the modern theme with no kids in school uniform, no street gangs - they have an entire theme dedicated to pirates so why not have a couple of sets of street thugs for the police to chase?

[Marco_4124]

... and no trains ...

[Macruran]

Bolingbroke - I couldn't agree more. Knights would probably be my second theme after Romans, but the new ones are so Americanized I want none of them. Yellow lion knights weren't too bad but they're gone now. And those four bagged jousting knights they had recently - I hesitated a long time before finally deciding not to get any of them. The details were all off.

That's a real blast from the past for me - my first apartment was a few blocks away at 22nd & Glisan and then I moved to 21st & Hoyt.  A very long time ago. 

My own sister used to live on Glisan just west of 23rd for a couple of years. Just the other day I was talking to a woman who lived in that area many decades ago...she talked about how much it's changed - all the old character is almost completely destroyed.

I get a 400 Bad Request on that...

Try googling "let's play hillsboro" and go to street view.

[Ismene]

Even just as someone who buys toys for a child (and not considering I'm also a collector), I want to get toys that are somewhat educational, especially when I'm paying "made in Europe" prices. This demands a certain level of accuracy and less irrelevant flame shooters.

[playmofire]

While looking them up, I found that the large klicky outside Let's Play has had his face obscured by the Google Street View algorithm! link

And people say the only way forward is via technology!

[tahra]

Try googling "let's play hillsboro" and go to street view.

Thanks, that worked!