You are put in charge of Playmobil, what do you do?

[Rasputin]

You are out in charge of Playmobil, what do you do ?

Fire most of the current upper management

make it an employee owned company

Go back to conservative roots with basic wholesome themes

Embrace & support the collectors

Make the box’s as small as possible

Get rid of the new eyes and excessive printing

Work tirelessly on brand recognition

[Klickteryx]

Steck could also be great for the pirate theme, they only ever produced one small steck prison for the theme and it did come with several unique pieces.

A tavern with docks in front would be great to see, or a fort with a dock. Even if it's only small forts it could still all be combined in a bigger fort like the Steck prison they made which is probably still the best building the soldiers ever got in the Pirate theme.

That wall of bars was a brilliant piece. It was a pity the steck sheriff's office bars weren't full sized.

[ChrisJ]

I love a lot of the ideas that others have already given. I'd focus on history and culture, building a niche as more of a learning toy with a coolness factor. There are tons of opportunities to do a series of historical knight characters for each country, like Edward the Black Prince or Bertrand du Guesclin. Or legendary knights, like King Arthur and the round table. They could also do classic literary themes -- Pride and Prejudice, Pollyanna, Frankenstein, the Secret Garden, Arabian Knights, etc. I'd like them to do more with regional mythology and folktales, like Baba Yaga. This would be a way to combine storytelling with a toy and make them collectable. I'd steer completely away from modern violence and weird licensing (ghostbusters). There's plenty that could be done with existing molds.

[Macruran]

Couldn't agree more. There's a VAST OCEAN of culture, myth and literature, all free of copyright, that is available to be made into klickies. Why it's being ignored is anybody's guess.

[Rhalius]

I guess with some things it will depend on how known it is in the countries Playmobil is sold in, how much it would appeal to children. But I do agree they could do more.

For the western theme, I could see them releasing different batches of Native Americans called directly after specific tribes and with the accurate houses, hairstyles, etc.
They could get actual Native American consultants of a specific tribe for this, to portray their culture more accurately while still of course being a toy for children.

For the Romans, buildings should be made that are not an arena. Same for Greeks. The Greek Mythology theme has just a terrible mount Olympus set as the only building.
More focused themes of Greek Mythology would be the way to go, I think the Trojan war would be perfect for a whole theme.
A big wall set with a huge gate would be perfect for that, a higher wall than we usually see and a gate big enough to fit a trojan horse through it which would be a different set which has room for four clickies to sit inside.
In the same theme Paris and Helen could be a set, Hector on his horse with some trojan soldiers, Penthesilea with some amazon warriors, Agammemnon with his tent and officers, etc.

[Rasputin]

I’m curious if the concept of “go for broke” is a business strategy or a desire to squeeze a few sets, themes out of a failing business

I see a lot of members suggestions that require more investment into molds. The company itself recognizes the mold manufacturing issues and, as far as I can tell, subbed it out to a third party vendor.

The company is trimming the fat through layoffs and cost cutting measures .

When I was in business if we were failing due to our own negligence or the economy , the last thing we would consider was more debt through investments. We leaned up, tightened the belts , fired inefficient staff, found efficiencies strategies, and looked at ways at increasing revenue with the least expense

[Ismene]

Many of these ideas are for the ten-year plan, not right away. PM does need to stabilize the ship before taking on another big project. They could start by making it easier to buy things.

[Oliver]

I see a lot of members suggestions that require more investment into molds. The company itself recognizes the mold manufacturing issues and, as far as I can tell, subbed it out to a third party vendor.

To be honest, Playmobil have a habit of making new items which seem entirely pointless. They could easily keep re-freshing a number of lines with the use of existing items/recolours

[Rhalius]

Not everything needs new molds though. They could have made like 10 more lines of Steck castles without having to use much new molds at all.
Could have just done some different colours, maybe use the big pointed roof from the Museum in a castle too, or the double arch also from the Museum.

By now there sure are plenty of molds for medieval weapons, shields, armour, hats and such too. Can experiment with new colours, bring older helmet designs back, etc.

Main thing that I think could use a new mold would be on pirate ships, and not like the garbage design of the newest pirate ship that lacks a cabin. Last time they released a ship without a cabin was the fastest time we saw another pirate ship released after that, old reliable once more.

I'm personally pretty tired of the oldest pirate ship design. I personally like the 5135 pirate ship the best, the one that came with the huge treasure island batch.
Only big pirate ship I own too. It's slightly bigger and just has a way better shape to it, and I prefer it's colours over the earlier 3286 of the same shape.
They could still use this design more often. It's only been used twice while if I am counting correctly, the first design has been used seven times.

Might also be nice to see smaller ships with a cabin, or maybe like a Spanish type galleon that has a cabin at the back but also a smaller cabin in the front. and seriously, the soldiers should get the big ship for once.
Could also be nice to have a big ship with a more open deck where you can actually place four cannons below deck through gun ports. Wouldn't be weird if the ship comes with only two cannons and two more come from other sets, since the cannons could be moved to the other side. Only tend to fire from one side after all.
Could also be neat if a ship was actually designed to hold the big mortar gun at the front of the ship, instead of just having a mortar while it does not really fit anywhere on the ship.

[Macruran]

To be honest, Playmobil have a habit of making new items which seem entirely pointless. They could easily keep re-freshing a number of lines with the use of existing items/recolours

I believe all of the musem and Greek myth sets use old molds. There's an immense amount that could be done with what's already on the table.