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

[tahra]

Great ideas....


Me.. Let's see.. So MANY things.


1 - End all sect promoting sets.

2 - End ALL those weird klicky types. No more weirdos. Just stick to normal + speedo. No more klickys that can't stand either (they disgraced me with the german footballers - if they were crippled, I could have ignored them). Invest in some new molds and stuff - for women, for example.

3 - End printed faces. Fire/relocate whoever is supposed to line up the printings, since most weird body tipes look like idiots, with the face either printed on the forehead or the neck. And no more weird mouths. Or red mouths (I REALLY don't like the bright red ones).. I happen to like the eyes, except the stoned/drunk/sleepy/whatever-that-is-supposed-to-be that appeared with novelmore.

4 - End ALL system WHY buildings (that goes for the stupid system X castles, that are ALMOST system WHY). Make compatible stuff. So, invest in new steck and system X parts (I am sure I could hire a bunch of people off the 3D section in KW, for example) - parts that can be used and reused.. no more huge parts that are just pointless.

5 - Hire people who know or can be taught what playmobil has done in the past. People who care. And that show respect and knowledge. And I could go on. But will not.

6 - Stop with the idiotic split of boys and girls - boys are not violent jerks, and girls are not airheaded jerks. There's a graph for that: image (link here: INFOGRAPHIC: How to tell if a toy is for a girl or a boy - link to news24.com)

7 - Stop with the weird colors. No more beautifully sculpted METALLIC PURPLE medieval wagons! Make things in nice colors.

9 - Stop hating collectors. We buy a LOT. If they let us, we buy more. Sell stuff to people. Whatever they want. Make army building packs. Figures expansion packs (in non idiotic colors)

10 - Bring back playmobil-blue boxes. Instead of the current mess that gets confused with other (inferior) stuff. And remove the max age limit (WHO thinks of this!?). And the idiotic "note to parents" - just say it takes about THIS time to assemble - "to whom it may concern". Put the contents nicely visible in the back of the box, not as tiny images on the side. Make the boxes so that they can be opened without damaging them. Also, make the boxes standard sizes, as they were of old. And stop with the weird packaging (fire/relocate whoever thought of the wildtopia packaging, with the animals out :'( ). Make the boxes small enough so the contents don't rattle and possibly break. As small as possible. Or at least as small as possible so the set can be put back inside... which leads to the next point..

11 - If it's assembled, make sure it's easily DISASSEMBLED. Most people don't have dedicated rooms. And those who do, also can't afford to have all those huge pieces in there!

12 - Stop having sets disappear after a year. Or whole themes. Expand themes - not just fight for the knights, for example. Make peasants, merchants, all sorts of people... 

13 - Make ALL playmoshops available to ANYONE. And ALL PARTS. With free shipping over certain order amounts, depending on the store and buyer country. (Hire people who can PRINT an address in a different country).

[Rasputin]

All solid ideas

You got my vote

Now go apply for a job there

[Oliver]

12 - Stop having sets disappear after a year. Or whole themes. Expand themes - not just fight for the knights, for example. Make peasants, merchants, all sorts of people... 

I've often thought a nice cross-over (if that's the right word?) would be to have a knights-theme and a fairy-tale theme with a similar design feel (so a castle that's maybe more dolls-house orientated but still in a gothic style, a Rapunzel's tower that could be attached to a 'fighting' castle etc). Similar to the 'magic' theme in the 90s that was it's own theme but felt like it fitted in the universe of the existing knights theme.

[NovaBombardment]

I'm still pretty new, so I don't have a ton of major complaints yet. There is a huge one though that I have a good solution for.

Mystery bags are scummy, so don't lock the many spectacular characters behind them. If I were in charge and could do whatever I wanted regardless of profit, I'd end the mystery line at series 30, and then start re-issuing the figures in new forms. Future mystery figures would be upgraded to Special Plus or My Figures sets, and re-issues of fan favourite mystery figures would be released in multiple yearly advent calendars. These calendars would compile the best of three series for both boys and girls, and be released in groups of four every year.

The first year would release the following.

Mystery Advent Series 1-3 Boys,
Mystery Advent Series 1-3 Girls,
Mystery Advent Series 4-6 Boys,
Mystery Advent Series 4-6 Girls.

Keep doing that every year until you're caught up. 3 x 10 is thirty, so you could keep that going for five years before it ended. A good long time without going on for too long.

Once all thirty sets have had an advent calendar, you can now start a new line of My Figures sets that re-issue all of the Mystery figures that WEREN'T featured in the calendars. By the time those are all used up, the mystery figures line would outright end, and fully be replaced by new and more frequent Special Plus and My Figures sets.

That's what I'd do if I could do anything I wanted at the company. I'd also hire someone to make it so I can actually tell what's new in those awful catalogues. Just put all the new stuff on the first few pages. 

[GrahamB]

Great ideas! In the current setup (before your autocracy begins), the one sticking point is this

...fan favourite mystery figures...

Geobra don't want to talk to fans.

[Rasputin]

Great ideas! In the current setup (before your autocracy begins), the one sticking point is this

Geobra don't want to talk to fans.

And why would they, they are emotional

All Geobra wants of it’s fans is ……cash

If Geobra can crank out some older playmo and sell it on their own web store, bypassing the middle woman, research and design departments,  it’s just more profit

[Macruran]

Or more simply, keep the Fi?ures mystery bags for point of sale, I suppose children like the surprise factor, but sell the invididual pieces online for collectors, so if I want ten Sami men I can get them easily and all the money goes to the Gnomes. Why do they not do this. 

[Klickteryx]

Or more simply, keep the Fi?ures mystery bags for point of sale, I suppose children like the surprise factor, but sell the invididual pieces online for collectors, so if I want ten Sami men I can get them easily and all the money goes to the Gnomes. Why do they not do this. 

The original point of blind bags is to get people to buy more than they would to get that figure they really wanted. Conversely a blind bag as a first point of contact for a child could be quite negative if they don't like the character. It could sour them on the whole brand. Blind bags are great in an existing market but I think they're a poor introduction to those not familiar with playmobil.

[Rasputin]

I’ve also always hated the mystery bags concept

In my opinion it was Geobras reaction to LEGO and their mystery bags

Unfortunately both have different demographics in fan base so what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for the other

The only part about the mystery bag I do like is the constant variety of klickies

As a collector I am always interested  in at least 3 of each round and sex