Sun, Feb 08, 2004 page11

• After 30 years, Playmobil toys still a simple favorite

  • AFP
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  After 30 years, their faces are still unlined and their smiles unfaded, but Playmobil people inhabit a world unchanged even as a toy revolution goes on around them.

  In the beginning, in 1974, there was an American Indian, a construction worker with his own little hardhat and a Medieval knight (horse not included).

  Since then, over 1.7 billion little folk -- shiny colored plastic men and women the size of a toddler's hand -- have peopled their universe and created a historical global brand out of one German toymaker's vision.

  An ongoing exhibit at the Children's Museum in the southwestern German city of Speyer traces their history, from Playmobil's prototype people to the latest inventions.

  In the hands-on fashion of a child's romper room, visitors to the two-story museum can fashion their own landscapes from the dozens Playmobil has created, which include farms, tropical isles, underwater explorers, gas pumps, space stations, supermarkets and the ever-popular pirates' lairs.

  The exhibit has drawn 15,000 visitors -- the equivalent of half the population of the small Rhineland-Palatinate town of 30,000 -- since it opened on Nov. 30.

  "Lots of children know Playmobil, but they don't know when and how they were invented," said exhibit curator Catherine Biasini.

  This, too, is part of Playmobil's strength -- becoming ageless in an industry where faddish toys of today are the discarded refuse of next season.

  The Speyer display brings their unchanging form into view. Of 600 different figurines produced over three decades, there is little change between prototypes from the early 1970s, and recent products.

  Indian feathers are replaced by firefighter hats, jesters' caps, shining armor, braids. Women came along in 1976, followed by children in 1981. The Playmobil world is marvelously accessorized -- with swords, space shuttles, muskets, canned goods, and an impressive array of uniforms.

  In a slight concession to changing times the company's catalog does include a new "police" line, offering such edifying settings as a prison with jail cells and a police checkpoint.

  The father of the Playmobil world was a toy entrepreneur fascinated with plastic. Horst Brandstaetter first made his mark in the late 1950s by championing the industrial production of plastic hoola hoops, and supplying all of Europe during its hooping craze.

  His Indian-worker-knight trio made their debut at Germany's Nuremberg toy fair in 1974 and, while professionals showed little interest, parents and children took an instant liking to figurines they could relate to.

  The company's continued financial strength is proof that Playmobil is resisting the onset of video and computer games, its 7cm dolls still edging out rivals that can sing and move. Earnings for the group last year were 320 million euros (US$402 million), up 8 percent from the previous year.

  At the Speyer museum exhibit, which will officially celebrate the toy's 30th birthday on March 11 and close on April 18, adults have also shared their private Playmobil collections, including a circus built out of several buildings, with hundreds of musicians, actors, and audience members in costumes, or decked out in 1809 Napoleonic wear.

  "All generations find something of interest in Playmobil", curator Biasini said.

  One father-and-son pair agreed.

  "You leave this exhibit younger than when you came in," 36-year-old Michael Schmidt said, accompanied by his son Florian, 11.

  "I used to play with Playmobil when I was little. Now my son does. These toys don't age -- they've managed to stay modern."
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