| |
In lugnet.castle, Rachel Kingston writes:
> Hi all,
>
> At the risk of being jumped on simultaneously, by thousands of AFOL's (or
> having thousands of Timmy's thrown at me) I just finished having a look at the
> playmobil site, and came away with much food for thought.
>
> Firstly I was struck with the resemblance to Lego thematically, trains,
> castle, western, pirates, town, on closer inspection, there were many sets
> that seemed almost identical (thematically and piece wise, remembering that
> playmobil don't do bricks as such, just minifigs, burps and spuds)
>
> So much so, that I started to wonder who was copying from who? I decided
> loyally, as the good AFOL that I am, that THEY must be copying from Lego.
> Then a further set search revealed an interesting (to me anyway) coincidence
> (or not?)
Hee.
It's apparently no longer a part of the product line, but you should
see the Playmobil Ghost. It's such a ringer for the LEGO ghost that
it could be the LEGO ghost's giant economy-sized brother.
I don't think I still have the box, unfortunately, so I can't
check the copyright to see who came up with the ghost first.
I remember posting about it before -- maybe I mentioned it ....
(goes to dejanews, finds the post ... shoot.)
|Playmobil ghost
|Date: 1995/05/01
|Author: The Nephilim <jeff@teubner.com>
|
|Whilst searching for Legos, I ran across a box of Playmobil figures for sale
|. . and just had to get the ghost! It looks remarkably like a huge version
|of our old friend, the Lego Castle Ghost! It looks great menacing my castle
|figures. :-)
|
|Hopefully the last Playmobil I ever buy - I certainly don't need any other
|expensive toy hobbies.
|
|--
|
|jeff@teubner.com "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily."
So, no clue. I can't believe I didn't check the box then. It was
being cleared out in 1995 ... the first lego ghost came in, what,
6081? I don't remember. Without the box for the playmobil figure,
I couldn't say. I save all my LEGO boxes ... I wonder if I saved
... I'll look when I get home .... (wanders off muttering)
Anyway, I'm left wondering who came up with the ghost, first, too.
> http://www.playmobil.de/ushomepage/homepage.html
>
> Have a look around, while you are there, check out the ox knight by clicking
> on product, then castle, then oxknight, also, have a look at the log fort, in
> fact look at any of the sets, Call me deluded, but I'm sure that after having
> a wander around you will get an amazing sense of deja vu, what is going on?
> Exactly who is copying who?
I've wondered the same thing before.
It's been quite apparent to me that the LEGO toys have, over the
years, grown increasingly Playmobil-esque. By that I mean, the figures
are becoming more and more individualized (rather than identical
armies of space figures, for example, you have many many distinct
characters in each line) and the sets are becoming increasingly
juniorized and made of large pieces - check out the Rock Raiders line.
(Star Wars being the notable exception to the juniorization trend.)
I'm going to snip the rest of your great post, but I'll agree with
you - while LEGO is turning more Playmobilesque, there are more things
I wish they would copy from Playmobil. Things they shouldn't HAVE
to copy from Playmobil, because it's silly for LEGO to not
sell castle wall parts packs, while Playmobil does. Playmobil
out-Lego's LEGO quite amply in the idea of selling modular expansion
packs.
No, on second thought, I won't snip the rest of your message.
It's too apt to snip. Todd can slap my fingers with a ruler
for using bandwidth.
--
jthompson@esker.com "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily"
--
> Now I have to say, that although I am not about to decamp by any means, Lego
> could easily take a leaf out of Playmobil's book, and start supplying us with
> the accessory and add-on packs that Playmobil do.
>
> I was amazed to discover that their range includes such gems as Animal Packs,
> both domestic and wild (two animals to a pack, and dozens to choose from),
> People packs, (again dozens to choose from)Plant and rock sets (many varieties
> of both), Fence packs ranging from timber look, to zoo, circus house etc etc,
> Building packs (including individual walls, towers, drawbridges, gates,
> apartment walls, bridges etc etc)
> All these sets were just what they said they were, basic packs, with just the
> pieces you need, and nothing to part out!!! Imagine being able to buy all the
> castle walls, draw bridges, towers, weapons, armour, that you wanted,
> separately!
>
> Lego, wake up, give us AFOL's the pieces we need, without the pieces we don't!
>
> Suffice it to say, I was jealous!!!
> More than jealous, I found myself thinking about buying, (should mention that
> the scale is all wrong for Lego and the sets are aimed at the very young,
> three to six yrs, sort of a couple of steps up from Duplo, detail wise, and a
> few steps down from Lego,) actually, just about perfect for my three yr old
> son, who loves the Lego minifigs, especially those with guns and swords, (and
> so has lost interest in Duplo, no weapons!) but is not really interested in
> building with bricks, more acting out situations. He really likes pillaging
> and plundering anything anyone else creates though!
> He also loses Lego regularly, as he takes them to preschool in his pocket,
> and they go through the wash! Playmobil would be a little harder to suck up
> the vacuum cleaner, as well.
>
> Rachel
> (who is starting to wish that playmobil had bricks......The horses are crap
> though!)
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Lego/playmobile ramble
|
| (...) the (...) Have another look around the playmobil site Jeff, cause the ghost is still there - it is number 3317 in the knights catagory. Thats the other thing that Playmobil do, that Lego should copy, all the Playmobil sets are around long (...) (25 years ago, 24-Nov-99, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.general)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Lego/playmobile ramble
|
| Hi all, At the risk of being jumped on simultaneously, by thousands of AFOL's (or having thousands of Timmy's thrown at me) I just finished having a look at the playmobil site, and came away with much food for thought. Firstly I was struck with the (...) (25 years ago, 24-Nov-99, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.general)
|
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