Playmobil
Playmobil logo
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| Type | Plastic figures |
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| Inventor | Hans Beck |
| Company | Geobra Brandstätter GmbH |
| Country | Germany (West Germany 1974-1990) |
| Availability | 1974–present |
| Materials | |
| Official website | |
Playmobil (/pleɪmoʊˈbiːl/) is a line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group (Geobra Brandstätter GmbH & Co KG), headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany.
The signature Playmobil toy is a 7.5 cm (approximately 3 inches) tall (1:24 scale) human figure with a particular cherub-like smiling face, known as a "klicky". A wide range of accessories, buildings and vehicles, as well as many sorts of animals, are also part of the Playmobil line.
Playmobil toys are produced in themed series of sets as well as individual special figures and playsets. New products and product lines developed by a 50-strong development team are introduced frequently, and older sets are discontinued. Promotional and one-off products are sometimes produced in very limited quantities. These practices have helped give rise to a sizeable community of collectors. Collector activities extend beyond collecting and free-form play and include customization, miniature wargaming, and the creation of photo stories and stop motion films, or simply as decoration.
Playmobil was invented by German inventor Hans Beck (1929 – 2009), who is often called "The Father of Playmobil". Beck received training as a cabinetmaker but was also an avid hobbyist of model airplanes, a product he pitched to the company geobra Brandstätter. The owner of the company, Horst Brandstätter, asked him to develop toy figures for children instead.
Beck spent three years from 1971 to 1974 developing what became Playmobil. Beck conducted research that allowed him to develop a toy that would not be too complex but would nevertheless be flexible. He felt that too much flexibility would get in the way of children's imaginations, and too much rigidity would cause frustration. The toy he came up with, at 7.5 cm tall, fit in a child's hand and its facial design was based on children's drawings - a large head, a big smile, and no nose. "I would put the little figures in their hands without saying anything about what they were," Beck remarked. "They accepted them right away ... They invented little scenarios for them. They never grew tired of playing with them.".
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Wikipedia