By Rafe Calder
In the early 1970s the price of oil rose, and a toy firm in a small Bavarian town found that its main material cost too much. Hula hoops and other large plastic toys had been its business. The answer was to make less, and to make it smaller.
The firm and the problem
The company is geobra Brandstätter, headquartered in Zirndorf in northern Bavaria, according to Monocle. The magazine says the firm was founded in 1876 and is Germany’s largest toy manufacturer. The Los Angeles Times, in an obituary republished by a local paper, says the figures were partly a reaction to the early 1970s oil crisis. Plastic, made from oil, had become too expensive for the large plastic toys the firm was known for. Wikipedia names hula hoops among them.
Who made it
The designer was Hans Beck. The firstversions history site gives his dates as 6 May 1929 to 30 January 2009. The Los Angeles Times says he joined the firm in 1958, began work on the figure in 1971, and retired in 1998. Wikipedia adds that he trained as a cabinetmaker. The sources give his birthplace as Greiz (firstversions) and Thuringia (Los Angeles Times).
The years of work are not quite agreed. Wikipedia and firstversions say he spent three years from 1971 to 1974 developing the toy. Monocle says the line was conceived in 1972 and launched in 1974. Firstversions shows images from a patent dated 5 February 1972. These can sit together, since a concept can be younger than a development project, but no page says so.
What he made
The figure is small. Wikipedia gives its height as 7.5 centimetres, about 3 inches, at 1:24 scale. The Los Angeles Times says “just less than 3 inches.” It has moving arms and legs that bend at the hip, and snap-on clothes, the paper says.
The face is the best-documented part. Firstversions and Wikipedia agree that it was based on children’s drawings: a large head, a big smile and no nose. Firstversions adds that Beck’s early sketches of 1971 had small noses, which were later removed. Wikipedia says almost all figures are unnamed, so that children can invent their own characters.
Beck is quoted on the idea in two places, in slightly different words. Firstversions gives, in translation, “My figures were quite simple, but they allowed children room for their imagination.” Wikipedia quotes him as saying that he put the little figures in children’s hands without saying what they were, and that they invented little scenarios for them. Both are reported speech from sources we could not trace further.
1974: a flop or an order?
The launch is where the accounts split.
- Firstversions says Playmobil debuted on 2 February 1974 at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, where a Dutch firm agreed to buy a whole year’s production. Wikipedia also says a Dutch firm agreed to buy a whole year’s production, without a date.
- The Los Angeles Times obituary says the figures debuted at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1974, “where they were a flop.”
Our reading: both can be true. A trade fair can start slowly and still produce one large buyer. The pages do not say which visitors reacted how.
Wikipedia says that by the end of 1974 the toy had made up one-sixth of the firm’s total sales. Production started in 1974 in Germany and the Benelux countries, according to firstversions, and sales went worldwide in 1975.
The first sets
The first themed sets were of knights and construction workers, among others, according to firstversions, which adds that the knights’ boxes were green and the construction boxes blue. The same page says female figures arrived in 1976 and the first castle in 1977. The Los Angeles Times says Beck’s favourite was the pirate ship, introduced in 1978.
His rule for the range was also reported. The paper gives his motto as “no horror, no superficial violence, no short-lived trends.”
Reading an early figure
Wikipedia is the only source for the finer points, so treat these as one source’s account. It says the first figures had a chiselled hairpiece with a button shape for adding headgear, later redesigned with a rounder hairpiece and new headgear. It says earlier figures had arms made in one piece, and that hands were later designed to grip. Building parts were first designed to fit together with a system of tabs and slots called the Steck-System.
How many were made
More than two billion figures in more than 70 countries, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing the company. Wikipedia gives about 2.2 billion by 2009. These are close. The Los Angeles Times attributes its figure to the company, and Wikipedia’s page does not say where its figure comes from in the text we read.
Dates in order
- 1971: Beck starts work on the figure, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- 1972: conception (Monocle); patent images dated 5 February (firstversions).
- 2 February 1974: debut in Nuremberg, according to firstversions.
- 1975: sales go worldwide, according to Wikipedia and firstversions.
- 1976: female figures; 1977: first castle; 1978: pirate ship.
- 1998: Beck retires, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- 2009: Beck dies at 79, according to the Los Angeles Times and firstversions.
What kind of sources these are
A history site about first versions of products, a newspaper obituary republished by a local paper, a business magazine and Wikipedia. The Guardian’s obituary came up in the search but could not be read, so we did not use it. We did not read the company’s own site.
Questions a buyer would ask
How big is the figure? About 7.5 centimetres, or just under 3 inches, according to Wikipedia and the Los Angeles Times.
Why does it have no nose? Firstversions and Wikipedia say its face followed children’s drawings: a big head, a big smile, no nose.
When did it first appear? In February 1974 at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, according to firstversions.
What we left out
Prices, sales and revenue sums, film and licence deals, the owners’ personal histories and one theme from the first sets, which we could not weigh from the pages we read.
Quick answers
How tall is a Playmobil figure? Wikipedia gives 7.5 centimetres at 1:24 scale. The Los Angeles Times obituary says “just less than 3 inches.”
Why was Playmobil created? The Los Angeles Times says the figures were partly a reaction to the early 1970s oil crisis, when plastic became too expensive for the large toys the firm made.
Who designed Playmobil, and when did it launch? According to firstversions, Hans Beck designed it, and it debuted at the Nuremberg Toy Fair on 2 February 1974. Sales went worldwide in 1975.
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Roam first. Shop later.