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A Sad Day for Playmobil
The Father of Playmobil, Hans Beck, is dead. He created the first Playmobil figure in 1974 almost by accident. |
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 He didn’t make them after his own image, it seems |
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If you’ve gotten teary-eyed upon reading this headline, you’re probably a Playmobil fanatic, one of those people born 30 years ago or more who used to play with Playmobil figures when they were children. Today, these ardent fans collect the figures, they still have ones from when they were little, and they still play with them sometimes, even though the dolls were first launched with 4 year-old children in mind.
Their creator, Hans Beck, also known as "The Father of Playmobil", died on the 30th of January at the age of 79 following a prolonged illness. He passed away at his lake house, Constanza, leaving his incredible legacy behind to children and adults the world over.
Beck was a carpenter by trade and he specialized in making toys, mainly automobiles and airplanes, for a company called Geobra Brandstätter. The Playmobil figures were born almost by accident. After the oil crisis of 1971, the company had to reinvent their products and create smaller toys that required less plastic in order to be produced. Beck was put in charge of designing and manufacturing tiny vehicles for children that came with some very rudimentary action figures. At first, these dolls were secondary, what really mattered were the cars, but Beck worked hard on them. The result was the famous Playmobil figure, static little dolls that were nevertheless extremely versatile and had flexible arms and legs.
Later on, they would begin making female figures, as well as figures representing different races and trades and a great variety of accessories to play with such as vehicles, buildings, plants, stages, animals... Today the Geobra Brandstatter company has 3,000 employees and exports its famous figures to 70 countries on five continents.
Who could have imagined that those simple dolls that Beck invented as a fluke would be such a hit?
Links
Playmobil
Collectobil
Read our Special article on Playmobil
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