12/20/02

LATEST FUN CARDS SHOW 4 NEW AIRPORT SETS!

The Spring 2003 Fun Cards have just arrived in German stores together with the 6 new police theme sets. And while the mayor announcements regarding next years batch of new PLAYMOBIL® sets and themes will not be made public before the Nürnberg Toy Fair at the end of next month, there is interesting news regarding the March 2003 Novelties in these latest Fun Cards. 4 new sets will expand the successful Airport theme.



The new Omnibus (3169) is the 4th and largest RC-Modul-compatible vehicle to date, offering seats to 11 tourists and a driver. The bus has an innovative design, handy luggage compartments and a sliding door.

Passengers will be picked up at the Bus Stop (3171) and taken to the Security Check Point (3172) where the suitcases and identity of each passenger are verified. While the passengers board the airline jet, the Tanker Truck (3173) is re-filling the empty fuel tanks for the flight ahead.

	3169  Omnibus 3171  Bus Stop 3172  Security Check Point 3173  Tanker Truck

10/23/02

2003 ADVENT CALENDAR PRE-RELEASED AT VEDES

Over the past few years, it has become a tradition that affiliates of the German VEDES toy store group get to offer next years PLAYMOBIL® advent calendar as a pre-release exclusive.

The 2003 pre-release Calendar Santa Claus' Sleigh (3955) is the seventh installment in PLAYMOBIL®'s successful Advent Calendar series.
 

10/11/02

EXPORT VERSIONS FOR 5 NEW POLICE SETS.

One of the most tricky theme that a toy manufacturer can pick is the police theme. Almost every region in the world has his own typical police force outfit and vehicle range. And since green police cars would not be much of a hit outside of Germany and Austria, PLAYMOBIL® produces also an international version of police sets with blue uniformed officers or blue toned vehicles:

	3165  Police Station with Jail 3166  Intervention Truck 3167  Officer on Horse 3168  Policeman with Bicycle 4900  Radar Control

10/01/02

HUGE EMERGENCY SERVICES PACK FOR KARSTADT

Yet another exclusive PLAYMOBIL® set has surfaced on the German market. This time it's a giant Ambulance Station (3130) that will only be available at Karstadt department stores or through Quelle's mail order catalogs.

The medium sized hospital building comes with operating room equipment and a one bed patient ward. A rescue helicopter and an ambulance - both in a bright color scheme - bring in patients from every possible location. There is nothing dramatically new in this set, apart from the fact that the vehicles, equipment and house parts are executed in unusually bright colors.  
 

09/23/02

THE ALL-NEW SUPERMARKET OPENS IT'S DOORS .

Last Friday was the official release date for the PLAYMOBIL® supermarket theme in Germany. Collectobil went shopping for this 5 set strong release in a number of German toy stores and found these were the average prices per set:



The entire line sells for less than 150 EUROS. The Supermarket building itself is a real challenge to put together. It took almost 4 hours until the System-X structure was in place and all decals were applied to the countless milk cartons, shampoo bottles and canned vegetables that fill the shelves.

The Collectobil IRP (Indicative Retail Prices) are just an approximation of the average price of PLAYMOBIL® sets sold by retailers in Germany. Prices have been checked and compared in several stores at the time of the product's launch (09/20/2002). Discounts, promotional actions and the retailer's pricing strategy may influence pricing within a 20% margin up- or downwards.

09/20/02

EXCLUSIVE RACING TEAM SET FOR IDEE+SPIEL  

Another PLAYMOBIL® exclusive is soon to be uncovered at all German "Idee Und Spiel" outlets:
Breathing new life into PLAYMOBIL's nearly extinct Racing theme, the Formula One Racing Team (3289) re-combines some existing elements of discontinued racing sets from the mid-nineties. 
 

09/16/02

EXCLUSIVE LUFTHANSA AIRLINE JET AT KAUFHOF 

Kaufhof - a very well known chain of department stores in Germany - will soon offer an exclusive Lufthansa Airline Jet (3187). 

The set is based on the regular yellow PLAYMOBIL® airline Jet  (3185), but comes with a completely different on-print including the typical Lufthansa crane logo and other designations of Germany's largest airline. 

Previously, Kaufhof stores also carried two other exclusive PLAYMOBIL® sets: last year's Construction Action Set (3277) and the German version of the successful Police Adventure Set (3605), which will again be available at Kaufhof this year.