Playmobil pirate ship includes dark-skinned doll wearing "slave collar"

[telecinese]

@AnonyMouse

In any case, Playmobil is Lego’s idiot cousin. Apart from Lego seeming to get out of the floating ship game, I think they win on all fronts.

As the sort of unofficial “no, playmobil is not the devil” advocate around here, albeit a tired-of-the-exact-same-discussion-every-time one, let me just say it’s nice you have an opinion, but a lot of people around the world would disagree. Playmobil is a de facto design classic and the fact that it’s essentially unchanged since it was invented in the 70s in a market that’s almost brutally centered on fads, pop culture tie-ins and the latest holiday season must-haves shows how much new generations of boys and girls around the world somehow keep enjoying those cheery, noseless, beer-can-shaped-handed little bastards.

It’s perfectly fine for you (and any number of Outraged American Moms of the Week) not to like it. There are other experiences, viewpoints and cultures out there.

As for violent themes and gendered sets, I guess I can copy and paste my response from some three identical threads ago, because the response hasn’t changed.

Continuing the discussion from Playmobil's political incorrectness:

@telecinese

As a Brazilian who happily grew up with these toys (they’re a big symbol of 80s nostalgia around here still today), I’ll have to agree with some if the above sentiments: these are happy and inclusive toys, cleverly made with a child’s play sensibilty in mind (hand-sized dolls, interchangeable accessories) and the fact they depict ‘bad’ characters like robbers, cowboys, pirates and gladiators mean that’s the kind of fantastical play scenarios children enjoy playing with.

Sure, they could cancel each and every potentially offensive set until only the most benign ‘bunny veterinarian’, ‘office worker’ and ‘nun’ dolls and sets remain (and yes, these all exist and can be lots of fun). But should they, really? Not to me.

This line of thinking that the mere existance of potentially unwholesome things for children is going to corrupt and destroy mankind’s morality has been proven wrong again and again. I for one applaud the fact playmobil is equally inclusive of all sorts of scenarios, from homeowner to radiation cleanup crew. And the best example of dolls designed for both boys and girls, without pink-and-blue segregation like lego has been up to.

Unlike lego, playmobil shows a play-world where male pastry chefs and female firefighters are a perfectly natural thing. Can any other toy line make that claim?

The pastry and firefighter thing above was a reference to this specific bit of Lego gender segregation:

LEGO Friends - LEGO & Gender Part 1