My Ideas for Playmobil in their time of need

While reading  my previous post on this blog (somebody has to), I realized that I had illustrated my pro playmobil post with pictures of Legos, and no playmobil pieces. This may seem, to many people who don't understand the volatility of child toy usage patterns, and it's complex inter-relation to parent child political struggles, that I have somehow disproved my own point, whether through ignorance or through the sinister workings of a subversive subconscious. The truth of any situation will always surpass the explicative power of a few hundred words on a blog post to even the most discerning reader, but I will try to summarize; at time of the post, the Playmobils had recently been put away by parental decree, the Lego creations depicted in the post were out on a temporary permit, issued by house rules. 

I was simply trying to illustrate that we are absolutely not an "anti-Lego" house, and that I am very familiar with the creative possibilities of the toy. But it also illustrates an unmistakeable advantage of Legos, that playmobil will have to combat, if they care to. Maybe they don't want to be a bloated corporation like Lego. They might be perfectly happy to leave the mass market share points to Lego. 

But if they do want to make it a fight without whoring their sets to Hollywood, I have come up with a plan; Mods. Mods, or "user modifications" as we older folks used to call them, are the new subversive creativity, the youngsters call it hacking from the computer hijinks we've all grown to adore from the unbelievably annoying online security measures they've forced everyone to adopt. 

You can hack everything now, people call them "life-hacks", but really most of these hacks are Mods, a more positive less hostile sort of idea. There are mods for games and hardware and re-mixes for songs, and mash-ups, and parodies and re-edits for books and movies. And they all signify a spirit of creative play, taking something and reworking it. They also signify the work of someone with a lot of time on their hands, or a "kid", as I would call them. 

My idea for the playmobil Mods would require the marketing of 3D printers, purchase of which would be no problem for the playmobil demographic, who tend to be educated and rich. The company could partner with some hip 3D printer company in the promotions, collaborating to produce the software and electronic designs and specs which would enable the kids to print whatever mod they wanted for their playmobil toys, from hats and clothes to different heads and faces and bodies, different hair, little food items, animals, swords for the soldiers, little versions of objects and people in their own life, anything.   Here's an idea of mine; rock band hair, with guitars. 

Fun!  People can choose their own colors of course. 

I wouldn't be surprised if they already do something like this on their web page with the stickers and labels they include in their sets. Mods.  Here's another couple ideas; a big cowboy hat on the guy, and I turned the lady into an elephant lady:

And the great thing about my Mod strategy is if Lego copycats it like they did the stickers, it would have a Trojan horse effect on their marketing, because the Mods would undermine the whole Lego shtick; if you can print whatever shape you want, why do you need the brick shape?  People who buy Legos for the movie sets, who just want the brand, could buy the brand in 3D template form and skip the bricks. 

Of course the Modding could subvert the Playmobil product as well, but this would depend on what kind of materials the 3D printers could feasibly produce in the immediate future. Eventually any toy could be 3D printed by any consumer. The toy industry will need visionary leaders (ahem, clears throat significantly and strikes marble statue type pose)  to guide them through the terrifying changes ahead.