Playmobil

Playmobil was invented by German inventor Hans Beck and now considered the 'Father of Playmobil'. Beck received training as a cabinetmaker and was also an avid hobbyist of model airplanes. Horst Brandstätter, the owner of the Geobra Brandstätter company, asked Beck to develop toy figures for children.

Beck spent three years from 1971 to 1974 developing what became Playmobil. Beck realised that toys shouldn’t be too complex but must be flexible. However, too much flexibility would get in the way of children's imaginations, and too much rigidity would cause frustration. The toy he created fitted in a child's hand and its design was based on their drawings: a face with a large head, a big smile, and no nose.

In 1973 rising oil prices had implications on businesses like the Geobra Brandstätter company. They needed to turn to products that required less solid plastic material than the large plastic items the company had been producing as toys and so focused on Playmobil.

Playmobil toys are still famous for being unusually realistic, and present accurate representations of particular time periods, weapons, armour, costumes, and tools.