We were blown away by the Future Planet line from Playmobil. It has a 60s - 70s sci-fi aesthetic that would make Stanley Kubrick proud. The designs are modern and clean, a refreshing change from all the cyber technic babble that is cluttering the world of sci-fi today (think Transformers Movie designs).
The sets come in various price points, some with tech gimmicks, some without. The standout is the E-Rangers Headquarters. The set has a working SOLAR POWER cell, with interchangeable power ports where crystal packs can be attached. Attaching the packs activates light features by completing circuits throughout the set. It's got transparent tubes, an interior organic garden, removable top, and it can connect to other playsets.
Yeah, there's also a POWERED SUIT called the Collectobot. This thing has a price point of only $20!
There are also mid-sized and smaller sets ranging in price and gimmicks.
Playmobil does not like to say "Good Guys" and "Bad Guys", so instead we have opposing factions - in this case, we have the Dark Rangers. Did I mention that they have IR cannons that can actually disable the other toys? HELL YES.
Comments
8 comments postedImpressive!
I rarely ever paid attention to Playmobile, mostly because Lego had my attention. But some of these are neat! Got a big "Forbidden Planet"-vibe off of some of these too.
Playmobil always puts out great stuff, but that E-Ranger base is one of the best things I"ve seen from them. It hits all the right notes for me. I'm getting an EPCOT/Ark II vibe from it. The hover car is also nice. The rest is less appealing (and the bad guys leave me flat), but that base is a must-have.
So, do the red crystals supply power? You mention capacitors in the video, and a yahoo article refers to them as "battery-operated" light-up crystals. But the text here says they complete the circuit (as if the toys have batteries but the crystal is needed to close the circuit). If there are button-type batteries in the crystals, that just adds to the awesome.
The big bases use solar power, and need the crystals in place to complete the circuit. The smaller sets use batteries for power, but im not sure if the batteries are in the crystal packs itself or in the vehicles.
Digging around through some German sites, it looks like all the sets use batteries and the crystals complete the circuit, like you said. I'm thinking the solar cell exclusively powers the fan on the base, and batteries supply all other gimmicks, but I could be wrong (sound card just died on this compy, so I can't hear the narration in any videos).
Guess I need to start scraping up my pennies. Heh.
I've been interested in these ever since they got previewed on the German Playmobil site last year. These are totally the new "Playmo Space" incarnation, just rebranded. A shame that "space" isn't what sells these days.
I had forgotten all about them. I am having a huge nostalgia flashback right now. These look great, with hours and hours of play time. It sounds like they are very affordable as well. I love the colors and design. You are right Josh, right out of the 70's. I also like how all of the characters are all so HAPPY. Even the Dark Rangers are smiling! The little helper bots look great. What a happy future planet to visit (eventhough they are firing IR cannons at each other). I need to make some room at home to get this whole collection.
"Hey boss, I got some bad news. We lost the 'Avatar' license."
"What? They told me that was a lock! We already tooled up the factory!"
"Well, I could have them use different colors, different stickers, do other box art."
"Yeah, good idea. Also, lose the cat people."
That 'bot with the mono-eye is pretty wicked-sick.