Finally, we are on the mends. This is the first day I wasn't just dying upon waking up. Now, I am still blowing my nose, and the kids are still coughing, but I think we may just live. I need to say an extra "Congrats" to those Clemson Tigers. Way to go beating #3 Duke by 27!!!!! Wow!!! Gotta love my Tigers!
Yesterday, I asked why children were sad about Hans Beck. Of course to know this answer, you would need to know two things - who he was and what happened. Hans Beck was the inventor of Playmobil. The first Playmobil toy I can actually remember having some Playmobil figures. I know that the fast food stores of the day often gave them out as prizes. The first real toy of theirs that I remember, though, was a plane my brother had with doors that open and a pilot and, I think, even a flight attendant. Hans Beck worked for the company called geobra Brandstätter (yes geobra is supposed to be lower case). This company got its starts in 1876, when Andreas Brandstätter started a small company in a town called Fürth, Bavaria to make fittings and locks. The company passed down to his son and moved to nearby Zirndorf (both towns are close to Nuremberg) where they made metal toys and then on to Horst Brandstätter, another family member. Horst was instrumental in bringing the new technology of plastics to the company. Interestingly enough, this is the same company that in the 1950's had another huge success - the hula hoop.
At the end of the 1950s, Hans, who had been trained as a cabinetmaker but who also dabbled in toy airplanes, was asked by Horst to create little figures. In time, Hans was made the head of Research and Development for the company. In 1974, the first of his toys were shown at a Toy Fair in Nuremberg to mixed reviews, but some stores picked the line up and started to sell them. The children loved them and sales rapidly climbed. By 1975, they were selling worldwide. Today, they are still hugely popular toys, and based on the items that came up in my searches, vintage collectibles are also in high demand. The company today is Germany's largest toy producer.
Hans Beck went on to develop many different sets, including space, city life, farm life, and even a wedding series. He trained a group of product designers in years to come and retired just short of the 25th anniversary of the toy's debut in 1998. Beck, known as the Father of Playmobil, has been named one of the top 100 German personalities. Sadly, (and for the second part of info you needed to know), he died at age 79 on January 30th of this year after a serious illness. To Hans Beck, I just want to say, for all of us children of the late 60s and 70s onward, thanks for the chance to play a little in your world.
Just a note for tomorrow. I plan to take tomorrow off. We are having a repairman come in the morning to repair our dishwasher, and I don't want to get too caught up with that and be late on posting, so I will write to you again on Monday, February 9th.
The word for today is action figures: die Actionfiguren (ahk tsee on fihg ur ehn).
The question of the day is "So just what is the difference between Belgian chocolate, Swiss chocolate, and German chocolate?"
Auf Widersehen,
Frau Spitzer
