Playmobil Knights Playset
Once upon a time in 1876, there was a locksmith named Andreas Brandstatter. Mr. Brandstatter planted a magical seed that would eventually blossom into Playmobil by founding an eponymous lock and metal fitting company in Furth, Germany. By the 1930s, Playmobil's pretend play had again been redefined; manufacturing telephones, cash registers, and various items for toy shops using sheet metal. At the beginning of the 1950s, Horst Brandstatter, the Playmobil's current owner, came on board and started a new era in the company history. He updated Playmobil pretend play products, searched out new markets and focused production on his favorite material, plastic. In 1958, the hula hoop craze gripped the world, and Horst Brandstatter was determined to perfect the pretend play toy that would inspire further exploration. Realizing that the technique, using air pressure, hot plastic hoses, and shape molds, could also produce basically any shape (in addition to the traditional bottles and hoops), Mr. Brandstatter created the first prototype Playmobil pretend play item, a closed racing car manufactured in a single production step. From that point on, the company expanded rapidly with products in toys. Playmobil was introduced at the 1974 International Toy Fair in Nuremberg and by using an innovative marketing strategy, parents and children responded uniformly with fascination and enthusiasm, to Playmobil.