Playmobil 4433 Viking Fortress

• Minimum age: 4 years
• Educational values: Imagine, invent, create

Product Description Playmobil : The origins of geobra Brandstätter, manufacturer of the Playmobil®, date back to 1876, when Andreas Brandstätter, great-grandfather of the current owner of Horst Brandstätter, founded in Fürth, Bavaria, the company that bears his name and then manufactured fittings and locks for jewellery boxes. In 1908, his son Georg succeeded him as head of the company and changed the name of the company to geobra. In 1921, the company moved to Zirndorf, where the headquarters are still located today. According to the commercial register, the company was then engaged in the 'manufacture and trade of metal articles and toys'. These were essentially piggy banks, telephones, cash registers and scales for the 'merchant game' which were very successful both in Europe and across the Atlantic. From 1954 everything changed. Plastic is adopted and manufacturing is modified seeking new markets. The boxes bail out for a few months, the time that the fashion of Hula-hoop lasts. These funds and the machines used for the manufacture of pipes make it possible to consider placing completely new toys on the market. Always looking for new ideas, the company manager observes children a lot. It was in 1974 that the great Playmobil adventure began with the presentation at the international toy fair. With the exception of a Dutch wholesaler, the others remain skeptical. It will be thanks to a clever marketing strategy that Playmobil® arrived on the shelves of German toy stores in the fall of the same year. Soon, parents and children were conquered by the famous figurines. Since 1975, geobra Brandstätter and Playmobil® have enjoyed unprecedented success in the German toy industry. It took the company only a few years after the market launch to achieve the best turnover of German toy manufacturers, a performance that has been regularly renewed since. In 1999, Playmobil celebrated its 25th anniversary. In the meantime, about 1.5 billion small articulated figures made of brightly colored plastic are in circulation around the world. In the near future, further investments and extensions are planned. Through the purchase of several machines and greater automation, production capacity is expected to increase in all European locations. Playmobil quality: Design and Development: Already with more than 30 years of experience in the design and manufacture of toys of unanimously recognized quality, it takes Playmobil three years to design, develop and manufacture a new product. Playmobil integrates the desired quality of the finished product from its design. The team of designers and engineers (just over 60 in the development department) must, from the start of the project, anticipate all potential risks, for example: sharp edges, choking risk if swallowed, or even imagine possible uses in the most abnormal conditions. For each room, the most suitable material is thus selected. Testing all raw materials: Playmobil is committed to producing totally safe toys using 100% high quality materials. Each of the raw materials is tested according to European and American standards before being integrated into any manufacturing process. The same applies to all printing paints and colours. They undergo the tests that guarantee their compliance with the strictest standards, especially on their metal content (lead and others). Each supplier, for each of the materials it delivers, is subject to rigorous specifications to ensure that each delivery complies with all the required safety standards. Controlled Production: Horst Brandstätter (the sole owner of Playmobil) said: "I chose to have PLAYMOBIL manufactured in Europe because I have confidence in my teams who understand the brand and have complete control of the manufacturing process. This allows PLAYMOBIL to achieve excellent quality from the best technologies and equipment." PLAYMOBIL toys are manufactured in four European factories. The head office in Germany is located 25 km from the company's main manufacturing unit. Only a few pieces, less than 1% of the total production, come from Chinese partners that PLAYMOBIL has known for a long time and who supply quality parts undergoing the same controls as others. These few components come from China because they require a very high number of manual steps. Test of finished products: All finished products are tested according to European and American toy safety standards (ASTM), by independent testing laboratories. Safety Warning Not suitable for children under 36 months