PLAYMOBIL!?

I bought some Playmobil toys while on my recent vacation in Europe. I wasn't sure where to put this... ultimately it ended up here because kind of "miniatures" that games COULD be played with...?

I have started putting together posts of the trip to Europe. One was here on this blog... a couple others have been posted on the Art Blog... 

I have fond memories of Playmobil toys growing up. I think it was because many were historical in nature - though the only "historical" Playmobil available was the time were Pirates, Knights, and "Old West"...  I didn't have a LOT of them, just a few of the smaller sets of figures. (I'm not sure I HAD any of the knights or Pirates... just a couple "Old West" sets and some modern police and fire fighters..?) There was a toy store in a mall near my place when we first moved to Saskatoon that had a large display of them and was in awe of the castles and pirate ships and larger sets (which I never owned myself) 

My kids ended up with a LOT of Playmobil. They were the first grandkids for both of our parents and it seemed to two were constantly trying to outdo each other... so the kids ended up with bins full of it!? MULTIPLE pirate ships... AND a Viking ship... and a Victorian Mansion and dinosaurs and... and.. and... 

I've often thought it might be fun to game with them - skirmishes on a smaller scale. Or maybe use them for role-playing games...? I did see someone bought enough Romans and Germans to put together De Bellis Antiquitatis armies for both at one point! a fair few models of historical subjects have been produced over the years... very few of those are available in Canada, however... So collecting enough to play games might be expensive and challenging. 

When travelling to Amsterdam, I discovered there were a number of sets made specifically for the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum and somehow my brain decided I NEEDED these. 

I thought of looking for other sets of historical playmobil figures while in Europe... but then didn't. partly because I didn't have the time to go looking around for toy stores that MIGHT stock them... and partly because of the acquisition of BOOKS (and all the Playmobil stuff I'd already picked up were starting to fill up the luggage!!) 

As it turned out you didn't NEED to go to the respective museums to get these sets... 

We found they were ALL available in a tourist information shop in Amsterdam Centraal Train Station - along with a VERY BIG playmobil figure! 

I didn't pick them up there, I ended up grabbing them all at the respective museums! 

I had intended to keep them all in their boxes until I got home... but after two train trips (Amsterdam to Amiens and Amiens to Boulogne-Sur-Mer) they were in pretty bad shape and taking up just too much space in my luggage, so I removed them all in from the boxes (though I cut up the boxes and kept parts of them - for reference when I got around to assembling them at home!) 

BIG VINCENT playmobil display in one of the Van Gogh Museum's gift shops

MORE Large Display pieces in the other Van Gogh Museum gift shop

In Paris I found another... 

Emperor Napoleon! This I picked up the the Hôtel National des Invalides gift shop. (Specifically, I picked this one up in the gift shop in the Tomb of Napoleon!? Because... that's a thing!? and the main gift shop has closed for the day!?) 

There were also BIG playmobil figures. One was outside the main gift shop. 

A second was inside the shop. 

It was only within the last week that I finally got around to pulling them out of their plastic bag and assembling them all. 

Luckily (for the most part - with the exception of one broken item) no gluing was required for assembly and NO PAINTING WAS REQUIRED!! 

ALL of the sets acquired in Europe.

This was the first bunch I picked up at the Rijksmuseum. (Which does include a Vincent Van Gogh painting a self-portrait!?)

These fist two are from Rembrandt's The Night Watch. 

(A few more swashbuckling types like these and I'd be ready for a game of En Garde!)

The Night Watch by Rembrandt

(Oh, damn... just noticed I should have had the lighter character carrying the spontoon in the other hand at level... bah... not going to go back and take another picture...) 

We didn't get to really see The Night Watch as it was currently under restoration when we were there... despite that, there were still CROWDS of people gathered at the glass that separated the public from where they were working on the restoration! 

The milkmaid and table from Johannes Vermeer The Milkmaid (or The Kitchen Maid)

Johannes Vermeer's The Milkmaid 

The Milkmaid (or Kitchen Maid) was another one of the other "Rock Star Paintings" at the Rijksmuseum and there was alway a LARGE crowd around it... 

This is as close as I got... Amanda, I think was a bit more patient and got right in front of it to take a picture... 

Rembrandt drawing a self-portrait... bare-headed... but while wearing a dashing beret... (he was THAT good, I guess!). 

This one was also available at Rembrandthaus - Rembrandts old house and studio which has been restored into a museum. They had an incredible collection of his etchings there... which were tiny! Many images I mistook for (or have been misattributed as) drawings were actually etching that were about the size of the playmobil "drawing" here! 

I bought a few books at Rembrandthaus. 

I did learn about Dutch Masters in an art history class many, many years ago and was kind of... "meh"... but now that I've seen these IN PERSON... and the fucking DETAIL in so many of them - whether GIANT paintings that fill rooms or teeny-tiny postage-stamp-sized etchings... I feel like now I kind of GET IT!

These two came in a kit together but were based on separate portraits by Rembrandt of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit

Rembrandt's portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit

I didn't take my own pictures of these... there were SO MANY pieces of art... I couldn't take pictures of EVERY SINGLE ONE... (though it seemed like SOME people in the museum were trying to!). 

Vincent Van Gogh painting a self-portrait. 

The little dark cap band is a sticker that I had to apply on my own (as with all the paintings). it was included to make his hat match the painting... and it is NOT staying stuck... I may have to peel it off and, if I feel like that hat REALLY needs to match the painting... I'll just paint it on..

The actual self-portrait in the Rijksmuseum. 

There were a LOT more of his self-portraits at the Van Gogh Museum, which we visited the following day (and bought MORE Playmobil there!). 

These four were picked up at the Van Gogh Museum - just down the street from the Rijksmuseum! 

All kits of Van Gogh... Did I really NEED that many Van Goghs... probably not... but there was a deal if you bought all four... so... 

Vincent Van Gogh painting one of his Sunflowers paintings... 

This was another "Rock Star Painting" that was constantly surrounded by swarms of people... 

In the gift shop you could get a LEGO kit that made a sunflower portrait... for €200!? 

I did not feel at all compelled to get one, but surprisingly AMANDA thought it was kind of interesting... We did not get one in the end, it was a rather large box!... 

This is one of my favourite kits - Van Gogh painting Bedroom in Arles - I thought it was fun that they included elements of the still life of his room that he was painting. 

This was also very much a "Rock Star Painting"... but I took my time waiting to get up close and get a good picture of it. I've seen in in reproduction in prints and books and somehow always thought it was considerably smaller than the actual painting was! It was really something to see up close in real life.

Van Gogh painting Almond Blossoms

I didn't get a picture of the Almond Blossoms... but there were SO MANY THING in the gift shop with the almond blossoms on it, shirts and hats and scarves and prints and postcards and just about anything you can imagine short of sex toys and cheese graters... (no, there might have actually been cheese graters...). I actually bought a bicycle bell with the blossom pattern on it... but it's sitting on a bench in the garage as I haven't decided which bicycle to affix it to... 

There was also this whole WALL with the painting reproduced on which you could take selfies in front of... despite no one needing to see pictures of me, Amanda insisted. Blame her. 

Not actually based on a painting (as far as I am aware) but celebrating or representing the fact that he wrote many, MANY letters - to other artists, and to his brother. We know a LOT about Van Gogh and what he was thinking about at certain times because he wrote so many letters - especially to his brother Theo - which were preserved by Theo's wife after both had died. 

Finally we get to the ONE I bought in France... 

Emperor Napoleon. 

I tried to prop the horse up like it was rearing in Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Crossing the Alps... but it ended up being too much of a chore and gave up... also, the Playmobil Napoleon is not wearing quite the same uniform nor is he wearing that fabulous flowing cape... so... 

EVENTUALLY I'll get to posting MORE about these museums I went to and the pictures I took at them...  this seemed like it might be fun and quick... but then ended up being less quick when I decided to add in pictures of what each kit was referencing... 

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with all of these now, though... 

I suppose I could find some space on a book shelf to set them up... 

much like Funko Pop Vincent Van Gogh (NOT purchased in Europe... I've had this for some time...) 

He resides on one of the shelves of graphic novels with a few other funko pop dolls I've acquired over the years... 

Another thought was to build sort of display boxes to house them in, and paint the insides of the boxes with the background like the paintings or the area around where they were being painted... like paint the rest of the scene from The Night Watch behind the two playmobil characters that are in the foreground. Or paint the rest of the Room in Arles - floor, walls, etc... 

This seems like a super FUN idea... but also would be a lot of work... 

While working on this I went digging and found a few of the old Playmobil toys I have from the late70s/early80s (pre-1982 - because the hands are fixed - wrists don't move) 

A few of the other Playmobil toys I picked up in the last 20 years - at the time I was buying them for the kids... I picked up a few, here and there, for myself... Some of these usually reside in the book shelves in the basement. A few ended up in a box during one of the renovations and were forgotten about until recently and I haven't decided where THEY are to go... 

Amanda has hinted at getting rid of the kids toys. At one point she held on to some things thinking "What if we ever have grandchildren!?" I think she is starting to realize it is very unlikely we will ever have grandchildren! She did get rid of the giant victorian mansion and a bunch of the room furniture along with it. I've been reluctant to let things go simply because the kids may at some point decide they want them again (Nostalgia gets the better of all of us sometimes!). 

Also... I still regularly think about trying to find ways to play games with them!!