Amazing
What a great send off to such a legend. And thanks for cheering me up on Friday!
El Reg pays tribute to father of Playmobil
It was with heavy hearts earlier this week that we reported on the death of Hans Beck, the man who in 1974 gave the world Playmobil. The news prompted several of you to suggest a miniature tribute to the great man; perhaps a funeral scene or something similar. Well, we thought about it for a bit and decided nah, stuff that, we …
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Friday 6th February 2009 12:39 GMT Simon
Hey it must be FRIIIDDDAAAYYY!!
But you guys, when are you going to make the images big enough so I can use them as my desktop background?
I could have a new El Reg Playmobil desktop for my computer each Friday, please please please please please please please please please please please please please...
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Friday 6th February 2009 13:29 GMT Anonymous Coward
Clearly a fake
There's something about those images that doesn't ring true, is it the lighting? nope... is Paris' complexion a little too perfect - surely not.
Aha! It's obvious in retrospect - the supposed President Sarkozy is far too tall next to Gordon Ramsey.
I'm shocked the Register could stoop to faking pictures. I'm withholding my licence fee in protest.
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Friday 6th February 2009 14:22 GMT Anonymous Coward
Playmobil 'No' Theatre
Has anyone else noticed that the mouths on the Japanese Playmobil models work a bit like the mouths on the masks worn in Japanese 'No' theatre? Specifically, the mouth is drawn with a fixed expression (in this case, a smile), but the angle made with the mask/face can turn it into different a expression. Look at the 'wife' beside the bed of the 'husband'.
El Reg is not only entertaining, but also works to bring a traditional Japanese art form to a modern audience. I am overwhelmed by your dedication to culture, and efforts to strengthen Japanese-Anglican relations blah blah...
That is all.
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Friday 6th February 2009 15:40 GMT Gianni Straniero
PEDANT ALERT
Gordon Ramsay is a restaurateur, not restauraNteur.
http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/5130.html
"Restauranteur can still raise conservative eyebrows, however, even in some Semiformal and Conversational contexts, so know your audience and readers and their expectations."
My eyebrows are currently stratospheric, in case you're wondering.
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Friday 6th February 2009 15:40 GMT Don Sinclair
Garden of Eden
I was dumbfounded to see my back garden featured in Lester Hanes's article. For your information El Presidente and Paris were invited guests, unlike the Jehovas who constantly trespass, bothering my pet grizzly and flogging 'knocked off'' apples, more often than not dressed in national costume. Now don't get me wrong, I like being disturbed while in the bath like 'the next man', its just they bring their lions into my garden and to be blunt the lion excrement is frightening away the squirrels. (my wife encourages the squirrels due to some strange obsession with gypsy inspired violin music?) Does anybody know of any sprays (that can be bought in industrial quantities) which may help me, if not eradicate, control what is becoming an epidemic in my garden. Obviously I need to stay within Eurpoean Legislation, so napalm or agent orange may be off the menu .
Incidentely, could anybody confirm whether there is any truth in the rumour that Jehovas are responsible for bovine TB? (and where I could get some information on culling)
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Friday 6th February 2009 15:40 GMT Simon
@Lloyd
Thats a great looking checkpoint.
Interesting to note in the section below (Customers who bought this item also bought)
Is a book entitled:
Understanding Shutter Speed: Creative Action and Low-Light Photography Beyond 1/125 Second (Paperback) by Bryan Peterson
Do you think thats where the El Reg photographer shops for all his kit?
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Friday 6th February 2009 20:06 GMT Pierre
Kiddie Pr0n!!
The Aussie bird with the parrots (bottom of 2nd page) clearly has no jugs, so we must assume she is a kid. Given the obvious SM context of the picture, I hereby demand that the whole website be blocked by the IWF and friends. Also, Lester, please report to the local plods for immediate incarceration (and sex offender registration).
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Friday 6th February 2009 20:46 GMT John
His genius should inspire all
I was always a Lego-boy, but when I heard on Radio 4's Last Word how on Hans Beck was inspired to design the toys, I was greatly impressed by his genius. He noted how children draw people, with big heads, big facial features and simple bodies and crafted the Playmobil system in that image. That's the genius, designing for children, not at children.
Apparently he also opposed guns from the Playmobil system until he got letters from children saying the police needed them.
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Saturday 7th February 2009 00:40 GMT Pierre
@ Alan: Xtreme pr0n!
"I think you'll find there's no jugs because it was an aussie bloke"
I remember this story, but the person in the piccie is clearly wearing a dress. So if it's not a lady, some XXXXtreme porn is clearly taking place. I stand by my gun. Lester, on the register you go! (the sex offender one).
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Sunday 8th February 2009 05:55 GMT Anonymous Coward
@Don Sinclair - JW picture
Yep - the food-gathering, the smiling people, the grizzly bear... if that background artwork wasn't scanned directly from one of the Watchtower Society publications, well it's a pretty darn good imitation. Imagine the Reg giving them free publicity... hmmm, is there something we don't know about the Reg? ;)
BTW, here's a little secret (not secret after I post it, I guess) - the way to make those people leave you alone: you act really friendly and supportive, tell them you're *already* "studying" (insert a friend's or relative's "name"), use JW jargon as much as possible ("paradise earth", "when armageddon comes", "the new system of things", "the ransom sacrifice", etc), and when the JW ask which congregation it is, you've temporarily 'forgot' - it's some distance away and you study on weekends when you visit there) and tell them you already read their literature (in fact, you subscribe to it) and you don't want them to waste their Watchtower money on duplicates ("after all, it must cost a lot of money to print those magazines nowadays") since you already have it, and make sure they know how enthusiastic you are *BUT* that you need to take things slowly, at your own pace, and that you don't want to feel pressured by their "return visits" because that would be a "stumbling block" (they'll know what you mean - you just have to speak their language - it helps to read up on them a little bit, so that you know enough of their beliefs to be able to <del>combat</del> er I mean communicate with them). It also helps if you tell them (whether true or not, is up to you) that as a youth you went to their meetings, so you already have a pretty good idea of what it's all about, but you're refreshing your knowledge with the relative/friend/whoever that you're "studying" with out-of-town as mentioned above. It worked for me - they keep a list of such residences that *don't* want to be disturbed, and they haven't rang my doorbell for many years.
Just a variant of the old "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" thing :)
*However*, if you're *hostile* to those people, they take that as a sort of supreme *challenge* (not unlike cats who gravitate to the one person in the room who absolutely hates cats), and you'll *never* be rid of them.
-- Just a little insider-knowledge. (EX-insider)
______
P.S. : On the *other* hand, I still have NOT figured out how to make the pesky *Mormons* leave me alone :(
(Alien icon because parts of the Old Testament, or as the JW say the "Hebrew Scriptures" remind me of UFO's with all that nonsense about the Ark of the Covenant, Ezekiel's Wheel, and so forth, but *DON'T* say that to the JW or they'll want to argue with you!)
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Tuesday 10th February 2009 21:55 GMT Paul Morgan
Superb work, chaps
Another tour de force from the Playmobil branch of El Reg! Sad to hear of Herr Beck's demise, but a fitting send-off (pixelated fellatio aside) for a man of such vision. If he knew what you'd been up to with his precious figurines, I'm sure he'd be... Er... Over the moon. Or something.
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Friday 13th February 2009 12:39 GMT Simon Dummett
Entendres?
"He was later found to have a brace of songbirds stuffed in his lunchbox, although there is no suggestion that Carli [sic] Bruni had a hand in it."
Carla Bruni had a hand in placing the brace within his lunchbox (a la M Sarkozy)?
Or
Carla Bruni had one of her hands in his lunchbox (also, no doubt, a la Sarkozy)?
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Saturday 14th February 2009 04:26 GMT Niquapod
@Anonymous Coward and Don Sinclair
You could always just tell the truth and the next time Witnesses come to your door, tell them you're not interested and preferred not to be called on again. If you don't want to do it face to face you could even look up the phone number for a local Kingdom Hall and tell them your address and that you don't want to be called on again. It's that simple. Running and hiding while they're at your door never solves anything. Neither does being mean.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
