Well, it can't be all that bad. The banker getting robbed is still smiling.
Playmobil punts bank-heist set to wide-eyed kiddies
El Reg's fave toy manufacturer Playmobil has provoked a miniature rumpus by punting a bank-heist set to children. The Playmobil bank set, complete with armed robber The "Bank with Safe" ensemble boasts a working cash machine although nippers are encouraged to make over-the-counter withdrawals via a pistol-waving blonde …
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Monday 11th February 2013 11:56 GMT C 18
...art, true to life &c...
This is awesome.
This is just awesome. The smiling 'banker' of course is because he's just handing his money to his launderer. This isn't the depiction of a bank robbery, well not in the classic 'Bonnie & Clyde' sense. This is the real bank robbery, you can see from the lighting effect that this 'transaction' takes place at night. Finding a bank open during the daylight hour of lunchtime used to be a difficult enough problem.
No, this is the 'hand-off', the actual cash the bank made that day fits into two bundles of paper notes that the banker is gleefully giving to his daughter, who looks, unsurprisingly, exactly like the chick (we can have thoughts about now for sure) (but not then, when she was) in 'Kick-Ass'.
Anyway, that's what's really going on here. Plus, it's early April Fool's product testing from the focus group department at Vutch Cent...
fo' shu'!
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Monday 11th February 2013 11:12 GMT Christian Berger
I think it sends out a positive gender message
The female bank robber sends out a message that of course women can take part in society in previously male dominated areas. And she is doing something productive, robbing a bank.
Bank robberies redirect money from investment banks to actual productive branches. They pay for the wages of your bakery or meat market, they pay for your hairdresser and plumber, and perhaps even your drug dealer. Bank robberies create and maintain jobs.
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Monday 11th February 2013 12:23 GMT Destroy All Monsters
Re: I think it sends out a positive gender message
Actually, banks create and maintain jobs too.
What you would actually need to do is rob the CENTRAL bank. Unfortunately you are then faced with the decision to either take the printing press or the folder of worthless IOUs from the exchequer, none of which is a palatable choice.
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Monday 11th February 2013 18:13 GMT Christian Berger
@Ian McNee
Actually I'm surprised to see an ATM at all. I've been to Playmobilland before. It's a little enclave inside of Germany. As far as I know they are not a member of the EU and you need a Visa, which you can get at the border for 10 Euros.
I have not seen any ATMs in the country. Even if there were some, they probably would be heavily guarded. There are lots of guards in Playmobilland. Just like the palace guards they usually stand around doing nothing.
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Monday 11th February 2013 11:22 GMT FartingHippo
Good for them
*Caution: When-I-Were-A-Lad Rant*
Glad to see Playmobile bucking the trend for increasingly banal toys. It's the trend that has seen cap-guns, spud-guns, toy swords, and bow-and-arrows-with-suckers-on-the-end all but eradicated from toy emporia, but has seen the rise of increasingly sexualized girl-toys, 'cos that's just peachy.
Bought my lad a Playmobile cop van and was horrified that I felt mildly uncomfortable with the miniature shotgun and pistols. Note: horrified by my reaction, not the toy. I felt like I'd been brainwashed. Fortunately, he loves it, and he brought a tear to my eye by pretending to shoot his sister's doll with all the appropriate sound effects. Must join him in a shoot-out later...
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Monday 11th February 2013 12:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Never mind Lego
They got a few frowns a few years ago when the first Batman sets came with uzis, but the recent Forest Police Station doesn't come with firearms.
It does come with a bear, though thankfully they're not American so they didn't arm it. Or have I got that the wrong way round again..?
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Monday 11th February 2013 14:48 GMT IR
Re: Never mind Lego
Yep, just about every police Lego set has a stripey robber in it.
Here's a good one:
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Police-Prisoner-Transport-7286/dp/B004478GJM/ref=pd_sim_t_5
But even better is this one that shows kids the usage of a crowbar to get into an ATM:
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Police-Minifigure-Collection-7279/dp/B004478GIS/ref=pd_sim_t_7
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Wednesday 20th February 2013 16:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Or the tyrannosaurs & raptors
A few years back, LEGO introduced dinosaur hunter sets in the US only. The UK had a (literally) fantastic range based on Vikings and Nordic legends. Because of demand, they brought the dinos to Europe too, but not until they'd re-designed every single set to be animal-friendly, with tranq-darts and enclosures instead of hunting rifles.
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Monday 11th February 2013 11:44 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Missing vital parts
and where's the Romanian operator in his characteristic (ethnic) garb?
no, we can't be judgmental, nosir! We can only say, in a roundabout way, "an operator with a looks which appears to be East European, perhaps".
well, then at least I can say "Polish operator", and you can't accuse me of being racist, cause I'm like, Polish.
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Monday 11th February 2013 11:51 GMT LinkOfHyrule
This was actually meant to be a licensed product - it's based on the little known ITV drama series "Daylight Robbery" from fifteen years ago staring Michelle Collins! Its really big in Germany that show and the blonde bird with the shooter is meant to be Ms Collins herself in her role as a young mother turning to bank jobs to pay her gas bill! It's a good likeness I'm sure you will agree, they really know how to injection mould soap stars those Playmobil guys!
They were also planning on doing a similar Thelma and Louise playset complete with convertible car and convenience store but alas they lost the licences for both so instead we ended up with this generic "City Action" set. Such a shame!
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Monday 11th February 2013 13:13 GMT Silverburn
Good to see they still make...
...the unimog truck thingy. Even today, I *want*. eg: Self-loader or theTow Truck
and....oh, god. I MUST HAVE
Why did they not have the train in my day???
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Monday 11th February 2013 13:27 GMT Craig 28
Well noone made a fuss about the McDonalds Hamburgler way back when, though I was only a young kid so I might have missed it if they had. The sheer number of action cartoon licensed toys when I was a kid with some kind of guns was very high though, yet somehow everything in the cartoon seemed to fire lasers. Oh and fantasy cartoons like Thundercats (they carried swords damn it so I refuse to call it proper sci fi) and HeMan had plenty of melee weapons. Hell, when I was at primary school the school before the holidays let us all watch Star Wars which involved Luke's hand getting chopped off. (by let I mean forced us to watch, it took all my effort not to fall asleep)
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Monday 11th February 2013 14:28 GMT GitMeMyShootinIrons
Start of a new range....
Perhaps this opens up a whole new range of underworld options...
- Seedy strip joint, complete with pole-dancers and dodgy drug dealer type.
- Prison set, complete with over crowded cells - BUY NOW - comes with Prison riot expansion!
- Crime Boss set - Swanky office with Big Boss at desk with white furry cat. Complete with a set of heavies working over a snitch.
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Monday 11th February 2013 15:04 GMT Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
Tut tut, elReg, please do your research.
French horse meat burger-making factory
Tut tut, elReg, please do your research, if it was French horse meat it might be at least be food grade.
However its seems that the Swedish firm Findus obtained the 'meat' from a Luxembourg factory supplied by the French firm Spanghero's holding company Poujol who bought the 'meat', frozen, from a Cypriot trader who sub-contracted the order to a Dutch company supplied by a Romanian abattoir, or possibly a Romanian knackers yard.
Adding in 2 distributors and the supermarket that retails the 'product' that's at least 9 companies in the chain, if each add a 30% mark-up then the £1.60 Findus Beef Lasagne sold in ASDA has a base cost of raw materials of approx £0.15.
Way is anyone surprised when this happens.
Paris, nearest thing to a SJP icon.
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Monday 11th February 2013 17:27 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Tut tut, elReg, please do your research.
ref. base cost, there was a para-documentary on BBC (?) a good few years ago, where, apart from children in Africa singing "We love youuuu, Tescoooo", the gist was this: a packet of green beans which retails at £1 costs 1 p to make. So those horse lasagna actually offer an excellent value for money, given what has happened with the poor hose alongside all those "processing" stages.
I would be more distressed to find out, that the image on those boxes of shit (aka lasagne), depict a real beef.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
