 While growing up in his native Germany, Beck made toys for his younger siblings. After receiving training as a cabinetmaker, Beck still liked toys, so he pitched an idea for model airplanes to the Geobra Brandstaetter company. Owner Horst Brandstaetter hired him as a designer, and later assigned Beck to develop a series of toy figures. Beck worked for three years developing a toy that would have movable arms and heads, unlike toy soldiers, and fit well in small hands. He finished in 1971. "I would put the little figures in [children's] hands without saying anything about what they were. They accepted them right away," Beck said later. "They invented little scenarios for them. They never grew tired of playing with them." The company finally launched the figures in 1975 under the name of "Playmobil". The simple toy sets (pictured in the archive) was initially shunned by adult toy distributors, but children loved them, and within a year they were a worldwide hit. Since then, more than 2 billion pieces have been sold, and Brandstaetter still makes them. Beck retired from the company in 1999, and died January 30. He was 79.
From This is True for 25 January 2009 Suggestions for further reading:
 by Allan Bedford Amazon Price: Customer Review: This is not a book on ideas for how to build, but details on what Lego's are all about. You will find history and part number and many details that you wouldn't find just anywhere. A must have the the true Lego junkie!  by David J. Perdue Amazon Price: $19.77 Customer Review: The book provides a great overview of NXT platform and teaches how to build more complex robots using several projects. The first sections provides an introduction to what is in the kit before going into how to build common components. The middle sec...  by DK Publishing Amazon Price: $9.32 Customer Review: This book was easy to follow and understand. First year we were second place and second year we took first! It's the book for those who do not know anything about derby cars. Thanks Dave!  by DK Publishing Amazon Price: $16.49 Customer Review: My 5 and 7 year old boys love these. They are wonderful. They give detailed instructions to make several items with the included legos. They also store nicely. They store like a book in the bookshelf. There is a box connected to the hard back bo...  by James Floyd Kelly, Matthias Paul Scholz, Christopher R. Smith, Martijn Boogaarts, Jonathan Daudelin, Eric D. Burdo, Laurens Valk, BlueTooth Kiwi Amazon Price: $19.28 Customer Review: I bought this book for my seven year old son. He finds it difficult to understand the images. I have to constantly help him to build the models. I think if the images were colored he might have had a better chance of understanding. I very well unders... Newsfeed display by CaRP |
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