It’s the age old battle that seems to have raged since the dawn of time. Which is better, Denmark’s Lego or Germany’s Playmobil?
For skiers it’s a particular conundrum. Lego, perhaps because Denmark is rather flat with just a couple of dry slopes and a small local ski hill which opens its 50m vertical occasionally when snow cover is adequate, has not yet tried very hard to pander to the ski market directly.
True there is a small ‘Arctic’ set with a snowmobile and series 2 of their minifigure collectors series did contain an Alpine skier.
But it has been left to the company’s professional model makers to build a scale replica of the Aiguille du Midi ski lifts in Chamonix at Legoland Windsor while adult Lego ski enthusiasts have created still more impressive Lego ski resorts which are lovingly filmed on Youtube.
These containing everything from working single chairlifts with dubious safety features (no Lego minifigures are seen boarding them) to elaborate detachable gondolas and fully functioning trail groomers, although they seem to have no luck flattening Lego snow to anything that looks safe to ski.
Now it seems Playmobil, perhaps inspired by its much more mountainous German location, has played its trump card by releasing a new series of ski resort inspired sets that may well go a long way to encouraging more youngsters to try the real thing after playing with the new toys.
The sets include a working cable car complete with ticket office, an Alpine Lodge which has a collection of alpine animals to allow to free roam nearby. If there’s an accident on Playmobil mountain, there’s also a mountain rescue vehicle and even a rescue helicopter to fly in and save the day. Sets are priced at approximately £20 to £50.
