back to article 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 …

COMMENTS

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  1. Steven Foster

    Amazing

    What a great send off to such a legend. And thanks for cheering me up on Friday!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Optimus!

    So he wasn't deported!

    *is relieved*

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    obama...

    ...isnt THAT black.

  4. Simon
    Go

    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...

  5. Sweep

    Whale omelette

    OM NOM NOM NOM

    That is all.

  6. Tim

    Well done

    An excellent tribute - got me giggling over my chicken sandwiches a treat. Thanks guys

    Tim#3

  7. Jamie
    Linux

    Excellent

    That is the type of high level journalism I expect from such a trusted news source as Reg.

  8. Alex
    Flame

    one question

    were was the sniffer dog in all this ?

  9. Alan
    Happy

    Lovely

    That's a cute police lady arresting the pigeon smuggler. Have you got her number?

  10. The Dorset Rambler
    Thumb Up

    NIce...

    That is all.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    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.

  12. Yorkshirepudding
    Go

    Epic win

    i doth my cap to you folks! amusing and touching rip hans

  13. Lloyd

    You missed the check point, it's a must have piece of kit

    http://www.amazon.com/Playmobil-3172-Security-Check-Point/dp/B0002CYTL2/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1233925872&sr=8-1

  14. Nick
    Thumb Up

    @Simon

    Simon wrote:

    "But you guys, when are you going to make the images big enough so I can use them as my desktop background?"

    Seconded.

    Can you also group them as a sub-category in Odds&Sods please.

  15. Cesar
    Thumb Up

    Thanks Vulture Central guys!

    I was in a dire need for a GOOD laugh this Friday. Thanks a lot! :) EPIC EPIC EPIC WIN!

    PS.: I'm with Simon. "But you guys, when are you going to make the images big enough so I can use them as my desktop background?"

  16. Linbox
    Thumb Up

    * salutes *

    that is all.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    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.

  18. Tim

    @Lloyd

    Thats's an excellent find. Did you check out the reviews too? I particularly liked the sentiment expressed about the need for this product that "Sometimes it's a hard lesson for kids to learn because not all pigs carry billy clubs and wear body armor. "

    Tim#3

  19. Luis Ogando
    Happy

    Smiled.....

    ...and still smiling.

    Excellent

    And yes - Desktop-sized images PLEASE!!

  20. Gianni Straniero
    Boffin

    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.

  21. 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)

  22. Tom Paine
    Joke

    @Mike Richards

    ...shopped!

  23. Gordon Grant
    Thumb Up

    Excellent

    Well I think that says it all really, good tribute.

  24. Simon
    Happy

    @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?

  25. Alastair Smith
    Happy

    A fitting tribute

    And it's nice to see you got ol' Optimus in there too at the end.

  26. 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).

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Confusing the Revenue

    I just love the idea of you lot claiming for the Playmobil as a business expense in the annual accounts, getting audited and forwarding the relevant links to the Revenue men. Top work.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Music

    Why, in the last shot, are they dong the actions to YMCA????

    Surely el reg could've provided some better music than that?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Now that was a tribute

    Well done guys, well done indeed. It's perhaps the most fitting tribute to the man that gave so many kids so much joy over the years.

  30. RW
    IT Angle

    Which one is Sarah Bee?

    Among the gang in the last photo?

  31. Squits
    Thumb Up

    A lovely party

    Thanks for the exclusive photos, I'm glad you beat Hello and OK to them yet again.

    A fitting tribute to our sadly deceased, glorious, plastic molding overlord.

  32. John
    Thumb Up

    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.

  33. Alan

    @pierre

    "The Aussie bird with the parrots (bottom of 2nd page) clearly has no jugs"

    I think you'll find there's no jugs because it was an aussie bloke

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/03/bird_smuggler/

  34. 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).

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pedantry

    "Saaarf London bar"

    Really, you should know better. There's no 'r' in Saaaf.

    I wonder if Herr Beck knew how much pleasure he'd given to global geekdom?

  36. Alan
    Happy

    @pierre again

    I think the aussie pigeon smuggler just shops in the same place as Windy Miller

    http://www.martinwildig.com/pictures/trmptn.jpg

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Hurling

    "everywhere Obama graces with his presence immediately becomes immeasurably more lovely, and in this case positively Edenesque"

    Christ you people are giving me the dry heaves. Politicians are slime wrapped in grease with a liberal sprinkling of lumpy dock scrapings. Pass the antacids.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tribute (Photo) Album

    My life would be complete if Cash 'n' Carrion could provide limited edition posters and coffee table books featuring the Mobilverse denizens. I'm in the market for artwork to hang in my front hall.

  39. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    @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!)

  40. Darryl
    Thumb Up

    Maybe the Aussie don't have no jugs

    ...but Paris Hilton sure seems a lot more stacked than most other photos of her.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Another Reg/PlayMobil classic

    That is all. Thank you and much plastic-arm-waving-respect to all concerned.

  42. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    @Lovely

    "That's a cute police lady arresting the pigeon smuggler. Have you got her number?"

    Her number is 4268 and she's available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playmobil-4268-Police-Woman-Robber/dp/B0014BLQRU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qid=1234175718&sr=8-3

  43. alan
    Happy

    see that wasnt too hard was it.

    quality nothing less than the man deserved. next time do this without being asked.

  44. Paul Morgan
    Thumb Up

    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.

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Desktop size images please

    I agree with the above - we need these in desktop dimensions please Reg :) 1600 x 1200 etc please.

  46. Simon Dummett
    Coat

    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)?

  47. Niquapod
    Boffin

    @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.

  48. Russ Williams
    Joke

    RE: see that wasnt too hard was it.

    "next time do this without being asked."

    OK, I'm sure next time he dies El Reg will do better.

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