Playmobil Scooby-Doo! 70287 Scooby and Shaggy with Ghost Figures Playmobil, 2020
Day #2,219: August 6, 2020
Scooby and Shaggy with Ghost Figures or, "Hassle in the Castle" Playset
Scooby-Doo! Set
Item No.: No. 70287 Manufacturer:Playmobil Includes:Man in 2-piece ghost disguise, Shaggy figure, Scooby figure, 2-piece collar, rope, hamburger, Scooby Snacks, flashlight, display stand, clipboard with ghost information, stickers Retail:$12.99 Availability: July 2020 (mass release, first-out at Walmart in Spring 2020) Other: Lots of new toys from Scooby-Doo! this year
If you grew up in the United States (and a lot of other places) you probably saw Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? or one of its many spin-offs, like the oddly meta A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!, or the surprisingly forward-thinking Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. Dating back to 1969, the original show inspired this set of Scooby and Shaggy with Ghost Figures. You get 3 figures and gear for $13, which is a pretty decent price given a single Playmobil figure is four or five bucks - plus this has stickers and a license.
While not the cheapest set in the range, it serves as a great sampler or starter pack. Bluestone the Great plays the generic sheet ghost, complete with removable mask. There's not a lot to the set, and depending on your needs for monsters or playsets you might even skip this one. This was the first pack I bought - and it's a good one.
It's something I wish I had as a kid, so I'd nudge you to check these out. LEGO and Imaginext have had their takes, plus we saw a bunch of other great, short-lived figure lines from other toymakers. But this is a Playmobil house, so here we go.
Tying a retro property to an anniversary or a new entry makes sense, as this year's movie Scoob! was the perfect cover to get out a retro line based on a 51-year old cartoon. Iwao Takamoto's character designs were so good, they translate to almost every era and every medium. The characters' coloring is a part of what makes them who they are, so nearly every movie or video game or toy will look like those original cartoons.
For the time being, Magician Bluestone the Great in his phantom disguise are exclusive to this set. The ghost outfit is new here, a clip-on smock with removable hood. Unmasking the not-at-all supernatural villains was a key part of the original series, showing kids that the real enemy was greed and not a curse of the undead. There's not a lot to the costume, but you do get a classic glow-in-the-dark ghost toy and those are always welcome. It's also worth noting the engineering on the costume allows the ghost outfit to stand without a figure inside. I appreciate that.
If you buy any more sets in this line, you may end up with a lot of Scooby toys and a few Shaggy figures. This very same Shaggy also comes in the "Dinner with Shaggy" set 70363, which features Scooby, a dining room set that your dollhouse would love, and a whole mess of food. It's kind of a bummer that there's so much repetition in these sets, but that only applies to collectors who can afford to buy all of this. The Shaggy figure in this set has a flashlight and, for some reason, cargo pants. Made of existing parts, the figure design is very close to the original cartoon with the surprising addition of cargo pants. It's a modern take on the design which fits the character, but I don't think has precedent on the show. The hair is a little long and messy, and like all Playmobil figures he has 6 points of articulation.
The newly-molded Scooby is in at least six sets, some of which include hats. The figures are the same, with a clip-on blue collar complete with yellow "SD" tag. Scooby has 6 points of articulation and seems to be a new design with an opening mouth and, of course, cartoon-specific head. It's interesting to see where Playmobil decides to eschew stylized sculpting in favor of something true to the license. I love that the mouth can open, and also that the front paws have indentations allowing Scooby-Doo to hold accessories or food. The figure also has a display stand so he can walk around on two legs if you like.
The gear is decent - you have rope to tie up the ghost, a clipboard with ghost info on it, a burger, and a bag of Scooby Snacks. Oh, and a flashlight. It's not everything, but there's a full line of sets they want to sell you. You won't need to buy them all, particularly if you've bought some of the other 45 years of releases. Nobody reuses parts better than Playmobil, but it's worth noting this theme is loaded with new monster costumes, a haunted house, a graveyard, and a lot of other things we've never seen before. Depending on your budgeting or interest, this set may be the last one you buy and only for completism's sake, or the first one just to see if you like what they did with the line. If all you want is the core crew, you should probably get this set and the Mystery Machine - but hey, you've got a lot of options.
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