16bit.com Figure of the Day Review: Playmobil "Fi?ures" Series 20 Puppeteer Action Figure

https://www.tiktok.com/@turbotoyz/video/7044597599562927406 16bit.com Figure of the Day Review: Playmobil "Fi?ures" Series 20 Puppeteer Action Figure

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Playmobil "Fi?ures" Figures Puppeteer Playmobil, 2021

Day #2,378: December 27, 2021

Puppeteer I can't hear you, puppet boy, now dance dance dance! "Fi?ures" Figures Series 20 Action Figure Item No.: No. 70148, 6 of 12 Manufacturer: Playmobil Includes: Suitcase, puppet, beret, 4 gold coins, 4 silver coins Action Feature: n/a Retail: $3.99 Availability: July 2021 Other: Jim Henson, this ain't
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While not the first of this profession, this Puppeteer is one of few adults to experience the artform via plastic. A few years ago, a small child was introduced with a small stage and hand puppets - this is more of a street marionette performer.

A more modern figure, it has the buttoned-up short sleeves which seem surprisingly omnipresent these days - I have no shirts with this function in real life - and traditional pants with white sneakers. A painted-on belt and purple cuffs aren't bad, and the yellow and red striped shirt is pretty spiffy. You can barely see a blue collar under his beard, and they opted to leave the buttons off. His legs have a painted belt, with white boxes that make him look more than a little like somebody with a Stormtrooper belt from Star Wars. But to me, everything looks like something from Star Wars.

I'm not sure if his blue hat is a debut - it's certainly my first hat like this - and it fits perfectly on his helmet-head bowl hair peg. (These things are almost always absolutely perfect.) The figure's articulation is standard fare - six joints, with a single leg piece and jointed wrists. After nearly 50 years, they don't mess with a good thing. Just as some random dude, this is a pretty neat outfit that's a lot more colorful than the bulk of the figures I got out of a standard city set.

While puppets seemed all the rage during the 1980s - more Muppets Eureka's Castle, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Fraggle Rock, and countless practical effects in genre movies, today it's a bit old-hat. While there is still a puppet hobby, profession, and performer community, I don't doubt that kids will be a little less interested in the puppet arts as a career path - so it's kind of neat to see this marionette before someone declares puppetry dead. The rubbery figure looks vaguely like wood, but since the strings are the same color it does look like it's all cast from the same material. The eyes and outfit are painted, and I'm not sure if it's a clown, or a person in a jumper, or what - but it's unique and unusual, and that's what we care about here.

Making a toy is also commenting on its basis in reality - in this case, they are telling you puppeteering is not a good job. This isn't a theater performer, this is a guy with a suitcase and a few coins thrown in it. For adult collectors it's a compelling addition to a hypothetical subway or street performance diorama, for kids it's a neat figure with a weird accessory, and for guidance counselors it's a dire warning about what pursuing a career in the non-digital arts can get you. I wish I had a few more big buildings to have him hang out and do a show on the sidewalk, sadly there aren't many that look like a dense busy street.

Because it's weird, I really like this set - the figure in and of himself would just be cool as some random guy, but the puppet - arguably, a creepy puppet since the strings were not molded in another material or another color - make it extra interesting. It's like that one creepy Castlevania boss. You know the one. I hope they do more things like this, mostly because this blind bag actually tells more of a story. "Guy with tuba" is interesting, but "guy with tuba and suitcase and loose change" paints a fuller picture.

--Adam Pawlus

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