How Playmobil is making toys from old fridges

Playmobil was a staple of my childhood. At one point we had a whole village of homes and shops made out of shoeboxes, all populated by colourful plastic families.

As an adult, I discovered that Playmobil owes its origins to an oil crisis. In the 1970s, German toy firm Geobra Brandstatter was best known for ride-on toys, but found itself struggling with higher prices for plastic. As a response, the lead designer created something smaller, with lots of play potential and scaled to the size of ...