Island of misfit model horses: Playmobil : a well rounded collection

Being European and from the 80s, I feel like Playmobil has always just... been the background noise. The sort of toy you always glimpse in passing but never stop at. But guys, these are so much more than Legos without the building aspect!

Browsing through the current catalogue, what really jumps out at me is the animals. ALL the animals. At present they have a farm series, a zoo series, a pet series, and TWO SEPARATE HORSE SERIES because they have the Spirit riding free licence. And... look, just have a browse through Animobil and see for yourselves!

But the horses. When I was young, the Playmo horse - the only Playmo horse, was this.

Very clean, minimalist, rocking horse-esque.

A perfect mount for your knight or cowboy, but not really an individual.

Around 2000, playmobil brought out a more realistic horse, and then, in 2011, the company made their first foray into actual model horses. 5 different molds were produced: a cantering Arabian, a sporthorse (two different versions, one with loose mane and one plaited), a trotting Haflinger (though it's more of a generic anybreed), a Shire, and a pony.

And... well, look at this! We've come a long way from the 80s gingerbread horse!

The proportions and silhouette are spot on and the face sculpt is certainly better than on many models twice his size.

Playmobil does have a few stylistic quirks, and one of them is never glossing eyes.

"Y'know the thing about a ~~shark~~ pony, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya."

But I mean. Their human figures are somewhere between emojis and funko pops, facewise, so really the horses got off easy.

However.

Another thing you should know about Playmo humans: They are not well articulated.

Scroll up and look at Mr White Cowboy up there.

Look at his legs.

Notice how they're one solid unit, so each leg can't move individually.

So when someone shaped like that wants to ride a horse, that horse has to be....

... 2D.

FEED ME!

Yup, they're really really really really really really narrow.

But you can't tell, can you?

Go back to the side view and look how natural they've made it look!

If you absolutely cannot live with the narrowness, just slap some apoxie on and sand some detail into the inner legs and boom, you have a proper model horse who probably won't disgrace you in the show ring.