Igracek was a communist classic line of plastic toy figurines, which in the past could be found in every Czech/Slovak child’s toy basket. Supposedly a knock-off of the famous German Playmobil brand, Igracek was meant to educate kids about real-life professions, creating plastic figurines of doctors, nurses, mailmen, chimney man (no offense, but how many chimney men are still out there? I think I have seen like one in my whole life…) and so forth.
After the Velvet Revolution the Igracek company (Igra) went bankrupt since the Czech market was flooded with new and enticing foreign-made toys and only until recently Igracek became simply an expensive collectible. The new company Efko bought the rights to the brand, including the actual chemical recipe to make the mold used to make the original figurine.
Today’s updated Igracek is not bigger but it is definitely better: “The main change of the figurine was to give it new arms, with movable wrists. The arms used to be connected to the hands of the figurine, now the hands can be moved. Also, the hands are now flesh-colored and no longer simply the same color as the sleeves. And of course, we have a much wider variety of shades and patterns to choose from for the figurines’ outfits and faces, and for all the other accessories that the figurine can have and that can serve to illustrate different professions.”, reveals company’s director Miroslav Kotik.
Sounds good to me!
CZ: Pamatujete si na Igracky? Jake dite je nemelo za komunistu rozhazene po pokojicku, ze ano? Diky lakave vzhlizejicim zahranicnim hrackam, ktere se po Sametove revoluci propracovaly na ceskoslovensky trh, Igracci bohuzel zkrachovali; tedy ona firma Igra, ktera je vyrabela. Od te doby se staly plastikove postavicky pohou sbernou polozkou, ktera byla k sehnani pouze za tezke penize. Nedavno ale patent na vyrobu odkoupila nova ceska firma Efko, jenz povodni Igracky jeste trosku zlepsila:
“Novi Igracci maji ruzove, samostatne oddelene ruce – nejsou soucasti cele paze, jako to byvalo za komunistu; take Igrackova zapesti jsou pohybliva. Samozrejme, ze samotny vyber druhu figurin je take mnohem vetsi, pridali jsme nescetne mnozstvi ruznych obleku, barev a modnich doplnku.”, prozrazuje reditel Efky, Miroslav Kotik.
Mame se na co tesit!
Source: http://www.radio.cz/en/article/129991
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there was a hungarian line too named after the guy who produced them: schenk.
after the communist era playmobil sued the man and in 1996 and the court forced to shot down production.