The NA set went away in the 1990s… but they brought it back: http://www.playmobil.us/superset-native-american-camp/4012.html Still the same mishmash of cultures (totem pole and teepee).
I stopped looking for the cowboy set when I saw the Confederate General doll. http://www.playmobil.us/confederate-general/6275.html
If that’s the objection, though, the pirate toy itself is already problematic enough before you get to the slave collar.
I’m surprised you missed my obvious sarcasm. There’s only so far you can push political correctness.
When my son was a toddler I got him one of those Playmobil train sets – they were wonderful big things that were the same G-scale as LGB sets and compatible with the same accessories, and we got lots of LGB tracks and switches. And we got many accessories from both Playmobil, LGB, and compatible G-scale vendors. Pretty sure we had some black porters and baggage handlers. But he was much more concerned with making the trains go round the various tracks than with the skin color of the porters and baggage handlers. Pretty sure we survived the discrimination crisis. 
Not getting the outrage here.
A play set is full of symbols that represent tropes in the fantasy. The pirate story fantasy is based on history and real history seeps in. Black pirates existed and were typically either escaped from slaver ships or joined the pirate crew after slaver ships were raided. The historical figure of Black Caesar, escaped from a slaver ship, figures in most tellings of Blackbeard.
If you are going to have a pirate play set you can possibly edit out that there were Black pirates or you can include the character with a reference to the full trope or you can ignore the history of pirate fantasy and history and have no symbolic reference to the backstory of the character. I do not find any offensive but a quick something that references a backstory and perhaps even inspires a bit of learning about what the slave trade was as the kids get older … does not strike me as such an objectionable choice.
Personally I find these small items referencing historical accuracy in kid’s toys, movies, and literature to be like Easter Eggs. Mostly they’ll fly right over the heads of most kids and parents though. Shame if they edit it out if future editions.
LGB?
Lesbian, gay, and bi?
Man, playmobile was way ahead of the curve…
So yer sayin’ the ship in question is the Raging Queen?
Apparently some pirates DID keep slaves, but it wasn’t a popular procedure; many pirates had BEEN slaves, and didn’t much care for the whole thing. Plus, being responsible for another person aboard ship, even when asleep, wasn’t really feasible. Slavery was not much of a thing among pirates.
Mighod, the collector value…
You mean the Klaus Barbie doll?
LGB was a beautiful thing. Sadly, life moves on, even for our children. We go on to the greater challenge of actually growing up and living our lives. I still have the train stuff packed away, and it still has a roomful of train tracks and little buildings and, undoubtedly, little plastic people in there somewhere. Some might even be politically incorrect. We survived.
A Polish [del]asshole[/del]artist did that to Lego, a few years ago…
Sword…!? I’m still hoping that in the upper right hand corner that’s canon ammo. :eek:
I don’t understand why you don’t see it. There are no slaves (former or not) in the pirate fantasy. And putting slaves in your children’s toys is sick. Slavery is not something to be celebrated, to put in toys where kids are going to be having fun with them.
You want to include historical accuracy? Fine. Include that which fits the theme of a toy–things that are celebrated or frivolous. Not something that has your kids playing with toy slaves. Or, as already mentioned, toy Holocaust victims.
I don’t care if it is historically accurate. I don’t want my kids playing with a toyset that includes Jack the Ripper, either. Or a Klan member, or anything like that.
I think one big reason for the reaction is that the whole thing just feels unnecessary on the company’s part if they weren’t trying to evoke slavery.
If they’re going for historical accuracy - doesn’t the golden age of piracy slightly pre-date the worst excesses of the African slave trade?
I should think an “escaped slave” could as well be white as black. The Ottoman Empire, for one, weren’t picky about the colour of the prisoners they got to row their galleys just so long as they weren’t Muslim.
If they’re going to have a slave (or ex-slave) character, then ‘oh, I guess that would be a black character’ is actually a modern thought
