PLAYMOBIL Experience Center in Hengshanfang, Shanghai

July 2022, Shanghai – Today, the first PLAYMOBIL Experience Center in China officially opened.  For children in Shanghai, PLAYMOBIL fans and toy collectors of all ages, inspiring game experiences, entertaining social experiences and sustainable value creation will no longer be far away, and locals in Shanghai will also have a good place to spend their family time with, and for entertainment! 

PLAYMOBIL has collaborated with more than 500 stores in China and has over 300,000 fans on social media so far. The positive feedback from customers also accelerated PLAYMOBIL to open the first experience center in China to further enhance its brand image and popularity. As the first PLAYMOBIL store in China and the worldwide first experience center, this time in Xuhui, Hengshanfang    the brand awareness of PLAYMOBIL will further enhanced for toy lovers, so as to meet the needs of our customers in Shanghai and beyond. Chinese consumers have a growing demand for creative play experiences.

As the logo of PLAYMOBIL "Smile wins the world”, PLAYMOBIL figures and model toys have been loved by Chinese children and parents through countless collaborations with trading partner in the past five years. The world's first experience center is very honored to have our first location in China at Hengshanfang. We hope to provide a full range of immersive visual impressions through the combination of physical experience and digitalization, and develop soft skills such as social skills from interactions with models and figures. Also, we are committed to create an immersive experience with Phygital（Physical+Digital), POEs (point of emotions). We are dedicated to creating a parent-child interactive paradise.”

PLAYMOBIL Collaboration with Volkswagen 

On the opening day, the ID.4CROZZ and ID.6CROZZ exhibition cars were also parked outside the experience center, attracting guests to stop and punch in the ID.CROZZ exhibition car photos with PLAYMOBIL figures on the body. PLAYMOBIL and FAW-Volkswagen also held an on-site signing ceremony. It is reported that the collaboration between PLAYMOBIL and Volkswagen has a long history. The toy set based on the Volkswagen T1 camper and the Volkswagen Beetle is believed to awaken the Chinese parents' memories of the classics. PLAYMOBIL will continue to write the history of automobiles together with Volkswagen in the future. Similarly, car buyers will find these PLAYMOBIL toy models in Volkswagen's offline physical stores, and it will also help them to further appreciate the German car culture brought by the cross-border collaboration with PLAYMOBIL while purchasing a car.

PLAYMOBIL Collaboration with BVB

PLAYMOBIL grand opening ceremony officially launched

Borussia Dortmund (BVB), located in the Ruhr region of Germany, is one of the top 10 European football clubs, won everything in the world of football and has a large fan base in China. The PLAYMOBIL & BVB collection consisting of players & goalkeepers brings the joy of football closer to the young club followers. Benjamin Wahl - Head of BVB China said: "Playmobil & BVB, two famous German brands, work in different business fields but both create the same passion & enthusiasm among their customers. Both brands are famous for their focus on youth development. The cooperation with PLAYMOBIL will bring our fanbase closer to the wonderful world of Playmobil and into the homes of many fans."

Introduction on the interactive session of the experience center

The first experience store of PLAYMOBIL in China has also added a lot of digital interactive games. Consumers can interact through digital somatosensory games at the main entrance of the experience center. Mr. Richard Cuntz, Consul of Science and Technology of the German Consulate General in Shanghai, also attended the opening ceremony and expressed his appreciation for the brand-new creative and play experience brought by digitalization. As a well-known toy brand in Germany, Mr. Cuntz also agrees with the creation and play concept of PLAYMOBIL. Also looks forward to being welcomed by more children and parents in China.

PLAYMOBIL's licensing partnership is not only written in the automotive industry, but also in the film and animation industry such as "Ghostbusters", "How to Train Your Dragon", "Back to the Future", "Star Trek" and other classic film and television works. The collaborations of PLAYMOBIL are also full of surprises. It is reported that the IP collaboration between PLAYMOBIL and the Japanese anime "Naruto Shipudden", which is popular all over the world, will also be launched soon. At present, it is known that there will be 12 ninja figures on the market, stay tuned!

This PLAYMOBIL Shanghai flagship store is the combination of an offline retail store and an experience center. The interior consists of experience area, creative play space and Inclusion café and other main elements to create a one of a kind unique PLAYMOBIL experience center. It highlights the charm of the combination of physical experience and digital innovation.

Introduction on Inclusion Café

The Inclusion Café inside the store is derived from the PLAYMOBIL "My Cafe" set, code-named 70015, which is the same code for this set of coffee shops. The most touching part is that the baristas of the Inclusion Café are all our fellow friends with intellectual developmental disabilities who have also been trained and qualified for the employment. They build this fragrant of warmth for PLAYMOBIL Creative Play Space through their own hands.

"The beauty of the world requires the contribution from each of us. Happiness also belongs to all of us." The board of directors of PLAYMOBIL is managed by a foundation dedicated to public welfare.  The Inclusion Café draws on the experience of Sino-German Sunac workshops and Inclusion Factory that have been established in China for many years, and it is of a public welfare nature. In addition, coffee culture in Shanghai is also one of its urban characteristics, and it can also give pleasures for families who visit the flagship store.

The Horst Brandstätter Group, the parent group of PLAYMOBIL, does not stop there in the practice of social responsibility. It is reported that the Horst Brandstätter Group has taken an important step towards achieving its sustainable development goals in the 2021/2022 fiscal year. The PLAYMOBIL and LECHUZA brand companies aim to be climate neutral by 2027. Over the next few years, the group will invest 50 million euros in climate protection. “Taking responsibility and fulfilling it sustainably ensures the future viability of our companies. As a global brand, PLAYMOBIL has a special social and ecological responsibility,” emphasizes Steffen Höpfner, CEO of the Horst Brandstätter Group, “Not only do we want to provide children with sustainable products, but we also want to guide them from an early age on how important it is to protect our planet.”

The commitment to sustainability of PLAYMOBIL’s business development department can be seen from the product highlights to be launched in July 2022, the new WILTOPIA game world represents growing up in a world where animals are valued and protected in nature, combined with learning effects and knowledge transfer to convey the fun of play, all figures and toys are made from an average of 80% sustainable materials. WILTOPIA uses post-consumer recycled materials and bio-based plastics, a large portion of which is derived from materials recycled from discarded refrigerators.

PLAYMOBIL EXPERIENCE CENTER（HENGSHANFANG）

326 Tianping Road, Xuhui District, SHANGHAI

［All Images via Playmobil］