2023-08-13 10:51:51
The fascinating thing is that you can travel with the figures to the Romans, the Middle Ages, the city of the future or the hospital within minutes, says Oliver Schaffer about the toy that has become the main part of his job: Playmobil. “In addition, the figures always smile.” It is a positively occupied toy.
The Hamburger is a Playmobil exhibition artist. “I’ve specialized in creating commissioned works for museums that focus on a specific topic,” explains the 44-year-old. It’s not about showing Playmobil itself, but about illustrating historical or fantastic themes with the help of Playmobil, for example. He uses parts from his Playmobil show collection, which is the largest of its kind in the world.
Even as a child, the creator, who grew up in Kiel, was enthusiastic about Playmobil: “When I played with Playmobil, I could forget everyday life.” After school he trained in singing, dancing and acting and worked for ten years as a musical actor, before he spent twelve years selecting singers for cruise ships at Aida Cruises.
Big circus collection
In 2003, the Horst Brandstätter Group from Zirndorf, which brought the Playmobil brand onto the market in 1974, contacted him on the 30th anniversary of the 7.5 centimeter figures. A fan letter from his childhood had been archived. “From the photos, you thought I had the largest Playmobil circus collection in Germany.” To mark the anniversary, there was a traveling exhibition that began in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer. “And then I took part with my circus.”
In 2009, Playmobil France was also interested in an exhibition at the Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs in the north wing of the Louvre Palace. “Because the French are huge circus fans, especially at Christmas time, they really wanted to include the circus theme,” says Schaffer. “I exhibited my Circus Oliver, which I collected as a child, with a view of the Eiffel Tower.” His father had built the circus tent for him out of wood and canvas. “He stood there with tears in his eyes. Because who would have ever thought that this circus tent from my homeland would one day be seen in Paris 200 meters from the Mona Lisa?”
After that, more and more museums asked if he could also exhibit subjects other than circus, says Schaffer. He made show landscapes about the Romans, the Middle Ages and the Wild West. In the beginning he designed about three to five exhibitions a year part-time and took vacation for that. “Over time I bought more and more material, and the topics became more and more specific.” In 2019 there were ten exhibitions. He quit and started his own business.
Home is a playmobil-free zone
For this year he has conceived ten exhibitions. Until the end of July, a show on “175 years of the Paulskirche” took place at Philippsruhe Castle in Hanau. His exhibition in the Archaeological Museum in Hamburg has just been extended. He also exhibits in Münster, Speyer, Bremen and Bad Sachsa. So far he has created 60 exhibitions that have had a total of over five million visitors.
Schaffer spends almost half of the year in hotels. The crowning glory is always the construction of the exhibition. This takes two to six weeks. “Every single figure, every single tree is set up with my hand. After that I won’t be able to see any more Playmobil for a while.” Schaffer designs dioramas that are one by one to eight meters in size. A person who travels with him as a freelancer helps him with the construction. The museum directors and curators checked whether the content was correct. “They say, for example, at a medieval exhibition, can you please take away a few beards, because they know that beards were not that widespread in the Middle Ages.”
The artist can draw on a collection estimated at two to three million Playmobil parts and around 400,000 figures. “I’ve definitely spent over a million euros on Playmobil.” It’s difficult for him to quantify the value of his collection: “The question is whether everything I own is still worth what it used to be.” Because he owns the parts are not in the original condition in the packages. He only has one very valuable figure: “I have one of the first Playmobil figures from the 1970s; it’s still in the original packaging and is now probably worth 300 euros or a little more.”
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