Hans Beck Hans Beck Hans Beck (6 May 1929, Greiz – 30 January 2009, Markdorf) was the German inventor of Playmobil toys. He is thus often called "The Father of Playmobil". Born in Greiz, Thuringia, Beck grew up in the town of Zirndorf. He trained as a cabinet maker and made small toy vehicles and figures for his younger siblings. He presented his model airplanes to Horst Brandstätter, owner of local toy company Geobra Brandstätter, who took him on, and asked him to develop toy figures for children. As a hobby Beck built ultra-lightweight model aircraft for flying indoors. He competed in
Toy soldier knights and castles. The most extensive collection of toy soldiers was probably that of Malcolm Forbes, who began collecting toy soldiers in the late 1960s and amassed a collection of over 90,000 figures by the time of his death in 1990. Anne Seddon Kinsolving Brown of Providence, Rhode Island, USA, began collecting miniature toy soldiers on her honeymoon to Europe in 1930, eventually amassing a collection of over 6,000 figures; these are on display at the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection at Brown University Library in Providence. Some of the more noteworthy, annual toy soldier and historical figure shows