Mighty World toys offer an alternative to Playmobil that is more technically refined, a bit grittier, and priced for tight competition with the German toy giant. (Mighty World police cars and ambulances run $30/$40, for example, while Playmobil's cost $50 and up.)

We received Mighty World's Marine Research Unit, shown above, as a sample to review, and were pleasantly surprised by the level of detail in the molded plastic parts.

Being detail- and tool-oriented is almost an obsession with Mighty World. Our crew we received came with a pair of walkie-talkies, a thermos, a water bottle, a fuel container, a tool box, a backpack, a flotation device, a scuba mask, and a cool, two-handed waterproof camera. The boat itself had engines, mounted lights, oars, and some kind of detection equipment that were all removable.


This is pretty consistent with other Mighty World sets. Where Playmobil may offer one or two hand-held objects for its figures to grasp (Z's Dream Garden (reviewed here) came with a fan for the princess and a butterfly net for the prince), most Mighty World sets come with several. Their Highway Patrol Playset, for example, is a cop who, in addition to his motorcycle and helmet, comes with a clipboard for writing tickets, a stop sign on a stick, a megaphone, a flashlight, a police baton, a pair of handcuffs, and a gun (you can see it all laid out here). More on that gun later. For the moment, my point is that there are many small, intricate parts that will appeal to any young child's desire to manipulate tiny objects and to play-act in a realistic way with small toys. Mighty World figures' cupped hands have a slight give that holds any of their accessories quite easily. Where all that gear is to be stored when it is included on a mission is the only possible source of frustration.

But it gets weirder, and more exciting, still. You see, Mighty World makes a lot of vehicles - rescue vehicles, SUVs and Jeeps for its adventure guides, military vehicles, and cars. These vehicles can all be broken down and taken apart, with cabs, hoods, bumpers, cages, roll bars, racks, exhaust systems removed and swapped with other vehicles, and kids (younger ones with parental assistance) can raise or lower the suspension or adjust the wheelbase as needed to accommodate their newly tricked-out rides. And under the hood of every Mighty World vehicle is an engine, a fuel tank, a "battery," a transmission, and a drive train that are removable (and interchangeable with other vehicles, although they're all the same). Mighty World even sells a mechanic with basic tools and an enhanced shop tool set (for pretend play, not needed for the teardown) as part of their city series.

Z enjoyed playing with the Marine Research Unit - the concept of having the job of studying sea creatures hadn't yet occurred to Z - and we appreciate how they blend adventure with environmental concern. She was disappointed that the boat did not float and that she could not row the boat in the bathtub. We were disappointed that it not only doesn't float, but has holes water can get into but not easily out of. For a company so focused on detailed recreations of reality, boats that float seem like a no-brainer to us.

For contrast, check out Playmobil's Fire Rescue boat. All of their boats float on water, and this one even has a pump so you can squirt water through the fire hose, drawn from below the boat. Clearly, Playmobil thought through the play potential of a boat much more thoroughly than Mighty World.

Which brings me back to the guns - and the divide between the world of Playmobil and what I described as the "grittier" one of Mighty World.

If I were a person with more time on my hands I'd do a survey of the expressions on Mighty World faces - there appear to be only three or four - and who gets which face. My guess is that women, who make up a minority of Mighty World figures, usually have the open, smiling faces with gently arched eyebrows that go up as they head towards the facial midline. These are the same faces you see on many of Mighty World's EMS responders. But as you head through EMS to fire fighters and then to police, the expressions get meaner.

Playmobil cops are often unarmed. Their primary duties are to direct traffic and to stand around in tight-fitting police uniforms. Some carry guns, but even they are always happy and smiling. In Mighty World, the cops look, well, tough. They are the enforcers. Let's compare:

Playmobil Police

Mighty World Police

Now, let me ask you this. If you were a criminal - let's say, a nonviolent offender - which of these police teams would you rather encounter? What if you were a suspect, but innocent of any crime?

Don't tell me it's just a toy. These things have meaning - tremendous meaning, for a child. In the Mighty World lineup above, the righthand figure's facial expression is the one shared by most of the police figures in Mighty World. It's also on the faces of other figures from other Mighty World themes, where it reads more as determination than meanness. But that cop, above, and the highway patrolman? Add the subtle influence of Mighty World figures' stockier build and the shadows and creases molded and painted on their plastic surfaces, and they look like brooding jerks at best, hired thugs at worst.

I'm not complaining, exactly. Maybe your kids want to play with toys where cops are "mighty" above all else. And maybe it's more sincere than Playmobil, where even the sniper wears a smile ("like A Clockwork Orange," Adrienne of Baby Toolkit said recently). But it makes me squeamish, and I'm a dad who doesn't flinch when his daughter abuses her dollies or has her Playmobil princess drowned by a kelpie. The difference? She'll never encounter a kelpie, but in fact, just last night while reading her the story of "The Long Horse" from The Hidden Folk (reviewed here) I was struck by the parallels between the actions of a water horse and the lure of candy and a stranger's car - I actually made a mental note to draw this comparison when the time seems right. As for cops, the idea of a universal friendliness may gloss over of a more complex reality, but it will serve her well throughout her childhood, and lay a foundation for helping her trust authority figures as an adult.

My favorite Mighty World expression is one that combines curiosity with determination. It's a popular one among the adventurers in Mighty World, highlighting that these are people who must be tough but also on their toes and aware of the information that is available around them. It also proves that the creators think hard about the emotional state they want their figures to project. If I saw it on the cop's face, I'd feel more confident that he'd ask a few questions before pulling out the baton.

I could get into my concerns about Mighty World's military series, with its surveillance drones, robotic assault vehicles, and land mines. But given just how much more gruesome or cynical other military-themed toy lines can be - from the Vietnam-informed G.I. JOE, the standard-bearer for serrated bayonets and black ops antiheroes, through today's Xbox and PlayStation games - that's probably a conversation for another day.

I do have one other quibble. I have a (limited) background in emergency response (I'm actually certified to act as an operations-level first responder at HazMat or WMD incidents) and I can say from my somewhat bookish experience in that field that there are some fairly odd inaccuracies in the technical gear Mighty World responders are equipped with. This means that the pretend play your child engages in using, for example, Mighty World's River Rescue Unit will bear only a surreal relationship to what is actually done in such circumstances - the team is fully kitted out for diving, but their only rope (an essential component of water rescue operations) is attached to an anchor. Far worse is their Mobile Haz-Mat Unit, which, rather than responding to Hazardous Materials incidents, puts out fires with a high-tech robot while wearing chemical suits.

Every December, we package up the majority of the toys we've reviewed for Z Recommends and deliver them to a local program that distributes toys to needy families at Christmas. Mighty World's Mobile Research Unit was in that batch this year - the fact that the boat didn't float sunk its chances at being one of the few review items Z keeps. I think she'd love their passenger cars and their jungle adventurers. But we'd recommend Mighty World toys to anyone for its unique blend of mechanical finesse - particularly in its line of vehicles, although we haven't tested those - and figure-based play.

You can purchase Mighty World toys on Amazon.com or direct from the company's website.

So... Is anyone as sensitive as I am about the portrayal of authority figures in children's toys? Am I on to something, or just plain crazy?