Playmobil announced on PCCa new promotional figure...
6925 Henry the Lion
About
Henry the Lion(Heinrich der Löwe) lived
from 1129 –1195 and was a member of the Welf dynasty. He was the Duke of
Saxony and later Bavaria and one of the most powerful Germans of his
time, ruling over a vast territory with a residency in Braunschweig. On
the occasion of the PLAYMOBIL Anniversary Exhibition, the Braunschweig Stadtmarketing GmbH
offers this special PLAYMOBIL figure together with his legendary lion. A
first edition of 25.000 sets was produced and is now available as an
exclusive souvenier.
“From this day forward we would swim across miles of country no man had
known, free and level, with our flesh feeling what the fish scales
know.”
Early Years
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910 in
Saint-André-de-Cubzac, near Bordeaux, in France. He learned to swim when
he was just four.
His father, Daniel Cousteau, was an international lawyer. His mother,
Elizabeth Duranthon, was the daughter of a wealthy local wine merchant
and landowner.
The family temporarily relocated to New York, USA when Jacques
Cousteau was aged 10 to 12 years old. There he learned to speak English
fluently and improved his swimming and snorkeling. At summer camp in
Vermont he started diving as part of the camp’s policy of cleaning up
the nearby lake, beginning his life-long love of swimming below the
water, even though he had no goggles at that time.
When the family returned to France, they moved to the Mediterranean
city of Marseilles, where Cousteau snorkeled in the warm sea around the
city. He also bought a movie camera, which he took apart and
reassembled, learning how it worked mechanically.
Concerned at their son’s lack of academic progress and lack of
discipline (he had gone on a window-smashing spree) his parents sent him
to a tough boarding school in France’s Alsace region. The strong
discipline worked wonders for the boy.
Beginning a Life at Sea
In 1930 Cousteau passed the tough exams for the French Naval Academy
in Brest, where he trained for two years before spending a year at sea.
In 1933 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and spent most of the next two years sailing the world’s seas.
In 1935 Cousteau started training to become a naval aircraft pilot.
He had almost completed his training when, in 1936, he was involved in a
near-fatal car crash. Traveling too fast on a bend, his car left the
road. He was paralyzed on his right side and broke a dozen bones,
including multiple fractures in both arms.
Surgeons thought it best to amputate his paralyzed right arm, which
had become infected. Although the infection was life-threatening,
Cousteau insisted his arm should not be amputated. He survived, but his
career as a pilot was over.
After months of therapy, much of it spent swimming to increase the
strength of his shattered bones, he became a naval gunnery instructor.
Cousteau now swam daily to strengthen his arms. He improvised a pair
of early swimming goggles from aircraft pilot goggles and swam down to
explore the sea floor. The beauty of the sea-floor and its flora and
fauna made such a deep impression on him that he decided that he wanted
to make diving his life’s work.
The Undersea World Of Jacques Cousteau - Search In The Deep of the Oceans
Here's my Playmobil custom for Jacques-Yves Cousteau