He's available as a torturer with a red mask, nail board and rack.
Or as an executioner complete with scaffold, hatchet and delinquent who lays his head on a block of wood.
When it comes to recreating reality in toys, toy manufacturers are sometimes not exactly squeamish.
The Playmobil company, in particular, creates whole worlds with good and spooky sides with their figures and accessories.
However, the torturer and the executioner are the few that should not necessarily be left to children to play with.
Luise Glaser-Lotz
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Kinzig district.
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According to Victoria Asschenfeldt, head of the Hessian Doll and Toy Museum in Hanau-Wilhelmsbad, the creepy figures have long since been removed from the range and cannot be found in the museum as objects of interest.
But there are grandiose dragons from Playmobil in many variations, knights, damsels and detailed castles that fit the concept of the museum's new special exhibition: "Knights, castles, beautiful damsels - how the Middle Ages came into the children's room and is still there today “ is the title of the show, which above all illuminates the romantic characteristics of the reception of the Middle Ages.
That is correct, because the cruel facets of the Middle Ages, the times of plague, arson, famine, quacks,
Witch hunts and high child mortality do not serve as a template for happy play in the children's room.
The curators Victoria Asschenfeldt and the Middle Ages expert Ortwin Pelc went in search of clues to explore the change in the way the Middle Ages were received in the world of toys and children's and young people's books.
Did children play in the Middle Ages?
And if so, what toys did they have was one of the questions they pursued.
Not too much is known today about childhood in the Middle Ages, according to Asschenfeldt there are hardly any records or pictures.
But the museum director is convinced: children played at all times, even in the Middle Ages.
The few relics that have been found come mainly from the latrines of larger cities.
There one found rattles, building blocks, marbles, balls, tops, dolls, tires and seesaws as well as human and animal figures.
There were even rocking horses back then.
To this day, women play a subordinate role
Professional production did not yet exist, but many things were made in-house, often from sticks or bones.
The oldest pieces in the show were discovered in the early 1950s in a cloaca in Lübeck's St. John's Monastery.
A wooden puppet, called Katrin, dates from around 1300, and a top, a bird figure and a stoneware horseman were also excavated there, the head of which was lost at some point.
He carries a shield, so he could be identified as a knight figure.
According to Asschenfeldt, medieval toys really started in the nineteenth century.
Figures of knights and soldiers were cast in large numbers from pewter and toy castles were made from wood, then increasingly from plastic.
Figures and buildings made of Elastolin, an air-dried mass of wood flour, glue, clay, paper fibre, plaster and other components, became a bestseller in the post-war period.
Over time, the shapes of castles and figures became more and more diverse, up to the rich selection of medieval products of our days.
To this day, women play a rather subordinate role.
The woman of the Middle Ages appears as a figure revered in minstrelsy, but imprisoned behind thick castle walls.
What role she played in everyday life remains in the dark.
Romantically transfigured view of the past
Asschenfeldt and Pelc came across another insight: Although the Crusaders who went to the Holy Land played a dominant role, they and the church itself hardly ever figure in toy production.
This could be because behind the worship of the Middle Ages there was also the secular idea of a German national state, a circumstance that the National Socialists naturally took advantage of.
In addition, the clergy and crusaders did not previously fit well into the romanticized image of chivalry, represented by mythical and legendary figures such as Arthur and his Round Table, the Nibelung, Parzival, the magician Merlin or Robin Hood.
The exhibition clearly shows how the depiction of them in children's and young people's books and films has changed over the course of time.
The exhibition shows that the boom in the Middle Ages has continued unabated to this day.
Maybe he's hotter than ever.
Music groups like In Extremo have been successful on stage for many years, and medieval markets are almost always crowded.
However, more and more fantasy elements are mixed into the reception of the Middle Ages.
So the medieval Merlin is certainly the model for the chief wizard Dumbledore in Harry Potter.
Sword fighting has also survived, only Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in Star Wars fight with lightsabers instead of steel weapons.
More information about the opening times and program of the Hessian Doll and Toy Museum in Hanau-Wilhelmsbad on the Internet at www.hpusm.de. On Sunday, August 28th, a medieval festival will be celebrated in the museum. A richly illustrated accompanying volume with contributions by the curators and scientists has been published for the exhibition. It's called "Knights, castles, beautiful ladies. The Middle Ages in the children's room" and costs 14.95 euros.