Ice skating this Summer with Ice Skater Smurf

Looking for things to do over the holiday break, how about going ice skating! If you live in the Southern hemisphere like in Australia, ice skating during the Christmas/holiday period can be some kind of novelty especially if the beach doesn’t really take to your fancy.

Ice Skater Smurf was one of the last smurfs produced by Bully in 1979. Ice Skater smurf can be found on its back with it’s legs and arms up in the air. While wearing a red scarf, yellow gloves, his customary white trousers and ice-skates.

Ice Skater was also used as a promotional smurf. This promotional mmurf has the words “Holiday on Ice” written in black letters on the top of his hat. Holiday on Ice is a global ice-skating entertainment company. This was produced as a regular smurf and a keyring.

The other strange thing I have come across was Ice Skater inside a smurf globe. From my understanding this was sold around in 1991 . As strange as it sounds there are about half a dozen smurfs that were sold like this. Though the smurfs inside are genuine and I am not completely sure if the snow globes were authorised smurf merchandise.

Depending on how pedantic you are about finding variations within your smurf collection, some of you may be interested in knowing that the W.Germany made ones generally have thinner skates (2mm thick) and the Hong Kong made ones have thicker skates (3mm thick). I was just curious as I noticed the thickness of the ice skates are regularly mentioned on collector’s websites. No doubt there are other variations to be found such as the colour red used for the scarf and the yellow used for the gloves.

Schleich sold Ice Skater between 1979 to 1989 and then again 1991 to 1993. Surprisingly it was only sold by Wallace Berrie in the USA between 1982 to 1984. I also don’t believe it was ever sold by BP in Australia. Perhaps they thought no one in Australia would know what ice skating was.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Smurfette with Ice cream

Smurfette with Ice Cream was only sold by Schleich for three years 1984 to 1986. Wearing her white heeled shoes, a white dress with pink polka dots while holding an ice cream cone with both hands.

In the Der Schlumpf Katalog IV there are lots of different coloured versions. It is unclear whether these are all genuine or not. For some collectors this may not be a big deal as different coloured versions can add brightness to a display.

I think there are only two genuine variations of the Smurfette with ice cream cones, the same colours just a different order – yellow, pink and violet. As the ice cream cone is a removable piece, it is possible to find the scoops of ice cream with two scoops on top followed by one in front or one scoop on top followed by two scoops in front.

In the early 1990’s new child safety laws for toys were introduced which forced the discontinuation of many smurfs made with removable parts. Sadly this included Smurfette with Ice cream. This is possibly why Smurfette with Ice cream is so collectible today as it is no longer being made by Schleich and quite possibly never will be.

This is rather a shame as just imagine the marketing opportunities that were missed. One only needs to look at the success of Ice Lolly to see how successful it was for Scholler. This promotional smurf is still highly sought after by most smurf fans even if they had never heard of Scholler previously like me.

For those of you who like to collect smurfs made in different countries, there are at least three with Smurfette with Ice cream; W.Germany, Portugal and Hong Kong. It should be noted with the Hong Kong version this does not include W. Berrie or Applause marking just Hong Kong Schleich S © Peyo 1984. For those of you who like to collect smurfs with different paint dots there are at least two; mustard and red. And for those who just like to collect smurfs, have fun and enjoy the experience.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

P.S After reading this post it would be easy just to move onto the next thing, but if you found the post to your liking how about join our Mailing List or by sharing your thoughts in the Comments field. 2018 is going to be a huge year for smurf fans with the 60th anniversary of the smurfs, so as the saying goes you have to be in it to win it! Here’s a glimpse of things to come https://vimeo.com/200339868?ref=fb-share

Prototype Smurfs

It’s always fascinating to see some smurfs that were painted one way in a catalogue and for any number of reasons was never actually sold like this. What I would like to know is do these smurfs actually exist? To give you some idea of what I am talking about, I have added pictures from particular Schleich catalogues. These catalogues can be found on the Blue Cavern Forum site and is well worth a visit if you love your smurf history.

Fancy car with gold steering wheel

In the 1979 Schleich Dealer’s catalogue we see the Car Driver, #40210 with a gold coloured steering wheel. In Europe Car Driver was typically found with a yellow steering wheel and in Australia & USA it was commonly found with a brown steering wheel. The wheels also look a little different in the picture. In the same catalogue there is a picture of the Cyclist, #40501 where the spokes are painted white and the tyres are painted black. Once again this was later sold with grey tyres. More recently I have seen a picture of a Cyclist with black tyres but I could not tell from the picture if this was genuine or not.

#20105 Scot – brown pipes on bagpipes

In 1979 Bully lost the rights to produce smurfs and by 1980 Schleich was starting to show both Bully and Schleich made smurfs in their catalogue. Little changed with the Bully smurfs pictured in 1980 Schleich catalogue to what was actually released except for Scot, #20105 which was pictured with brown bagpipes and sold with yellow bagpipes instead. What is a mystery with this smurf, was it Bully or Schleich who changed the colour of the bagpipes. To complicate things, Schleich never changed the Bully markings on Scot between 1980 to 1984 due to some legal agreement made between Bully and Schleich.

1988 Schleich Dealer’s Catalogue

In the 1988 Schleich Dealer’s catalogue, the Foreman #20229 had a white hard helmet which was later changed to orange. It is also interesting to see that Hula Smurfette and Fitness were only hand drawn sketches. By 1989 the actual figurines appeared in the Schleich catalogue. It should also be noted at this point that in 1988 and 1991 there were no new smurfs produced by Schleich.

Even in 2017 Groom Smurf, #20796 was originally pictured wearing a black suit and top hat. So imagine my surprise when I received mine wearing a grey suit and top hat. My guess is that they decided to change the colour of the suit so Groom Smurf would not be confused with Bride & Groom, #20746 released in 2013. I think I prefer the Groom wearing a black suit.

Then there is always the infamous Christmas Bell Ringer shown in 1984 Schleich catalogue or the Fireman with the red hose in the 1992 Schleich catalogue……….

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

What’s not to like about Golfer Smurf

What’s not to like about Golfer Smurf, as you don’t even need to like playing golf to appreciate all the quirky little things you can find with Golfer Smurf first produced by Schleich in 1979 and sold in 1980.

The first version of Golfer Smurf produced was with yellow pants, red socks, black and white shoes. Golf club is brown & silver with a white ball. There was also a version with red pants & yellow socks produced shortly afterwards.

Sorry folks this is not a rare Muster marking but an injection mark

In 1980 Golfer Smurf was also released in Australia, wearing yellow pants, red socks and black shoes. He’s holding a silver golf club with the ball unpainted. The weird thing about these early ones is the large injection mark on their back. Typically you find this kind of injection mark under a smurf’s feet. Also the early ones produced out of Hong Kong had lighter yellow pants and matte black shoes.

In the beginning the holes in the hands for the golf club was smaller. After a while they changed to longer golf clubs with a thicker square shaped handle. Not entirely sure when they made this change but my guess is around 1982. This is around the time BP stopped selling smurfs in Australia and Hong Kong was only making smurfs to Wallace Berrie in the USA.

The other odd thing you can find with some of the Hong Kong ones is the year 1979 blocked out and replaced with the year 1980. Typically these are painted with darker colours.

There are at least two German versions with the longer golf clubs. One with a grey golf club and a white paint dot under the right foot and the second one with a silver grey golf club.

The last version produced was made out of China wearing yellow pants, red socks, black and white shoes. He’s holding a long silver golf club with the ball unpainted. Golfer was last produced by Schleich in 1993.

Two other golfing themed smurfs have been produced by Schleich. In 1986 Golf Smurfette was released, wearing a white dress and is about to tee off as she swings her dark grey plastic golf club back over the ball. This is my most favourite one out of the three.

In 1999 Schleich released a new golf smurf. This Golf Smurf can be seen with his golf bag over his left shoulder while carrying a white golf ball in his right hand. Wearing a yellow shirt, orange checkered pants and brown shoes. Some of thought this should have been called Golf Caddy Smurf!

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B