Smurf says Have a Heart for kids

No one can doubt the power of advertising, especially when it features the smurfs. I recently came across this one from the New Idea magazine, 2nd October 1982.

Have a Heart for Kids is an international organisation, founded back in 1978 in Germany. One of it’s early campaigns was for more traffic lights, more zebra crossings, limited traffic zones and play zones. The number of children killed in traffic accidents has been greatly reduced since this campaign. Eversince the organization has continued to fight for children’s needs and requirements.

Have a Heart figurine

Have a Heart smurf is unique, as there are three different versions. Each one carries a sign with a heart emblem with a saying in English, German & French written in black text. It appears there is no difference to the actual figurine.

Have a Heart ! – English

Ein Herz Für Kinder – German (A heart for children)

De Tout Mon Coeur – French (Of all my heart)

This smurf can be hard to smurf to buy because of it’s likeness to Congratulations Smurf (#20067). The difference lies with how the hands have been made. The Heart smurf should have the inside of the hands more flat compared to the Congratulations smurf where they are more contoured and shaped. This is to do with how the heart shaped sign is slotted into the hands. Whereas Congratulations smurf is reaching out to another smurf to shake its hand.

The same figurine used for Heart smurf was also used for Traffic Crossing smurf (#20155). Heart smurf was made by Schleich between 1981 to 1986 and was never made in Hong Kong. I don’t think it was never sold in the USA by Wallace Berrie. But as you can see by the advertisement from 1982 there is a high chance it was sold in Australia.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

#1 Teacher Smurf

Have you ever wondered why this smurf is sometimes referred to as a ‘promo?’ – I know have. As far as I am aware it is not really promoting a company or organisation like other promotional smurfs produced by Schleich. Or was it just a variation produced by Wallace Berrie for only the American market and was never intended to be sold in Europe by Schleich.

Perhaps the confusion began when Schleich would refer to the Red Apple with #1 Teacher as a promotional smurf made for the U.S market in some of their catalogues. This was then followed by various collector books and websites doing the same thing.

I don’t consider #1 Teacher a promotional smurf but a variation. This is similar as the #1 Grad – a variation on the Graduation smurf. But the difference with these two, is that Schleich never gave #1 Teacher its own article number. Whereas #1 Grad was a completely different mould compared to Graduation Smurf and was produced a couple of years later by Wallace Berrie.

When looking for the #1 Teacher red apple smurf there are a couple of things you should look out for.

This smurf was only produced by Wallace Berrie. It should only be found with Hong Kong markings. #1 Teacher was never produced or painted out of Europe, so it should not be found with any paint dots under its feet.
As the smurf mould was also used by Pumpkin Smurf (#20136) which was first produced in 1981, it is possible to find the Apple Smurf with either the year marking to be 1981 or 1983.
#1 Teacher Red Apple had two marking variations:
Made in Hong Kong W. Berrie Co. Schleich © Peyo 1981
Made in Hong Kong W. Berrie Co. Schleich © Peyo 1983

There is also another red apple smurf that causes debate amongst collectors as to whether it is real or fake. This is the one with the words I (heart) NY written in white on the red apple. Some feel, that it was produced as only a test version and others feel it is a fake. Regardless what your opinion is of this smurf, one would have to be a very passionate collector to buy one, due to the high price tag it demands.

No matter if you call this a promotional or variation, #1 Teacher smurf is an interesting smurf to add to one’s collection. The red apple complements the green apple variations. Perhaps one day someone will explain why they added #1 Teacher to the apple.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Elusive Cheerleader Smurfette

Do you have an elusive smurf, that you have always wanted but can never find? For some this is Cheerleader Smurfette (#20149).

Cheerleader – Wallace Berrie version.

This version of Cheerleader is wearing a white dress with reddish ‘S’ on the front, light blue collar and cuffs and waving her reddish orange pom poms. She is standing on a round grass pattern base with one leg slightly raised.

It is thought that Cheerleader was first released by Wallace Berrie at the end of 1982 or early 1983 and was produced out of Hong Kong. The first one released has a W.B.CO marking and then this was later changed W. Berrie Co under its base. Some collectors have noted a difference of the green paint used for the base; light green to dark green. However all of mine, seem to have a dark green base.

Wallace Berrie must have produced a lot of these Cheerleader Smurfette’s as they were also sold as key-rings and on variety of triangle pedestals.

Cheerleader – Schleich version.

There is very little difference between the Schleich version and the Wallace Berrie version. The most notable difference is that the Schleich one has no ‘S’ on the front of her white dress.

Some collector books such as the Der Schlumpf Katalog IV states it was first sold in 1989. Which is not correct. If you have a look through old Schleich catalogues you can see it was first sold in 1987 and only available until 1989.

The Schleich version is considered harder to find compared to the Wallace Berrie version. For example I have 2 Schleich ones compared to my 6 Wallace Berrie ones.

Cheerleader – McDonald’s

McDonald’s also have their version of the Cheerleader. Her white dress has gold spots on it to match with her gold boots and she is waving orange pom poms. M embossed into the back of the head.

It was first used in 1996 to help celebrate McDonald’s 25th anniversary in Germany and the Netherlands. And then again 1998 McDonalds used her to help celebrate their 40th anniversary in England, Ireland. I have also read somewhere that Iceland was included in the promotion in 1998.

Markings

Elusive as she maybe is for some, Cheerleader Smurfette is worth collecting. In most cases, it is not exspensive and just requires pataince to find one in good condition.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Wild Smurf – Wild thing

We first see Wild swinging from the tree trunk in the 1989 Schleich catalogue. Wild is seen in the Schleich catalogues right through to 2000.

Wild is a two piece figurine. The tree green base, light brown tree and dark green leaves. The figurine is a blue injected mould, with hand painted yellow shorts and a lime green leaf effect hat. There has only ever been handful of two piece figurines produced by Schleich. For example Bride and Groom (#20746) released in 2013. It was given the article number 20230 by Schleich and was never produced by Wallace Berrie/Applause.

When considering adding Wild to your smurf collection, there are a couple of things you should be wary of. Some collectors mention variances can be found with the green effect hat. Though this is true, but the variance found with the green paint is minor and in my opinion not even worth noting. This would be the same as the brown paint used for the tree trunk.

Markings

The majority of the markings for Wild can be found under the base. These can be either W.Germany Schleich S © 88 Peyo CE if produced before 1991 or Germany Schleich S © 88 Peyo CE. The markings for Germany were changed after the reunification of Germany. Schleich started marking their smurfs with Germany instead of W.Germany. On the old moulds they blocked or removed the W in front of Germany.

Only this weekend I have discovered that on the side of the smurf’s foot you can also find a small CE marking and sometimes a black paint dot under the foot. The black paint dot was added to smurfs made between 1988 to 1998 to indicate that the smurf was made using a new pvc formula and was made either in Portugal or Tunisia.

Wild is a bright, eye catching smurf to add to your collection. The sturdy base makes it is easy display. No blu-tac required for this one – thank goodness! There is nothing worse than seeing a picture of someone’s smurf collection on display with the smurfs being held up by blu-tac. It always makes me feel the smurf are standing in their own poo.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B