Golden One-Hundred Smurfs

In my post about Climber Smurf, I made a reference to the Golden 100 Smurfs. We have had a request for further information on what figures are on the list, So I have put on my smurf hat and white trousers to get to work.

In the 1990 Schleich catalogue the first reference to the Golden 100 was made: ‘The Golden One-Hundred. 100 bestselling Smurfs on their go for the new decade’. This was around the same time of the reunification of Germany and parts of eastern Europe were able to buy genuine smurfs for the first time.

Each year a new selection was chosen along with any new smurfs produced by Schleich. Because of this I have decided not to list each smurf that was listed every year and instead I have decided to highlight some interesting points from each year.

1990

Four new smurfs released; Smoogle, Chitter, Nanny & Patriot.
Soccer Smurf, #20035 is wearing blue shirt and white shorts.
Patriot, #20409 is waving a cloth like flag with a white flagpole. (this was never released like this, so most likely it was a prototype made by Schleich)

1991

No new smurfs produced but the revival of 20 smurfs
This is the first CE mark is displayed in the Schleich catalogue.

1992

Seven new smurfs released; Smurfette with Mouse, Azrael, Bride, Groom, Video Camera, Handball & New Soccer.
Gargamel with Lab Glasses is made for the first time by Schleich. Up until then only Bully had produced their own version back in the 1970’s.

1993

Seven new smurfs released; Bodybuilder, Chasing Gargamel, Boxer, Scruple, Smurfette with Flower, Tramp & Yoga.
Boxer, #20419 is released as a regular smurf wearing a yellow singlet and green shorts. Prior to this Boxer was only sold as a Super Smurf.

1994

Six new smurfs released; Papa Thinking, Angry Gargamel, Schoolboy, Caveman, Cavewoman & Hefty.

1995

Six new smurfs released; Viking, Monk, Horeman, Horsewoman, Slouchy with Cone & Sassette with Cone and nine smurfs being re-released.
Golf Smurfette, #20210 is re-released since 1991 but only for the one year.

1996

Papa Thinking

Six new smurfs were released; Saxophone, Techno, Mobile Phone, Azrael Frightened, Sport Swimmer & Sprinter.
Papa Thinking, #20424 was first displayed with white eyebrows and an open mouth in the 1994 Schleich catalogue but by 1996 his eyebrows were now black.

1997

This time we have seven new smurfs released; Inline Skater, Inline Smurfette, Disco, Disco Smurfette, Smurf Child with Doll, Smurf Child on Truck & Smurf Bathing
Lute, #20013 with a red lute was re-released for the first time since 1986 and was only sold for the one year.

1998

Six new smurfs released; Lead Guitar, Bass Guitar, Lead Singer, Snowboarder, Snowboarder Smurfette & World Cup Soccer.
Announces that this year the Smurfs will be celebrating their 40th anniversary 1958 to 1998.
First pictures of the 40th anniversary Rock Band playset are displayed

1999

Six new smurfs released; Tourist, Sportsman, Aerobic Smurfette, Newspaper, Name Plate & Golf.
The last year Papa Smurf, #20001 is sold as a regular smurf unless you factor in the Decade Display Box Set in 2011.
Pointing Smurf with bright blue skin, #20050 was re-released for the first time since 1986.

2000

Eight new smurfs are released with much excitement; Leather Pants, Caretaker, Sandwich, Studious, Fire Chief, Scuba Diver, Chimney Sweep & Climber
Indian Smurfette, #20167 is re-issued for the first time since 1995 but only for one year.
Accordion, #20225 is re-issued for the first time since 1994 and once again for only one year.

In 2001 Schleich announced that there will be no ‘Golden 100’ and there will only be 50 smurfs produced. Some say this may have had something to do with the deterioration of the some of the old moulds used to make the smurfs.

I hope this information on the Golden 100 has helped answer some of your questions you may have had about this. Please feel free to contact us if you would like some extra information on something to do with smurf collecting as I am always happy to put on my smurf hat and white trousers!

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Smurfs made in Sri Lanka

Have you ever had a needle in a haystack experience? I did last week when I found a Smurf that was made in Sri Lanka. For some collectors, the markings on a Smurf mean nothing and for others like me, they mean a lot! So adding a Smurf with Sri Lanka markings, can make a big difference to ones own smurf collection.

To truly understand the importance of this marking, it helps to have an idea of the history of the Smurfs especially in the early 1980’s. The ever-increasing demand for Smurfs in the USA meant that Schleich had to look for other manufacturing options to keep up with the demand. At that time the majority of the smurfs for the USA were being made in Hong Kong.

Smurfs started being made in Sri Lanka in around 1983. In the beginning Smurfs were only being painted in Sri Lanka. In some instances Smurfs were sold with a small oval sticker with the words – Made in Hong Kong Painted in Sri Lanka attached under the foot. Other Smurfs would have a red paint dot added to their markings under their foot.

At some stage between 1983 and 1987, a small number of Smurfs were made in Sri Lanka. As there has been no official records ever released by Schleich no one really knows how many were actually made in Sri Lanka. On the Blue Cavern Forum, it has been suggested that only 23 Smurfs were made in Sri Lanka.

Here is the list below:

#20023 Rock n Roll #20099 Head Chef
#20031 Postman #20100 Cake
#20033 Clown #20126 Rollerskater Smurfette
#20040 Gift and Flowers #20141 Papa Captain
#20041 Hiker #20144 Indian
#20045 Painter #20177 Thanksgiving
#20062 Telephone #20196 Thanksgiving Smurfette
#20064 Toothbrush #20197 Indian with Corn
#20076 Courting #20198 Witch
#20083 Hammer #20199 Gargamel Mask
#20086 Present
#20093 Tennis Player
#20096 Sledgehammer

When the hype for the Smurfs dropped in America, drastic action was required by Schleich to ensure its own survival in the world of making toys. Both the Hong Kong and Sri Lanka factories were closed in around 1986.

To find or have a Smurf made in Sri Lanka is like owning a bit of your own history. Good luck to those who go in search for Smurfs!

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Quality Control – the smurf way

Don’t be alarmed if you come across a smurf that has a coloured paint dot under their foot. This was something Schleich introduced to smurfs around 1978 as a way of quality control. This practice continued right through to 2004.

The paint dots can be found on the feet or base of the smurfs to indicate which country the smurf was painted in and then later on if the smurf was made out of a new PVC formula.

Some say that the paint dots were introduced to smurfs after a National Benzole promotion in the UK in 1978.Upon where Schleich was accused of using high levels of lead in the paint used for their smurfs.

At around this time, Schleich had also opened up a new factory in Hong Kong due to demand for smurfs. By doing this it also allowed Schleich to produce smurfs at a lower production cost.

The story goes that some children were becoming sick after playing with their smurfs. The paint used for the smurfs contained higher levels of lead that was above the specified limit for the UK but not considered dangerous.

To avoid this type of thing happening again Schleich introduced the paint dots to smurfs as a method of quality control. This appears to include only smurfs painted outside the EC and sold within the EC that received a paint dot.

There are a number of different paint dots that can be found, one of the most interesting ones is the mustard paint dot. Mustard paint dots represent smurfs painted in Portugal. These are probably the most commonly found ones.

What makes the mustard paint dot ones the most interesting is that they can vary in size and colour (light yellow to mustard). This makes me think that within the mustard paint dot there were other key quality control indicators that were used.

In the beginning the factory in Portugal was used just to paint smurfs though as the demand increased for smurfs, Portugal also started making smurfs.

Between 1978 to 1987 smurfs painted in Portugal were given a mustard paint dot. After 1987 Portugal started using a black or white paint dot.

Red paint dots represent smurfs painted in Sri Lanka. Due to the high demand for smurfs in the USA, the Sri Lanka factory was opened to assist the operations in Hong Kong around 1982. This continued right through to 1987.

The red paint dot is generally smaller and does not vary in colour like the mustard paint dots that can be found.

Green paint dots represent smurfs painted in Tunisia. These were smurfs painted between 1982 through to 1987. A number of Bully marked smurfs can be found with a green paint dot.

The green paint dot is generally smaller and does not vary in colour like the mustard paint dots that can be found. Smurfs given a green paint dot are generally considered the hardest to find.

Between 1988 and 1999, black and white paint dots were used for smurfs painted in Portugal and Tunisia. The small black paint dot was used for smurfs that had a white or coloured foot/base. The white paint dot was used for smurfs that had a black foot/base.

Between 2000 and 2004 smurfs were given a blue paint dot to indicate a new pvc formula was used. It was around October 2000 the old type of PVC could no longer be used to manufacture in Europe, so a new pvc was introduced.

It was also around this time that Schleich started making smurfs in China again. This was between 2001 to 2004 and then stopped. However since 2013 new smurfs have be made out of China.

Who would have thought that the introduction of the paint dot used for quality control would become something that adds to the thrill of collecting smurfs.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

Bringing smurfs to America

Smurfs were first sold in America in 1979. At first there was some difficulties in finding a company that would support foreign characters, because the Americans wanted something that their audience would recognise.

However Wallace Berrie & Co acquired the North American licensing rights to the smurfs. This included using pre existing moulds from Bully and Schleich. Along with this they also started importing their own versions made in Hong Kong.

At the time most PVC toys would sell for roughly 25cents though Wallace Berrie took a gamble and started selling the smurf figurines for $1.50. The gamble paid off as the demand for smurfs was growing at a rapid rate.

Not only smurf figurines were being sold, Wallace Berrie introduced all sorts of smurf merchandise to America. The next big thing after the smurf figurines was the demand for the soft toys (plush dolls). The sale of smurf comics was also taking off.

On 12 September 1981, the smurfs debuted on NBC and made a huge impact capturing 42% of the Saturday morning television audience. The cartoon series in turn would be sold throughout the world and is still something that holds close to a generation that grew up on Saturday morning television viewing.

What is interesting to note that with the cartoon series, that any changes made to the smurf creations would have to be approved by Peyo.

Between 1979 and 1982 smurfs for America were being made in Hong Kong by Schleich. This served Schleich well because they were able to distrubute smurfs to Australia and New Zealand for BP promotions and America for Wallace Berrie.

By 1982 BP Australia no longer had the rights to smurfs in Australia and due to the high demand for smurfs in America, Wallace Berrie started to manufacture their own smurfs in Hong Kong.

With this Wallace Berrie also used their own reference numbers which was different to the existing Schleich reference numbers. This would later cause some head aches amongst collectors when trying to establish their own websites based on reference numbers.

They first started adding W.B.CO to the existing Hong Kong marked smurfs. Though before too long smurfs were being sold with Hong Kong W. Berrie markings.

There was also some smurfs that were only sold in America at this time and were never intended for the European market. Some of these included Baseball Catcher (20146) and Baseball Pitcher (20166)

In 1982 Wallace Berrie had acquired Applause division from Knickerbocker Toys and started adding Applause to the markings. Some have estimated at around this time that smurf merchandise was worth over $600 million.

By 1985 smurf sales were starting to decline. Wallace Berrie were selling their Limited Collector Series by selling two smurfs together. The last of these were Papa Pilot (20223) and Stewardess (20222) in August. It was around here this time that smurfs were no longer being made in Hong Kong.

Come 1990 Applause (formerly known as Wallace Berrie) released their last 11 smurfs. These were all made in China.

For those of you who collect smurfs based on markings, there are potentially up to ten different W. Berrie markings to be found.

The other odd thing Wallace Berrie did briefly in 1982 is that they changed all the year markings to 1980. Though this was later changed back to the original year again. So it is not uncommon to find some smurfs with two different year markings.

When looking back at this extraordinary time, Wallace Berrie sold more than 200 different regular smurfs and 50 different Supersmurfs. The question that begs to be asked is – Will we see smurfs rule the world like they once did?

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

What are Promotional Smurfs?

Promotional Smurfs are probably the most interesting smurfs to collect. Promotional Smurfs were made to promote a company or organisation. Some were licensed and some were not but that is what makes them so interesting to collect.

Generally Promotional Smurfs are smurfs that are generally found with the company/organisation’s name or logo imprinted onto the figurine. Though this has not always been the case.

Regular Smurfs, Super Smurfs and Smurfs on pedestals have all been used as Promotional Smurfs. However it has been prominently been regular Smurfs.

Companies that have had Promotional Smurfs made for them include BP, McDonalds, Omo, Merkur Bank, Colgate, Schimmel Pianos, Schonwald Smurfs on pedestals and others.

Organisations that have had also used Promotional Smurfs made for them include Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross), ASB – Arbeiter Samariter Bund (Workers Samaritan Federation) and others.

Quite often a Promotional Smurf was made using an existing mould and sometimes by adding a colour variation or adding different attachment to promote the company/organisation. This was particularly the case in the ones made in the 1980’s. Also generally these were released individually.

In the 1990’s fewer Promotional Smurfs were made, though for some of these new moulds were made. Also in the 1990’s we saw whole sets of Promotional Smurfs released.

Probably the most well known ones released in the 1990’s were produced by McDonalds in 1996 and 1998 upon where each smurf had a “M” symbol embossed onto the back of their head.

The good thing Promotional Smurfs are still being made today. However not to the same degree as in the 1980’s when Promotional Smurfs were at their peak.

Last year Schleich released three smurfs, to celebrate the 2014 World Cup Soccer. Two are based on New Soccer Smurf (20454) painted in the colours of Belgium and Holland also a Devil Smurf (20213).

There has always been some debate about some Promotional Smurfs and whether they are authorised or unauthorised. The lack of official records also adds to the confusion. However with the release of collector books and online forums/shops have helped overcome this as best as they can.

For me one of the things that makes Promotional Smurfs interesting is learning about the company or organisation. This always creates a point of interest and conversation for those who are not familiar with smurfs.

Some collectors also find that by specialising in only collecting Promotional Smurfs can be very satisfying and in a way of having a collection within a collection.

Another reason why Promotional Smurfs have always been highly collectible is that for some there were only limited numbers produced or were only released in a particular country. This can result in pushing up the prices and creating some very sought after smurfs.

There are many different promotional Smurfs to collect, a few of them are listed here.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath

What’s in a name?

There are no two smurfs alike. You know that and I know that but others don’t.

In 1965 Schleich officially released three smurfs, Normal, Gold and Prisoner.

At that time they were not given reference numbers as we recognise them by today, Normal – 20002, Gold – 20005 and Prisoner – 20010. The same mould was used for all three.

Though a smurf can share the same mould with others they will never be the same. Even a smurf that shares the same name, reference number, country of origin or paint dot no two smurfs are alike.

Normal Smurf may seem like a boring name for a smurf. Wearing his white trousers and hat, we see what a smurf looked like in the beginning. Add a dash of colour and soon it’s appearance changes, add something to its hand and we begin to see what type of smurf this is. Before too long it has a different name reflecting its personality.

Normal Smurf is a classic smurf and a very important one. Without Normal Smurf there would be no smurfs like we acknowledge today. In my opinion Normal Smurf is a must for every collection.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

What happened to Papa Smurf’s tail?

Searching for rare variations of smurfs is interesting and exciting when it leads to a find.

My Smurf passion are the PVC Figurines. A few years ago I made a decision about collecting smurf merchandise and decided to stick to the figurines. Lucky for me this was long before the release of the 2011 movie. Since then I have continued to learn about all the different variations out there and believe me there are plenty.

Though one of the most interesting ones is Papa Smurf (Schleich Reference Number 20001). Papa Smurf was first released in 1969 by Schleich. The early version was made out of blue pvc material and has it’s right arm held slightly higher, almost looking like he has his elbow is bent. The other stand out feature is his red tail!

At some point, they added the markings Schleich emblem and W.Germany to under the feet. The Peyo (c) marking was still on the back of the right arm. The tail remained red!

Approximately around 1972 Schleich changed the mold for Papa Smurf. It also appears they removed the Peyo (c) from the back of the arm and added this to under the feet. So it had Peyo (c) W.Germany under the right foot and Schleich Emblem under the left foot. The figurine was made out of a red pvc material. The right arm is positioned slightly lower and has almost been unchanged ever since. You could almost say that the arm is positioned straight. However for a brief period the tail remained red!

Some time after this year Papa Smurf’s tail changed to blue. Since then you will only find Papa Smurf merchandise with a blue tail. Check it out for yourself. I am unsure why it changed or who decided to change Papa Smurf’s tail from red to blue. Though for those die hard collectors if you come across a Papa Smurf with a red tail, there is a good chance you are in the possession of a rare Papa Smurf!

For those who collect smurfs for their markings:

Peyo (c) on the back of the right arm

Schleich emblem W.Germany under the feet. Peyo (c) on the back of the right arm.

Schleich emblem W.Germany Peyo (c) under the feet

For some more information on Papa Smurf, see his listing at wikipedia for loads more info.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath