Back in 1981 BP Australia was selling a variety of smurfs in their service stations for Christmas. Regular smurfs for 99 cents, Super Smurfs for $1.75, Greeting Smurfs (sockels or smurfs-a-grams) for $1.99, Playsets for $3.99, Mushroom houses – small $3.99 and large $12.85. Unbelievable but true!
I recall receiving a Tennis Smurfette (Schleich Ref# 20135) at around this time. The Tennis Smurfette stands on a white base holding a red tennis racquet while wearing a white tennis dress with matching white tennis shoes. I have no idea what happened to her more than likely I buried her in the sandpit I used to play in.
If you were lucky enough you may have received the Fireman or Photographer Super Smurfs. The Fireman was the version sold with a red hat and a yellow jacket (Schleich ref# 20416). It is not unusual to find the Photographer (Schleich ref# 40217) today without the camera. Like a lot of Super Smurfs many people are unaware that the Photographer came with a camera.
Greeting Smurfs were advertised as “Smurfy greetings for any occasion”. These included at least eight different ones available. For example Flower & Gifts smurf on an orange triangle stand with the saying “I love you” written in a cursive writing style.
A selection of eight different Playsets were also on offer. One of the most popular ones was the Snail Carriage. Even though the playsets did not include any actual smurfs, the Snail Carriage became a popular choice as it could be used as a way to transport your smurfs.
The choice of two different sized mushroom houses also was popular choice. Sadly now many of these small houses that you see for sale today do not include the yellow butterfly that was attached to the roof. The detachable dull dark yellow butterflies is a great way to identify the age of the mushroom house.
All of these items sold by BP Australia were all made by Schleich and came from Hong Kong. BP Australia did not just sell Schleich made figurines, they sold an unlimited supply of smurf merchandise.
Last year by chance, I saw smurf figurines for sale in a BP Service Station in Woodend, which is approximately 60kms out of Melbourne. Just the sight of seeing them for sale, brought back nostagic memories.
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B