Wearing a red riding jacket and black horse riding helmet, this smurf shows us how to ride a hobby horse. What stands out for me, with this super smurf is the clever design that in corporates the smurf figurine and the stick together.
First released by Schleich in 1980 to 1986 and then again in 1994 to 1996, with 40214 as the article number. Very little changed in the design over the years Hobby Horse was produced, though little differences can be found depending where it was painted. When Hobby Horse was first sold in the UK by National Petrol these ones were painted out of Portugal and can be found with matte colours.
It was also produced out of Hong Kong for Wallace Berrie and possibly sold in other countries. It was sold by Wallace Berrie in the USA between 1981 to 1983. The same design was used, but shinier paint colours were used on the horse and the smurf figurine.
The design of Hobby Horse is simple and effective. The smurf has been designed in almost a sitting like position and between it’s legs a slot has been created for the stick of the hobby horse to sit in. The arms on the smurfs are stretched out in front of him with the hands coming together to create a slot. This is for the stick to be slotted into. The end of the hobby horse stick has a removable horse tail that is inserted into the end of the stick. This allows you to swivel the horse tail to help you to display the Hobby Horse without it falling over.
Smurfs are foremost created as toys for children to play with. The design of Hobby Horse allows this happen still today even though it has been over twenty years since it was last released. It is also not overly complicated to construct which is also a bonus.
For those of you, who like to display their smurfs is a great one if you have limited space as it is not much bigger than your average smurf. It can be found with up to five different super smurf boxes and is still easy to pick up today.
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B