This must be the most accident prone Smurf within my collection, the one most of us refer to as Injured Smurf (#20097). With his right arm in a yellow sling, left foot wrapped in plaster, using a wooden stick to get around and two brown cross adhesive stripes on hat. The concerned look in his eyes tells us he has been through quite an ordeal.
Injured Smurf was first produced by Bully in 1978 until 1980. After 1980 Bully lost the rights to the Smurfs to Schleich, who continued to sell Injured Smurf with Bully markings until 1984. After this time, Schleich removed the Bully marking and added their own Schleich marking to the smurf. Schleich ended up selling InJured Smurf between 1980 to 1991, then 1999 and 2000.
There are two shades of brown for the wooden stick that can be found. I tend to find the lighter brown stick has Bully markings and the darker brown stick has Schleich markings.
Both in Australia and New Zealand, Injured Smurf was released by BP. This version was made out of Hong Kong. Oddly enough, in the US Wallace Berrie did not release Injured Smurf until around 1984/85. You can find this one with Bully Hong Kong markings. The one sold in Australia had Schleich markings.
Injured with yellow bandaged foot
Made in Germany Schleich S Germany © 78 Peyo CE markings
Some collectors claim that there is a version with Injured with a yellow bandaged foot. It features in the Comicfiguren Preiskatalog and Gian & Davi Collezioni The Smurfs Official Collector’s Guide as a variation of the normal one. But does not feature in Frank Oswald’s Der Schlumpf Katalog IV.
I have never seen one up close and personal, so I cannot confirm that it actually exists as a genuine release from Bully or Schleich. I have seen photographs online showing the Injured Smurf with a yellow bandage with both W.Germany Bully © Peyo markings and Hong Kong Bully © Peyo markings. Both were claimed to be genuine.
My concern is that the yellow paint is added over the white raw pvc material. So this makes it hard to tell whether the paint was original or just a repaint of the common one.
Strange but true
In New Zealand, Injured Smurf was referred to as Accident.
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B