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