20042

There are 2 posts tagged 20042 (this is page 1 of 1).

Cooking with the smurfs

It isn’t hard not to get confused when collecting smurfs, especially if they all share the same occupation. There are at least three smurf figurines that love to cook; Cook #20073, Chef #20042 and Head Chef #20099. Each are uniquely different from each other which makes them worth collecting all three.

The first one produced was Cook made by Bully in 1974. He is the one holding a large yellow spoon in his right and a pot in his left hand. The smurf is also wearing a white chef’s hat, apron and white bow tie. I have also seen pictures of Cook with a red bow tie and also with a white spoon and a yellow pot, not sure if they are genuine or not. Then of course there are also fake versions of Cook to be found. Like a transparent one without a saucepan from Mexico. 

The next one produced was Head Chef made by Bully in 1978. He is holding a raised large yellow rolling pin in his left hand. The smurf is also wearing a white chef’s hat, apron and a light yellow bow tie. I have also seen this one referred to as Baker by other collectors. Both Cook and Head Chef were never sold by Wallace Berrie in the USA. I don’t think they were ever sold by BP Australia either. There are also different Polish fakes of Head Chef with different coloured rolling pins that can be found. 

Also in 1978 Schleich released their own Chef. He is holding a brown wooden spoon to his mouth as if testing the food, while wearing Chef’s whites. The first version sold by Schleich has red sauce on the spoon but this was later removed. Chef was produced by both Schleich and Wallace Berrie. Chef was also sold by BP Australia, possibly around 1980.

As all three were produced by different makers, here are a few things to keep an eye open for when looking to add one to your own collection.

With Cook it is possible to find this with no markings. This was quite typical for smurfs first made by Bully in the beginning. Later they added their own Bully © Peyo hand etched markings; © Peyo on the back of the arm and Bully under the pot. The hand etched Bully marking remained under the pot, most likely with the agreement made between Bully and Schleich until 1984. Cook was produced by Bully between 1974 to 1979 and Schleich 1980 to 1991 then 1995 to 1999.

Head Chef was only produced by Bully for two years but can be found with at least four different Bully markings under the feet. It was produced by Schleich from 1980 to 1986 and then 1991 to 1993. Head Chef was also made out of Sri Lanka so possible to find with Sri Lanka markings or with a red paint dot. 

Chef is the only one out of the three that is wearing a Chef’s jacket. The buttons on the front of the jacket should be same colour brown as used for the spoon. With the Chef made out of Hong Kong it can be possible to find this with markings on the back or under the feet. It is also possible to find this with the year changed to 1980 on the Hong Kong ones. Not sure why they did this. Chef was produced by Schleich from 1979 to 1986/1991 to 1994/1997 & 1998/2011 and by Wallace Berrie from 1981 to 1984. So there are plenty different markings to be found with Chef and then of course there are also the many different fake ones.

I would like to see a Cafe scene produced one day which includes a new Chef, Dish-hand, Barista, Waitress/Waiter and Smurf customers. I wonder what name you could call the cafe?

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

 

Chef Smurf

When I rediscovered the smurfs back in 2001, it was like meeting up with old friends who I had not seen for years. Memories of playing with my smurfs when I was child started to come back. Smurfs like Chef, Hiker, Emperor, Painter are just few to name.

Chef Smurf was released in Australia around 1980. Wearing his Chef’s whites and hat while holding a wooden spoon up to his mouth to taste his latest creation. On his left hand his thumb and index finger are connected into a circle to show his approval.

I don’t think Chef Smurf was released into the USA until 1981 so this why you can find them with just Hong Kong markings and no reference to Wallace Berrie. Like on many of the moulds made before 1980, in Hong Kong they changed the year to 1980. No idea why they did this – very strange!

This smurf was first made in 1978 and was sold with red sauce on the spoon. Initially I was a little sceptical about this one being genuine as I had never seen it like this. All my Chef Smurfs were made out of Hong Kong and had dark brown spoons with no sauce on it. I wish they had continued with adding the sauce on the spoon as I think it is rather cute. 

The popularity of Chef Smurf has seen it made in other countries than Germany and Hong Kong. A version was made by Hering in Brazil and Minimodels in Argentina. There are also many counterfeit Chef Smurfs out there, from the very beautiful CNT’s with a yellow spoon to skin coloured fake Polish ones. 

The last time Schleich released Chef Smurf was part of the 1970 to 1979 Decade Display Box Set sold in 2011. Celebrating 50 years of the smurfs, Schleich produced five decade display box sets, one box set edition for each decade. I am glad to see that they included Chef Smurf as part of this celebration!

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B