20098 Archives

Ballerina Smurfette #20098 was the second Smurfette figurine that was first produced by Bully in 1978. After Bully lost the licence to produce Smurfs at the end of 1979, Schleich continued to produce Ballerina Smurfette from 1980 right through to 1992. It was then rereleased in 2011 as part of the 1970 to 1979 Decade Box Display set.

Ballerina Smurfette was also produced out of Hong Kong from 1981 to 1984. It was sold by both BP Australia and BP New Zealand and also Wallace Berrie for the USA. From my opinion it looks like the same mould was used by Schleich and Wallace Berrie.

Sold by Schleich

In 1980 Schleich won the rights for producing Smurfs back from its rival company Bully. It appears part of this agreement included not changing the markings on the Smurfs until around 1983/84. So it is highly likely if you have a Ballerina Smurfette with Bully markings it was actually sold by Schleich.

After 1984 Schleich started to produce Ballerina Smurfette with their own markings. After 1991 Schleich started to produce Smurfs that included a CE marking. This version of Ballerina Smurfette is considered extremely rare.

In 2011 when Ballerina Smurfette was included in the 1970 to 1979 Decade Display Box it appears they made the base thicker. This was probably stop it falling over like some of the early ones tended to do.

Made in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong marked Ballerina Smurfette can be found with very strong paint colours. You will also sometimes find that the markings can be very faint or bold under the base.

In the beginning as it was produced for both BP and Wallace Berrie. So you will be able to find Ballerina with just Made in Hong Kong Schleich S © 1977 Peyo markings. After 1982 they started to add W. Berrie Co marking to the base. This is because BP stopped selling Smurfs.

Variations

Shade variations of Smurfette’s hair will be found from dark yellow to pale yellow. Shade variations of the green base will also be found.

More recently coloured variations have been found with Smurfette’s ballerina outfit and base. These are not genuine variations and some say they are a copy of the Spanish fakes that were made in 1980s.

Ballerina Smurfette was also used on triangle pedestals and podium with cards. So it’s hard to imagine how many Ballerina Smurfettes have been actually produced over the years. I guess if you are onto a good thing why stop.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B

When I first read about a green lipstick variation of Ballerina Smurfette, I was determined to find one. My initial thoughts was that it was just a paint error but the more I looked into this, the more I thought it could be an actual variation.

Bully first sold Ballerina Smurfette back in 1978. Looking back it is hard to believe Bully only produced two Smurfettes between 1974 to 1979, flirting Smurfette (#20034) and Ballerina Smurfette. Now days when Schleich produces a new themed set, it is not uncommon to find one or two Smurfette’s. The Olympic theme back in 2012 is probably a good example, where three of the ten Smurfs were Smurfettes.

Little was changed with Ballerina Smurfette over the years it was sold. Like a lot of Smurfettes, you can quite often find shade variances with her hair from lemon yellow to dark yellow. The green round base can also be found with different shades of green. These small differences are more to do where Ballerina Smurfette was painted as it is not uncommon to the Hong Kong version with darker colours and the Bully marked ones with lighter colours.

In 2011 when Schleich released their decade display boxes, Ballerina Smurfette was included in the 1970 to 1979 display box. With this Ballerina Smurfette it appears that the same mould may have been used for the figurines but the base was thicker and more robust to stop it falling over.

Now back to the Ballerina Smurfette version with the green lipstick, do you think it was this a paint error or was it meant to be like this? It does seem like a strange choice of colour for lipstick. But the lipstick is also lighter green than the one used on the base, which makes me think it was intentional.

I have seen this green lipstick version on a few different collector’s websites. As the lipstick is hand painted onto the figurine, the thickness of the lipstick can vary greatly. I also noticed that with mine, it has a tiny bit of red paint underneath the green lipstick. So mine could have been a repaint! My other theory is that if you combine blue and yellow paint together it makes green! So is it likely that the green and yellow paint colours were mixed together to create green lipstick!

It is these kind of things that make collecting smurfs a lot of fun. Paint error or intentional, it really does not matter. I would like to think that Schleich still does some hand painting of their smurfs just to ensure that every smurf has it’s own personality.

Keep on Smurfin

Kath B