Do you recall the song ‘ I wanna be a Cowboy’ by artist Boys Don’t Cry released back in 2002. In the song it had infamous line – ‘I want to be a cowboy and you can be my cowgirl’. Don’t worry too much if you don’t as it is not really considered a classic song to most, but for some reason I always think of this line when I think of Cowboy smurf #20122 and Cowgirl Smurfette #20147.
Surpisely Cowboy was first released in Europe in 1981 and then in the following year it was released in Australia and America in 1982. There are at least three different variations to be found with Cowboy. This may have something to do with Cowboy being made W.Germany/Germany, Portugal and Hong Kong.
- Brown shoes, red pants, black belt, brown gun, white rope, brown vest, red bandanna, brown hat, white injected mould. Typically found with shiny paint colours.
- Brown shoes, red pants, black belt, silver gun, tan rope, brown vest, red bandanna, brown hat, blue injected mould. Commonly found with dull paint colours.
- Light brown shoes, red pants, black belt, silver gun, tan rope, light brown vest, red bandanna, light brown hat, blue injected mould.
Cowboy was also released as a boxed pen set being a horse’s head. Wallace Berrie #7905
In both the Schleich and Wallace Berrie catalogues from 1983 the Cowgirl looks the same as both are wearing brown cowgirl boots and vest, white ruffled dress, a white cowgirl hat with a red strap tied under her chin. In her right hand is a raised plastic brown lasso.
The thing you can’t see is whether it is a triple or single knot in the lasso. The one with the W.Germany markings tends to be a triple knot and the one with the Hong Kong markings tend to be a single knot.
In 1989 Schleich released Special Smurfs Box Sets and both Cowboy and Cowgirl were included in Box 4: The Smurfs Aventures in the Far West theme. The other smurfs included in this set include Indian #20144, Violin #20159 and Indian Smurfette #20167. This was given the Schleich article number 20853 and is on my ‘most wanted list’.
Both can still be found easily today, though I tend to find the Cowboy with a mustard paint dot (painted in Portugal) the blue paint used for the arms look like they have stretch marks. This isn’t really shouldn’t be surprising considering their age and is only noticed when you closely examine the smurf that you see this.
So do you want to be a Cowboy?
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B