Head Chef

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

Head Chef Smurf

I wish I could lip read what this Smurf is saying. Head Chef #20099 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. We can tell by his open mouth that he is yelling.

Head Chef was first made by Bully in 1978. It’s a wonderful piece of work by artist Irmingard Hieber – Neufischer. Her ability to bring Peyo’s characters to life, in the form of a toy figurine should never be taken for granted. Bully continued to make Head Chef until the start of 1980.

Schleich sold it first until 1986 and then later between 1991 and 1993. It was never sold by Wallace Berrie or BP. Strangely enough though it was made out of Sri Lanka.

Another odd thing, in the Der Schlumpf Katalog IV published in 2003, a version of Head Chef is listed with Hong Kong markings. To be honest I don’t think this actually exists. But as they say the proof is in the pudding!

There are countless fakes and repaints that have been made of Head Chef. Anything from Comic No Toxico (CNT), to Polish, to transparent Mexican ones and everything in between.

Should you be looking at adding Head Chef to your collection, there are a couple of things to look out for. Firstly the rolling pin is typically a darker yellow colour compared to his bow tie. If you like to collect Smurfs with different paint dots keep an eye out for green and red paint dots.

Lastly can someone tell me what he is yelling about?

Keep on Smurfin
Kath B

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