Blue Cavern

And I also understand if it is a bit confusing!!

It's quite confusing...but also fascinating

I agree! At least I think so!

Actually Schleich made the mold for the large house already in 1976 so they probably got the license back already then.

I think everything has to do with the movie shown in the benelux-countries then, La Flûte à six schtroumpfs (an adaptation of the original "Johan and Peewit" story). And it says that Stuart R Ross saw the smurffigurines when he was on holiday in Belgium in 1976. After this he contacted Dupuis and Peyo. So either Schleich already had smurfs sold in belgium then or they used the Bullysmurfs??? But I think Bully was way to small to distribute many smurfs then and only made smurfs for Germany then.

So my guess would be that BP wanted smurfs first in Holland for their service stations. That is also what is written on the BP site. In 1976 maybe both Bully and Schleich could have provided the smurfs for Belgium and Holland. That is actually no problem since it is actually Peyo owning the smurfs and he then had both those companies making smurfs for him and he could have used both. So the torch and coin-molds could have been made already then also.
But the main thing here is that when BP wanted to go worldwide with their smurf promotion( UK, South Africa, Australia etc) and also Stuart R Ross came and wanted to sell them in US( everything seems to have been happening around 1976/77) the Bully company was way to small for beeing able to manufacture those amount of smurfs. So Peyo then changed and wanted Schleich to make the smurfs again. Also this is probably the exact time, peyo describes in his book, when Peyo asks Dupuis if he wants to be part of making and selling these smurf-toys. But Dupuis desided just to stick with the comics. So after this Peyo had the sole rights for these figurines also!

So as said in the headline. The years around 1977 were the years when "everything" changed!!!

Hi Andre

Sorry i didn't had the time to read your story.................yet !!!
I will read it later, but thanks for the info

Tintin

As you see on the poster from Bully Schleich made new smurfs already in 1976/77. And Bully added those on that poster and sold them in germany. So that is a proof that Schleich started making smurfs already in 1976/77. And the latern and Guitar can only be found with schleichmarkings.

There is also another thing. BP in Holland started promoting with smurfs already in 1976.

So the most likely scenario is this:

In 1976 when the new smurfmovie was shown BP contacted Schleich and wanted them to make smurfs for their petrol promotion. Schleich and BP had done it before in the mid 60s in Holland. Peyo approved this since Bully only had the license for Germany, Sweden etc.. And then when BP wanted to expand the promotion to also UK in their National stations there were also no problems.

But when in 1977 when Stuart R Ross also wanted smurfs to be made for the US markets and BP expanded their promotion to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Peyo seems to agreed that Schleich would make them also for Germany etc.. Probably Schleich could put some pressure on peyo to let them get the worldwide rights back after the success with the BP promotion.

In the Schleichbook it also says that Schleich worked hard to get the rights back.
"After tough legal battles with the rival company Bully, Schneider( new owner in 1977) had won back the rights for the smurfs. The international licences for the characters were expensive but proved to be worth the cost."

There is a thing with those years though!

In the countries where BP had their promotion only Schleichsmurfs were sold before Schleich got the rights back in 1980. But in Sweden I am almost 100% sure I could get both the Bully smurfs and the Schleichsmurfs. For example I am sure I got both different tennissmurfs. Also the soccersmurf. And this was before 1980, since I stopped collecting around 1979. This is also proven by pictures from both Germany and Sweden. For example on the ASS puzzles and the record pictures taken in 1979.

If you take this picture from a swedish record it is exactly like I remember it. Both Bully and Schleichsmurfs to be bought.

I think it is the same on pictures from germany.

Eventhough we know that Schleich only sold their smurfs in their german catalogue from 1979 and Bully only sold their smurfs in there catalogues or ads from 1979.

Backside. Both Bully and schleichsmurfs??