Blue Cavern

Among the smurfs I had for sale on eBay was a Bobsled super smurf that no one bid on during the two times he was offered for sale. To help him deal with his low self-esteem issues, I looked at him carefully with a magnifying glass to try and find something to add to my listing to boost bids. There, on his "unwanted" body was a Muster Mark!!! When I mentioned this in a forum, other members started writing and asking me about muster marks. I am no expert, but I do have my old SSCI newsletters - one of which gave the following explanation of these marks:

The explanation given to the Smurf Collectors Club International by the Schleich factory about these M marks was that "We have a man in the company who controls the figurines we produce. He always picks a few figurines among the new ones which have been injected and, if they are okay, he "Brands" the figures with this mark."
In other words, first run sample figurines found satisfactory were hand-branded with the special M mark that stands for muster (which means "Sample" in German). These were done in very small quantities. All of the figurines with this mark are West German variations.

Thanks for the explanation. I've been wondering what they were.

Hi northjerseygirl, welcome aboard.

We have had a few discussions about the Muster marks, here is one of them:
http://www.forum.bluecavern.com/viewtopic.php?t=3217

Mad one to know that your sled smurf didn't sell, good to know you have now discovered the mark.

I have a few of these, most of them were just lucky, I had no idea they were Musters when I bought them. I think they are one of my favourite marks.

My own personal theory, although this has never been proven is that these were used by the painters. The smurf was branded as perfect and then the painters knew what to follow.

Here are a few pics from the gallery.

That's a nice little set of musters

I agree Sue.

Unfortunately they are not mine. These are Jan's.

I recognize that mark from a smurf I had as a kid