Blue Cavern

Hi all,

here we have the 1979 Wallace Berrie Catalogue sheets DIN A4, these are all pages.

My next upload will be 1980 the next days, please be patient and prepared - as always

Had to reduce file size and resolution, high-res. on request.

last pictures

Thanks Stefan,

Very nice to see these catalogues.

It looks like that there should be a gardener small mold HK. All the other smurfs are clearly the HK marked variations in the pic: eg, trimm dich red top (USA only had red), blumen with the flat nylon flower, sunbather green......and the gardeners apron looks a very dark green colour.

He would be a top variation to find

Martin

The cottagebox was the first box with a honkongvariation pictured. The hongkong-roof has the places for the white dots marked in the mold ( like small "hole") and darkbrown doors and the same cottage is pictured on the boxes.

And I guess when the cottage was released in 78/79, was also the same time when they started making smurfs and accessories in Hongkong???

But I also think that in the beginning, for many items, like some of the supers, playsets etc., they used the germanmade ones in the boxes before making a hongkongversion.

If you look at this cottage in the catalogue for example I think they have a germanmade cottage pictured with lightbrown door and different dots on the roof??

Interesting to see the Wallace Berrie numbers for these smurfs, i have never seen numbers for these before !

Andre, that green house with red butterfly.........amazing

Thanks once again Stefan

Stefan,

I have read that W. Berrie started selling smurfs 1979. So this must be the first ones they were selling. Did they start making the smurfs in Hongkong before 1979 or is Hongkong-marked smurfs necessarily related to W. Berrie? I mean was the factory in Hongkong owned by W. Berrie, before later changing the name to Applause?

Applause info:
"The company was founded in 1966 by Wallace Berrie, a successful manufacturer of drugstore novelty items, as The Wallace Berrie Company. Early growth was slow until 1979, when a package arrived containing little blue characters about "three apples tall".
Unaware that other companies had turned down the property, Berrie obtained worldwide rights to the little-known characters otherwise known as The Smurfs, created in 1958 by a European artist named Peyo. "The Smurfs Song" was recorded for Decca in 1977 by the "characters" and Dutch singer Vader Abraham, followed in 1978 by two other singles, "Dippety Day" and "Christmas in Smurfland," all of which became hits in Europe. A Belgian company called IMPS was marketing the little blue characters, including a hit television series, product merchandising, and even a theme park in Lorraine, France.

Berrie's company released the little blue figures in 1979 at $1.50 each, compared to the industry's standard $.29 and $.39 little stuffed figures. By 1982, the diminutive blue Smurfs had joined Steven Spielberg's alien E.T., a fat orange cat named Garfield, a doll named Strawberry Shortcake, everyone's favorite dog Snoopy, and G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls among the best-selling toys of 1982, ultimately going on to become a leader in the licensing industry, selling more than $1 billion in merchandise throughout the world and appearing on everything from apparel and home decor to sleepwear and bedding, from novelties and Halloween costumes to plush toys and lunch pails. By 1983, the company had doubled its sales every year, climbing to $700 million in sales from its nearly 100 licensees, plus another $100 million from its own Smurf products. By 1984, NBC led the network war with "The Smurfs," a reign which continued through 1986."

Stefan,

I have read that W. Berrie started selling smurfs 1979. So this must be the first ones they were selling. Did they start making the smurfs in Hongkong before 1979 or is Hongkong-marked smurfs necessarily related to W. Berrie? I mean was the factory in Hongkong owned by W. Berrie, before later changing the name to Applause?

André, starting 1979 seems to be right, but I don't know what about the production countries.
There could be a few different cases:
Schleich produced smurfs in HK before 1979 for themself, with HK markings (??)
But what does this mean when W.Berrie appeared and produced smurfs?
Had they got the Schleich molds and added only the W.Berrie marking ?

Or was the first HK produced smurf already for W.Berrie and they added the W.Berrie marking later additional ??

And the smurfs from 1985 and/or 1986 could have an Applause marking, additional or instead ?

I have some combinations of markings:
W.Berrie HongKong, W.Berrie Portugal, W.Berrie Sri Lanka,
W.Berrie Applause HongKong, W.Berrie Applause Portugal, W.Berrie Applause Sri Lanka,
Applause HongKong, Applause Portugal, Applause Sri Lanka,
Applause,
Applause China

I believe I have read that W. Berrie bought Applause 1982, but it was first at 1987 they changed it completly to only Applause. So between 82 and 87 they seems to have been adding applause on some smurfs??? And why did they only use the lightblue Applauseboxes for some smurfs and playsets. Therefore the catalogues will be intresting since I have no idea which years the supers were released by W. Berrie. I know the articlenumbers so that gives me a hint, but the cataloguespics will be very intresting.

Regarding if they got the Schleichmolds I think they did.
For example some of the old smurfmolds from Bully for 20077 Naughty and 20087 Axe seems to have been sent to Hongkong and could have HK-markings. So for the smurfmolds made before 1979 I would guess they recieved the molds from Schleich. After 1979 maybe they did the new molds in HK since these smurfs many times seems to be the ones pictured on boxes??