Blue Cavern

Hi again,

I have thought about the chronological order of the UK boxes.

When comparing the details of the boxes with information I have found here on the forum and from Uk members I came up with this.

See what you think and if it seems correct.

I believe these were the first 2 boxes made for National. The large house and the gardenfurniture playset box. At this time they did not put the number 1 on the box because it was the only playset existing.

So now to the details that tells me this.

These 2 boxes are the only ones National ever numbered with their articlenumbers on the boxes.

Large house NB 30/78
Playset NB 31/78

Just like with the smurfs BP sold they did never get any Schleich articlenumbers and was not always sold( like the US smurfs) or given away in the same order as they were made in Germany.

But it seems like these were released in the same way as they were made in Germany also in UK.

If you look at this booklet you see that they sold the large house and the first playset before selling the supers. And also notice that the gardener just like in Germany was sold as a normal before in superbox.

Hope it is OK I use the word sold even if it was given away!

In the beginning they also had written on the boxes: " get smurfs at national". But according to webinformation( I think Kittys cavern??) National stopped giving these away in 1980.

I think all these 6 supersmurfs also were made for national in 1978.

These are the only boxes possible to get with made in Germany printed on the box.

Notice also that no articlenumber and no smurfname is written under the box.

If you check this ad that Hilary posted in another thread here on the forum, and which is a great help in telling us that it seems the information ( differences) on the boxes also goes with real history. Then you can see that only these 6 supers were are on this ad in march 1979.

This ad also tells us that new smurfs comes in every month!

On this poster you also see that they sold the cleaner with national pump early in 1979. This box also has made in Germany printed on it.

And then this smurf probably also were the first variation made of the cleaner.

After march 1979 they added smurf every month like saying on this picture of the Angler. ( smurf of the month )

He was probably the next in line of the super boxes made in 1979 for national.

So after the first 6 boxes they made these 3, fisherman, smurf in car and angler.

Now without made in Germany on the boxes. But still with the ticker and larger letters on the boxes and sides.

The bicyclesmurf is a bit strange. It was made during 1979 but different cardboard and also has super schlumpf written under it???

After this they changed to smaller letters on the front and the sides of the boxes.

So the boxes made before the chaingang has these thicker letters.

Chaingang, smurf in cage and butterflycatcher were also made for National in 1979. ( I don´t have the smurf in cage- and butterfly catcher-box for UK)

Still without any names of the smurfs written under the boxes.

The cottage UK-box and the box for playset 2 were also sold during 1979 I believe.

Steve showed us the picture from december 1979 were the cottage is shown.

As you see they still used get smurfs at National on the boxes.

The boxes made after 1980 all have the names under the boxes also.

Just like with the sportsuperboxes made for the oilympics in 1980.

These supers were probably sold approximatly in the same order as they were made in Germany. They stopped with these boxes after 1982, so Airplane is the last box made I think.

After this they added the english names on the german boxes.

So either it was because BP stopped with the smurfs or it was because they used the german boxes instead, that they stopped making the boxes??

As you see on the picture all these have smaller letters on the front compared to the earlier. But the chaingang was made already in 1979??

On the UK boxes the name of the smurf is always on the side. Even on the first ones.

Here you also see that they changed the thickness on the letters.

Were the gaps are, the smurf in cage and butterflycatcher should be.

These are the only numbered playsetboxes I think were made for the UK.

After 1980 they did not have the writing "get smurfs at National" on the side. So I don´t think playset 3 was ever made with that writing.

Could have been that this was sold after 1980??

The windsurferbox looks a bit different on the front since it don´t have the large red Smurf-word on the front. I don´t know why it didn´t get that?? Maybe it was made late???

But it is definatly a UK box since it has all the correct writing on all other sides.

On the other hand the Gargamel and Azrael box with "as seen on TV" is exactly like the W Berrie box made for NBC( as seen on NBC). So that one I don´t count to the UK boxes even if it was sold there??

Last picture is of how Maia Borges used these boxes after 1983 also. They blocked the Schleich-address with a sticker.

All the supers in the Maia Borges catalogue can be found with this sticker on the UK box and made in Portugal supers.

So these boxes were used to 1985/86 by Maia Borges.

And also as shown in the germanboxthread some of them got a german sticker and was sold in Germany also!!

Another thing to notice is that in march 1979 they had 30 smurfs including the supers for sale.

This could mean that the National articlenumbers could be starting with 1.

I mean since large house has articlenumber NB 30 and playset NB 31.

Just like with the Schleich articlenumbers they have the normalsmurfs first and then the supers and then the accessories.

So it could be that they had 23 normalsmurfs, 6 supers and 2 accessories when they numbered these?? But then they most likely would have to had all these from the start otherwise as soon as they added a new smurf( every month!! ) it would have got a number after the accessories!!

Still intresting though that they had articlenumbers printed on the boxes for the accessories in the beginning. Probably had them later also just like all companies, but why not on the boxes anymore???

If you compare with the toycompanies selling these for Schleich ( Maia Borges, W Berrie, Hering etc) they always uses articlenumbers when selling them.

But when made for companies like BP, National, Kelloggs, BASF etc no Schleich articlenumbers are needed since they are not sold within the company.??

Maybe Schleicher can answer this. When Schleich makes a smurfs like Hexalotte it always has to be numbered in some way. I before worked with logistics for 12 years so it has to have a number or something in the system so you can find it, right??? I understand that you maybe don´t want it in the normal articlenumberserie for the ones Schleich actually is selling, but still it has to get a number.

I think I will send Schleich a email and see what they can tell us regarding Hexalotte. This must be so new so it has to be in some records, right??

I recieved an answer regarding the spymold. Since this was very connected to the Heringmold I asked if they could find any information regarding Hering in the 80s. I know since before that asking Schleich about things from long long time ago is not easy.

They have helped me a lot but could not find anything about the spymold.

Here are the 2 missing boxes.

Smurf in cage and butterflycatcher from 1979.

Andre,
can you also ask them about the article number for Dr. Dinch. I bet he has a number as well and it may just be the one before Hexalotte?