[André]

The first marking Schleich used on the smurfs with their name on it was this emblem.

All of the smurfs Schleich made before 1973 except one can be found with this marking. At least I have not seen any poet with the old emblem yet. And I know they changed the looks of the emblem in 1972 so I don´t think it exists.

So 22 smurfs including Smurfette can have this marking and during these first years there were not many colourvariations so the ones with the emblems should almost always look like this.

Years for this marking is then between 1965/66 and 1972

[André]

Here are all of them with the markings. Smurfette is on the other picture.

[André]

In 1972 they changed the looks on the emblem.

Here you can see the differences. Old emblem to the left.

On some of these first smurfs the molds were changed and the thinner emblem were used instead.

[André]

The first ones they made before 1969 were marked with peyo on the arm. I believe all these can possibly be found without any markings or only the peyo marking. I have the prisoner without any markings and the gold with only peyo marking. And since the gold and the normal have the same markingsand are made out of the same mold the normal can be found with the same markings.

Lia have the Drummer without any markings and I belive benny or stefan have it with only peyo marking.

That is also the reason you can find the peyo marking twice on these figurines. First they probably only had it on the arm. And then added a complete marking under the feets but then did not remove the marking on the arm before changing the molds to the ones with the new emblem.

So all these molds were changed once before 1973. They changed them in 1972.

[Smurfysmurf]

In regards to the no markings..you mean the ones that were originally made by Schleich before Bully took over, right?

Because as you know there are a lot more molds with no markings but those were started by Bully and then taken over by Schleich.

[André]

Yes Maureen,

I mean the smurfs made before 1970 with no markings.

Not the ones Bully made in 1973/74.

Just like the first smurfs Bully made, the first smurfs Schleich made also seems to have been unmarked in the beginning??

[stampysmurf]

Thanks Andre for all of the research you have done and for the detailed pictures!

[Benny]

First Thank you for good work André! A very good thing with the first markings

I only have the 20034 Smurfette (very thin Schleich mold) without any marking (and also the prisoner).

Actually I have the following four smurfs with only -Peyo- on the arm:

- 20001 papa (old mold made with blue PVC)
- 20006 brainy (black glasses)
- 20009 drummer (2-mold smurf with yellow sticks)
- 20010 prisoner

(and 20029 coin older mold and of course 20030 torchbearer older mold)

All these smurfs are made with very soft PVC.

Btw. 20029 coin is also availble with the old emblem but with M. in Hong Kong markings.

[André]

First Thank you for good work André! A very good thing with the first markings

I only have the 20034 Smurfette (very thin Schleich mold) without any marking (and also the prisoner).

Actually I have the following four smurfs with only -Peyo- on the arm:

- 20001 papa (old mold made with blue PVC)
- 20006 brainy (black glasses)
- 20009 drummer (2-mold smurf with yellow sticks)
- 20010 prisoner

(and 20029 coin older mold and of course 20030 torchbearer older mold)

All these smurfs are made with very soft PVC.

Btw. 20029 coin is also availble with the old emblem but with M. in Hong Kong markings.

you are correct Benny!!

But there are slightly small differences.

First the emblem. You are correct they used the emblem also in the HK molds. Most of them are very obvious emblems I will show later, but a few like the coin-smurfs and prisoner have the most lovely ( best emblem-marking ever ). I don´t know why they made this type of emblem on a few of them but these were made in 1977/78 and are not the early ones. First of these were as you say without HK markings and only emblem and peyo marking. Like almost all smurfs made in Hongkong in 1978, basicly the normal ones found in the 1979 W Berrie catalogue, with few exceptions.

Second. A question for you. Do the brainy have peyo on arm or no markings? And are the glasses painted or in the mold?

Third. You are correct about the only peyo marking on a few smurfs first sold 1977. Basiclly the history is approximatly like this. Hermann Schneider became the owner and CEO after Friedrich Schleich in 1977. Immediatly he made changes like changing the logotype to bold red s instead of emblem, also he gave all items new articlenumbers in 1978 and also changed the smurffigurines to the wider faces starting in 1978. But in 1977 Schleich also had a few smurfsfigurines already made during the time your lovely playsetbox with emblem was made!! As you see on that picture the sitting and gardener was pictured on the box.

During these years Bully also started selling these( already in 1977). When schleich made these smurfs they only had Peyo marking and sometimes W germany on the oldest molds. So sitting and thinking was first sold without the Schleich S and then later they added this to the mold when Schneider was in charge. This is a MUST since the Schleich S did not exist when these molds were made. Same with gardener. Can be found with both Schleich S and without. Oldest one is the one without. Same with coin, torch, etc.

So in 1977 Schleich started up with a few old molds they already had or were newly made.

One more known example of this is the trumpetplayer. This Schleich sold first time in 1978 with red trousers and emblem. But the mold was made in 1974. So probably many of the other molds also were made around this year. Like sitting, thinking, gardener, coin, torch. Notice also that all these were changed to "wider face-molds".

Smurfette is a bit strange like you say. Bully removed the emblem and painted her with red shoes for a while. Because of the shiver we know that Schleich started with only "W Germany-marking" in 1977. On shiver this mold was used when making the first HK molds. So this means that most likely the new mold Smurfette ( as on the CNT, and eura spain) was made in 1977. Maybe they were not pleased with this mold and sticked with the older one. Don´t know why it had no markings though. My guess right now is that when Schleich got this mold back From Bully with removed emblem( just like all the other older molds made before 1973) they added the heals to the shoes. But just like all the other of these molds they were not alloved to add any new marking, so therefore it still was unmarked. ???

[André]

another intresting thing with the picture on the playset 1 box and large house playset box, which was taken in 1977, is that you can see that they had changed the colours on the drummer this year and the hanky on the crying. Also the small mold smurfette was used by Schleich.

[Benny]

Thank you for your explanations André!

The 20006 brainy has only -Peyo- on arm and the glasses are a part of the mold and are painted black.

Under the feet there are no markings! I found the number on the other arm.

In contrast to some other brainy's he's made from very soft PVC.


I never looked the picture on the playset 1 box before exactly. Thank you for the tip.

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

I am a bit behind ( been busy ) but i belive there are some more smurfs without marking like the 20007 angry .........
I will have a look ....

Tintin

[André]

Hi Frank,

that is correct.

I think all the smurfs with peyo on the arm can be found with only this marking or without marking. all the once made before 1969 and also papa and brainy made 1969.

Could be as simple as this. Schleich made these for BP used as give aways in petrol stations. As the Schleich book says schleich made large numbers of the blue dwarfs, and at first the company regarded this as just another commission. But the populairity of the figurines took them by surprise, and soon the manufacturers were thinking of the next logical step: professional marketing and merchandising of the smurfs.
So maybe when Schleich started making the smurfs for themselves and selling them in toystores they probably wanted to add their marking to the smurfs also.

So my guess is that when they did the smurfs in the beginning for other companies like BP they just marked them peyo ( creator) or no marking. Later when selling them as toys and making them for themselves they started marking them with the emblem.

For me that makes sence. Or what do you think?

[André]

So the thing many of us have heard, that the schleichsmurfs made until mid 69 was made for kelloggs and used as figurines in cornflakes boxes could be partly true. Or maybe true. At least for me it seems when just looking at the markings that something happened in 1969 when they changed the markings.

Could of course just have been BP using these, and kelloggs is just a misunderstanding, because of the ads for Kelloggs in the comics, telling figurines were given away in these boxes.

????

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

Here is the 20007, it's a real one but no markings..........not on his feet or on the arm.

Tintin

[Benny]

Congratulations Frank! a very special variation

[André]

Thanks Frank!

I had not seen that one before.

When I started the markingsthreads I thought Bully made the blue papa, but that is not the case. when Bully started marking their smurfs with only peyo in the beginning they used a different peyo marking. Easiest to see on the letter O in peyo. The peyo marking is almost the same size but different type. And also their are a lot of facts telling us that these were made by Schleich. For example the two-piece drummer with peyo on the arm. It would be very strange if Bully suddenly started using Schleichs old two-piece mold and removing all the Schleichmarkings and then adding peyo to the arm. And the fact that the one with emblem also have the peyo on the arm tells us Schleich made this.

So the order of the markings must have been like this:

First unmarked, then with peyo markings and sometimes W germany.

Then Schleich added the emblem to these molds still keeping the peyo on the arm. And finally removing the peyo and W germany on the arms and adding this under the feets instead.

And the ones possible to find unmarked and with only peyo markings are these:

1. Papa. Unmarked. Only peyo( blue material)
2. Normal( Frank has this one but painted gold). Unmarked. With only peyo on the arm( I have this one but painted gold. But since the mold was the same for normal and gold that also is a existing variation).
3. Gold. Both variations seen. Mold same as normal.
4. Angry. Unmarked( frank has this one). With only peyo and W germany on the arm. Maybe only Peyo. I have not seen this one.
5. Spy. Unmarked. Only peyo and W germany on the back of the heels( I have this one)
6. Drummer. Unmarked( Lia has this one). With only peyo on the arm( Benny).
7. Prisoner. Unmarked( I have this one). Only peyo on the arm( Lia)
8. Brainy. unmarked( I have not seen this) Only peyo on the arm( Benny).

So all smurfs made 1965 and 1966. Then also papa and brainy which probably were the first ones made 1969. All these were probably made for another company and not meant to be sold as toys by Schleich in the beginning and therefore no need for Schleichmarking. We know that the first ones were made for BP. Maybe all were made for them or some of them were made for other companies??

One intresting thing is that just like today many of these items goes hand in hand with movies or television. Off course also Dupuis earlier had some smurfs made to promote his comics also. But I don´t think the comics alone would have made BP wanting these. The ones Dupuis had made was mostly sold in comicshops or libraries were the comics also were sold.

But we know that the first smurfmovie was made 1965. Could be a reason BP wanted these in 1965 and 1966??? Then no smurfs were made in 1967 or 1968. In 1968 ZDF created the first TV series starring smurfs in Germany. Maybe that was a reason for Schleich to make a few more ones for the customers and also starting to selling them as toys in the stores???

This we don´t know, but the facts regarding the markings are that the 8 ones above are the first ones and all of them can be found without the emblem.

Regarding the painting on these I am pretty sure only black teeth and red eyes on angry. Only black glasses on brainy. Only two-piece mold on drummer. Oldest mold on papa.

[André]

Maybe the 2 made in 1969 never can be unmarked. Because then they probably used peyo on all the molds, because of the timegap???

Probably the unmarked ones were only made in the beginning in 1965 and 1966. Would be strange if they would have still not added the peyo marking until 1969???

[Smurfysmurf]

Andre,
there are more with no markings

http://www.forum.bluecavern.com/viewtop ... c&start=20

2.0001 - Papa Smurf
2.0003 - Astro
2.0009 - Drummer - 1966
2.0034 - Smurfette - 1971
2.0043 - Digger - 1978
2.0068 - Kicker - 1973 **
2.0069 - Jungle - 1973
2.0070 - Harp - 1973
2.0073 - Cook - 1973
2.0076 - Rendez Vous - 1974 **
2.0078 - Beer - 1974 **
2.0079 - Jolly - 1974
2.0082 - Shy - 1974
2.0086 - Gift - 1975
2.0089 - Painter - 1976

[Lia]

perhaps , probably, that list includes the first Bully smurfs?

Lia