Blue Cavern

Hi,

After my work on the boxhistory on the website I will go back to the normals again.

I have a question for you, but first I want to tell you about a question Lia asked here on the forum last year. The easter smurfs have Aplause printed on the side instead of Applause.

To understand this fully you have to check the W Berrie articlenumbers.

As far as I know the last articlenumber W Berrie used on a normal smurf was 6256, Smurfette holding baby.

In 1984/85 W Berrie had these as the higest numbers and I also think they were the last ones.

6240 Schoolgirl
6241 Papa with Pizza
6242 Bullfighter
6243 Smurfette with leg.warmer(Aerobic)
6244 Smurf sailor
6245 Smurfette Baseball
6246 Gargamel with net
6247 Handy Plumber
6248 Tailor
6249 Majorette
6250 Smurf sweeping
6251 Smurfette with cream cone
6252 Injured
6253 Brainy Referee
6254 Smurfette jogger
6255 Smurf with mop and pail
6256 Smurfette holding baby

But they sold a few normals after this also in 1985. But then they continued the articlenumberserie of the seasonalfigurines. Because they were called limited collectors serie. And these are not marked either W Berrie or Applause. Just made in Hongkong 1985???

6590 january Baby w teddy, baby w icecream
6595 january dentist, smurfette flute
6600 april Devil, angel
6615 april Smurfette golfer, basketball
6620 june Baby w blocks, baby w car
6625 june Smurfette gown, smurf tux
6630 august Baby w bowl, baby w butterfly
6635 august Pilot, stewardess

However I think the 4 smurfs that should have been released in august 1985 never made it to production in Hongkong??? This tells us the HK factory probably closed in late 1985 or early 1986. No smurfs were made in Hongkong after this.

But W berrie also had a lot of smurfs sold as seasonal figurines before the articlenumber 6590. These are the ones:

6520 Easter smurf bunny, smurfette bunny(1981)
6530 Halloweenpumpkin(1981), halloweensmurfette on broom(1983)
6540 Santasmurf( 1981)
6545 santasmurfette(1982),smurf candycane(1983), smurfette gift(1983)
6550 Valentine smurf and smurfette( 1980)
6560 Gradutionsmurf( 1981-), Smurfette( 1982-) and 1# Grad( 1984)
6565 #1 teacher( only 1983)
6570 Thanksgivingsmurf( 1982), smurfette( 1983)
6580 St:Patricksmurf( 1982)
6585 Babysmurf white,pink,blue( 1984)

And now to the question and the intresting information. In 1985 a coulpe of new seasonal figurines were sold. These are never in the W Berrie/Applause catalogue. The intresting thing about them are that all are marked Portugal and also both W Berrie and Applause 1984. And these were the last smurfs marked W Berrie. All other existed before these 6 smurfs.

The first ones made was the 2 eastersmurfs( smurf and smurfette with egg). And they were first marked on the arm and misspelled Aplause instead of Applause. They added the correct spelling under the base though, but for some reason forgot to remove the old marking. After this the other 4 were made Indian with corn, Gargamelmask, Christmas Smurfette ( 20200) and Christmas latern. All were made approximatly the same time.

I believe all these 6 were sold as seasonal figurines and no new "normal" articlenumber were used. The question is under which articlenumers.??? Did they use the same as before, as W Berrie had done and just adding new smurfs but the same articlenumbers????

Also I have no W Berrie articlenumbers for the Christmassmurfs sold with cords in 1982??? Do anybody know these numbers??

I forgot to say that I don´t mean the eleven figurines made later for Applause, marked Applause China. the SCCI-letters talk about them and tells about the dissapointment that there were no new figurines, only old ones they released again. I don´t know though if Applause used the same articlenumbers on those??? Also how they numbered the loose supersmurfette with pot and cup?

I hope I am not straying too far from the main topic..but any idea why the Gargamel with mask has this marking?

"Div W B And Co Inc"

I think this is the only smurf with it on and stands for Div Wallace Berrie and Co Inc.

In regards to your musings, Andre..could it be a similar case as it was with Bully...when W.Berrie or Applause decided to get out of the smurf business (which would have been around 1985, wouldn't it?) Schleich took over these smurfs..gave them a Schleich number but didn't change the marking?

I wonder if the six molds were so called left over productions that Applause had ready for distribution but never officially sold them..hence never gave them a number or put them in a catalog

I think it was like this Maureen.

First the seasonal figurines never were in the catalogues, so these were probably sold in 1985. For example you never see the garduationsmurfette, #1 grad, #1 teacher etc in the catalogues. Nor the st Patrick, haloweensmurfs etc.

So I think they were sold in 1985 in Us by Applause then, but made in 1984, the time when they changed the markings from W berrie to Applause.

regarding the molds W Berrie or Applause never made any smurfs. Schleich had these made in Hongkong and just marked them W Berrie because they were sold by W Berrie or applause. In the beginning Schleich did not mark the smurfs W Berrie because then the Hongkongfactory was also used for smurfs sold by BP. In 1982 they started to add the marking because then only W berrie sold the smurfs made in Hongkong. In 1985 when the sales dropped they stopped with the W berrie and Applause marking. Later also closed the factory. Therefore also they could do whatever they wanted with the molds. And they did. They sent some to Macau and made smurfs there and sold in europe. Also a lot of the leftovers from the Hongkongfactory where used in europe later. Or maybe they made more but still used the same molds???

Or that is probably not completly correct, since Schleich not always makes the smurfs themselves, meaning owning the factory. They just did not let the factory in Hongkong make smurfs for Schleich anymore, or any of the companies selling smurfs for Schleich.

All molds are owned by Peyo, or the IMPS, well you know what I mean. If Peyo don´t want schleich to make any smurfs anymore, Schleich most certainly will not be allowed to keep the molds, eventhough maybe peyo are not allowed to use them how they want without making a deal with Schleich??

regarding the markings Applause Div W berrie Co, or Applause Div W B co or Applause Div W B co inc., I think they are the same but the ones they added div and Inc are probably the last ones. ?? Only 6 made I think so it is hard to tell exactly in which order they were made.

But I am pretty sure the easter ones were the first ones made since they made the spelling-mistake and they are 100% genuine and very common.

Was applause always a division of W. Berrie or did they become a division of W. Berrie in 1985?

Just wondering why the marking changed with the last smurfs.

I don't think I worded my previous statement correctly. Of course, Schleich is the only producer of smurfs (at least since the early 80s)..and W. berrie was only the distributor of the smurfs in the North American market (I think Canada and the US).

Schleich obviously made special molds only for the US market that were distributed by WB so my thoughts were that these last smurfs with the pretty specific American theme (at least the Thanksgiving and Halloween theme) were produced for the North American market, but by the time these were ready to be sold, WB might have decided to get out of the smurfing business.

Since they were made for the North American market, they had the markings for W. Berrie/Applause..but if WB didn't distribute them, they would not be in any catalog..probably not have a WB/Applause number..and were eventually distributed by Schleich like all the other smurfs were.

Does this even make sense?

This information and discussion is from an academic level and I had to read it several times to absorb it. GREAT!!

I can`t ad any info or answer questions, but I love posts like these!
Thanks!

Lia

I think most of the smurfs like haloween, thanksgiving, pumpkin etc were made earlier. And I think they were made for W berrie, but Schleich also used these in other countries. Already in 1980 and 1981 W berrie sold these. the reason they are not in the dealers catalogue could be that the toystores could not order them?? But most likely they could, but since they were seasonal they were not in the catalogue, maybe there were separate booklets or posters they used only during the short time every year when the stores sold these??

Usually these were made in portugal. You can see most of them on the blue moon poster, by W berrie and Applause from 1984. Among the last ones made before adding applause was the smurfs with candycane and smurfette with gift(20207 and 20208). At that time they used W Berrie portugal markings. No applause. And these were made in the factory owned by Maia Borges, where they made smurf for Schleich with different markings depending on where they were going to be used.

Regarding the use of div and inc, they added this to the molds and only a few were made. The best way to describe this is to show the Applause boxes. These also have this marking with div and inc.. Why they use these words I don´t know exactly( a choice by Applause??)? These smurfs were made exactly the same time the Applause boxes were made. Only a very short time. I don´t think Applause expected the drop of sales. It says in the book that it was a dramatic drop that surpriced everybody and that´s why they got loads of smurfs remaining on the shelves in the factories.

Applause and W berrie joined earlier but desided to change name to only Applause during these years, when these were made. just like shown on the catalogues.

One of the last things made for Applause must have been the Jokey with trickbox. But in that case thay already had the smurf they could use for that super. Also the displaybox you have Maureen for the limited collectors smurfs in 1985.
I don´t remember which smurfs were shown on you displaybox Maureen?? I would guess maybe 5 variations exists???

Sorry,

I did not mean the smurfs with candycane and smurfette with gift. They were made already in 1982 and sold by W Berrie in 1983.

One thing you should notice is that Schleich is giving smurfs articlenumbers when they are sold in toystores, meaning for toydealers to buy from the catalogues, that is when they need the numbers.

So many smurfs, like the seasonal were given articlnumbers late, because not sold in "normal" way before given the numbers.

I think some were given articlenumbers when Maia Borges sold them in their toycatalogue for dealers in 1984/85, but some were used by W berrie earlier.

I don´t remember which smurfs were shown on you displaybox Maureen?? I would guess maybe 5 variations exists???

I will have to look for mine over the weekend and take a picture of it for you, Andre..I think it's the box with the angel and devil

Here is the display that that shows the 1985 releases



Here are the pictures from the 1985 catalog that Steffen posted...the description states that 8 boxes (prepacked) were released. So far, I have only seen the one I have

Also, I find it curious that they did not put pictures of the actual smurfs in the catalog...especially since at least the dentist and smurfette w/flute were already produced at the time when the catalog was printed.

I found this about the company

http://www.answers.com/topic/applause-inc

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.

These 2 boxes are shown in the catalogue, but hard to see on the pictures here. I made a closeup for you.

And if you have the one with the devil and angel, at least we know 100% sure that 3 exists. But most likely all boxes until the baby with blocks exists, but are probably impossible to find since they were only sold a very short time.

I don´t think the 4 last smurfs that should have been sold in august exists with Hongkong marking???

I saved the picture of the devil and angel box

Lia

Thanks Lia!

That box is Maureens box!

A funny thing with these 16 limited edition smurfs are that all were made without applause marking. Only marked made in hongkong and 1985. The molds for the last 4, Lee brought to his new location in Macau, together with some other mold from Hongkong and remarked them Macau instead. I don't think any new mold were made and marked Macau. These ones were then sold in Europe instead!

Thanks, Lia..I think that was the picture from the auction

I think I read somewhere (not sure where though) that they did not produce all of the smurfs in that series but stopped .

It would make sense that they put a stop to the production if sales suddenly declined..we've seen the same thing with the German comic magazine that had smurfs attached..They had pictures of all the smurfs they would sell with the magazines, but they stopped the production after three editions (although it is possible to get the remaining smurfs now in other countries i.e. Australia sells at least two of them with their DVD sets)

so it was you who bought that lovely box Maureen!

How rare is the papa pilot macau, with brown shoes, for how many years was it in production? ( for 1 or 2 years?)

Lia

I am not sure Lia, but the Macau marked smurfs were only made for a short while. I am not sure yet which years they were sold and if some are more rare compared to the other ones. But I would guess they were sold approximatly between 1986 and 1988.??

I found the confirmation for the thing I wrote in the beginning of this thread:

"And now to the question and the intresting information. In 1985 a coulpe of new seasonal figurines were sold. These are never in the W Berrie/Applause catalogue. The intresting thing about them are that all are marked Portugal and also both W Berrie and Applause 1984. And these were the last smurfs marked W Berrie. All other existed before these 6 smurfs."

As you see SCCI letters tells us these were a limited edition smurfs. And originally 12 were supposed to be made, but only 6 got to the market. That was the 6 ones I was talking about.

So if you read this again maybe it makes more sence now?? These figurines were limited edition launched by Applause( division of W Berrie Co inc.). And that is why they are not in any catalogue and also why only these have this marking!!!!!

They were guessing that the christmas prototypes could have been 3 of the 6 remaining smurfs out of the promissed 12.

Another intresting thing about the prototypes is that they have cavitynumbers, which means a mold with 4 cavities was made. So not only prototypes. This means that they probably made a couple of them also. ??

Forget the last post!!

They mean the 16 limited collectors serie from 1985. No seasonal smurfs!!

I will get back later about the seasonal ones!!