Blue Cavern

Hi,

I have a question for the UK members.

It seems that National had the trademark rights for the smurfs in UK also in 1981 and maybe 1982. Probably as long as BP had them.

But it seems that in 1981 a "company" or dealer called Coronet sold these.

Could it be that they stopped selling smurfs at the National stations in late 1980 and after that Coronet sold them to some toystores, still with the National license?

This is not I am just guessing, I have pictures from smurfs sold in october 1981 with National and Coronet connections.

Martin told us that the smurfs were sold in some toystores after they stopped selling them at the stations??

The company also made these plushes, sold in UK 1981 together with the PVC-smurfs.

In 1981 3 plushes were possible from Coronet.

Label says made by Coronet 1981.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Excellent-Vin ... 0728242349

When checking again I think the Coronet only refers to the plushes.

But I can confirm that National had the license for the PVC also in october 1981 in the UK.

Here are some pictures from the leaflet.

First a picture describing the UK-box and then the national benzole marking on the leaflet.

And as you see here the tennis smurfette and also the gocart were sold, so this means National sold them also in 1981??

OK,

time for some historical information again.

I want to share some intresting facts that is now confirmed with the help of the National leaflet.

When comparing these BP and National posters, leaflets, pictures etc. from 1980 and 1981, I would guess National had the rights in UK as long as BP had the rights for them in other countries, since National also was BP-owned then. So probably through 1982 also. ??

Now to the facts.

In late 1981 National sold 24 supersmurfs and 60 normalsmurfs. Also the gate, cottage and house.

None of the companies, BP or National, used articlenumbers like the german Schleichnumbers or the W Berrie numbers. That is also the reason for no numbers on the boxes. National just numbered them 1-60. And the supers with S infront of the numbers. And the numbers was not connected to a special smurf, so when they stopped selling a smurf another smurf just got that number. So basicly just numbering the ones they had for sale.

Here you also can see most of the supers sold in UK boxes.

One intresting thing here is that this confirms that the Windsurfer box without the large red smurf is a UK box made for National.

We have talked about this earlier since all the other sides of this box is the same as the other UK boxes. So definatly a UK box.

You can see all the UK boxes I talk about here: http://thecursedcountry.com/nationalbp19781982.html

As you also can see they had stopped selling the Skier in 1981. However that super was sold already in 1979 in the UK box. That box was also later used by Schleich with CE-stickers.

Then there are 3 more not shown, which I think was sold before 1981 also. Chaingang, smurf in cage and butterflycatcher. These 3 were probably only sold for a short time in UK, but both the chaingang and butterflycatcher was later sold by Maia Borges with stickers, so therefore they are more common.

that is what I am guessing based on the design on the boxes. Could also be that all these 3 were added later in 1981 or in 1982??

Yu can also see here that the ice hockey was, as we also talked about, only sold without the goal as a normal!!

So the normal icehockey was actually sold all the way from 1977 to 1984/1985. However only the first 2 years in Germany. But by National and W berrie it was sold as a normal a long time.

And it is always good to have pictures of paintvariations, to be able to trace the orgin of them. Some examples made for National!!

Also these as you probably already have seen. Made for BP Australia.

The VFL-rugby and the Smurfee-icecream!!

I hope that helps some of you??

I have also sorted the regularsmurfs and added all the numbers to my website, with information about the years. I will start adding variations to these soon. Check it if you want and tell me if something seems wrong or if I have missed something??


http://thecursedcountry.com/regularsmurfs.html

Will also soon add the next variation in the variationsthread here!!

Hi Andre

So you think that only those versions of the rugby and soccer are sold in the UK ??

Tintin

No Frank,

more variations were made for the UK. Many rugby variations and also many soccers.

Just that I like to see one pictured also like this one. Like some of the bundesliga smurfs in the germancatalogue.

Hi

That's true, always nice to see those variations

Tintin

You made a good point there Frank,

maybe I should not have written made for National, since they were not only made for National.

For example many of the yellow dot soccers were sold elsewhere.

For example I bought the white and black soccer when I was a child in Sweden in late 70s. This I am 100% sure of and I also marked it with the local teamname.

I should also add that some normals sold earlier by National were removed, not only the super Skier.

The normals not longer sold in 1981 was Smurfette, Swimmer, Lute and Sunbather. Could off course be more that I don´t know of since they changed the designs fast.

They even write this: " From time to time some of the above designs may not be available and we reserve the right to alter designs and introduction dates without notice"

If I am looking at the Coronet leaflet correctly, there are also some plush smurfs on it...so I would say they did sell both..pvc figures as well as plush smurfs

So the normal icehockey was actually sold all the way from 1977 to 1984/1985. However only the first 2 years in Germany. But by National and W berrie it was sold as a normal a long time

Interesting....how did you find this out? I tried to find the ice-hockey in the Schleich catalogs as a normal figure but couldn't (at least I don't remember finding it)...and how do you know that it was sold as a single figure for 7/8 years in England? Not doubting you..just interested how you came to that conclusion

Thanks Maureen,

I love those questions and off course I have backup information for this. Sometimes I have to guess what is the most likely story but in this case I have more.

First the articlenumber, 20032, given by Schleich as a normal in 1977.

And then the to other solid proofs.

Gerdas poster from 1978. On that poster by Schleich you can see which smurfs were sold as a normal in 1978, among them the ice-hockey. Also shown on that poster without goal. In 1979 they stopped with the normal icehockey when they started selling it as a super.

In UK this was sold probably already late 1978 and is pictured on the National poster from March 1979, posted here on the forum long time ago. This information together with the facts on the 1981 poster, clearly saying it is a normal, and the histories told by our UK members who never seems to have been remember the icehockey sold with the goal. It was only sold to 1982 though as a normal. Should have clearified that. Only W Berrie sold it to 1984/85. National did only have the rights to around 1982.

It could off course have been like in the US sold both as a normal and super at the same time, but that is very unlikely since nobody have ever seen any UK icehockey-box.

So the approximate years for the normal Icehockey is:

1977-1978 in Germany.
1978-1982 in the UK.
1979-1984/85 in the US. First year only as a normal.

So 1977 to 1984/85 for all countries together.

I don´t think the Ice hockey was ever sold in Australia( no surprice, right!! ). And I think one reason for not selling it as a super in UK could be that ice-hockey is not that big there. In US, Canada, Sweden and Germany it is almost a must if you have that possibility. I remember we bought 2 of these when I was a child so we had 2 goal. And also as I have shown pictures of here, I removed the puck on one of the smurfs stick. Then displaying them playing against eachother!!!

Regarding the Coronet I think they only refers to the 3 plushsmurfs sold then. I now think they have nothing to do with the PVC-smurfs?? But I am not sure. It seems UK members remembers that they were sold in toystores then and was not sold at the stations after 1980???

Anyway this poster tells us National still had the rights for them, but they could have been sold in other ways maybe if the "service with a smurf"-promotion stopped at the stations??? I cannot tell how they were sold, only that they definatly were sold!!

Ice hockey was 1000% sold as a loose smurf in England-I bought it twice....never ever sold with a net........