Blue Cavern

We talked about which of the 1985 smurfs sold by Applause in 1985 really were sold.

Here you have the answer.

The last ones were baby with blocks and baby with car sold in July 1985.

The last 6 smurfs, tuxedo, gown, pilot, stewardess, baby with bowl and baby with butterfly, never reached the US market. However the plans were to sell them all when they started this campaign, so therefore all were made in Hongkong when they started, maybe with the exception of baby with butterfly was made in Hongkong.

But with the Schleichproblems and dropping demand they stopped with these smurfs, so on some of these they later blocked the hongkong-marking or changed it to Macau when Lee( most likely) started his own buisness in macau??

So another question answered!!

And so on.....

here is the answer they got from Applause( earlier W Berrie):

This also means only 5 displayboxes are possible to find.

Maureen have one, and 2 more are shown in the catalogue.

the last two would be next to impossible to find though, wouldn't they, if they never released the smurfs and never used them in the stores

Yes Maureen,

the last 3 boxes were never released and are not possible to find.
Meaning: Box with smurfette in gown and smurf in tuxedo, box with stewardess and pilot and box with babies with bowl and butterfly. These were never sold and therefore the boxes were never used, meaning impossible to find.


Only the first 5 boxes made is possible to find.

Box with dentist and smurfette with flute.
Box with babies with teddy and ice lolly.
Box with devil and angel.
Box with basketball and smurfette golfer.
Box with babies with car and blocks.

The last one used were the box for the babies with car and blocks sold in July 1985. These were also the last smurfs sold by Applause then, just as they answer the SCCI. No new molds were made for Applause after this, except for the 11 smurfs sold in 1990 marked Applause, Made in China.

So at the time summer 1985 Applause stopped with smurfs, that could also be the reason why the Christmas-prototypes marked 1984 never reached the market.

just like these smurfs I think, as W berrie always did before, they added new seasonal figurines, made in Portugal for W Berrie or Applause, but these also stopped the same time.

Should the smurfs that Applause had planned to release but never did, be available with the Applause marking? I know they are available with the HongKong marking but as far as I know they also have Schleich on it and not Applause?

No Maureen,

I think all the limited collectors serie only had made in hongkong markings. They did only mark the 6 seasonal figurines with applause and also the later released 11 figurines.

During these years they still used W Berrie or like on the seasonal figurines, both W Berrie and Applause.

I have put together a short story about the years W Berrie and Applause sold smurfs on my website. There you see that they changed the name completly to Applause in 1986, before that they gradually changed it from W Berrie to Applause. Let me know if anything seems wrong on that page!!

http://thecursedcountry.com/wberriehistory.html

On the figurines not sold by Applause, you will still be able to find a few of them with Hongkong-marking and also with blocked hongkong and Macau instead. I am not sure if the baby with butterfly-mold was ever made in Hongkong though??? It seems that all the other were made but not all the smurfs reached the US market unfortunatly!

What a TRAGIC story! people waiting for smurfs that never came, especially when it is something special like the smurfette in gown, which is a gorgeous smurfette. In Europe she was for sale, a friend of mine had her, and years later i got her from him... but i remember that she was rare. I myself never saw her in a toystore back then.