[André]

I can tell you something about this Hexalotte.

The moldyear is 2008. This means that they are in no hurry getting these Hexalottes out.

And some people have told me that Schleich don´t make any smurfs if there are less than maybe 5000 ordered. But I can tell you this. This is because they have to make a mold, which is expensive to make. In this case BASF´s owns the mold. So they can actually tell Schleich to make just a few to test the new material. Do you follow me?

The fair could be 2 years from now, who knows???

So it can be very few of these made. It is all up to BASF. Schleich has nothing to do with this mold, because they don´t own it.

Am I right?????

/André

[André]

OK,
I know what your thinking. He is just trying to convince himself he made a good deal. I admit it could be true.

But think if this is a prototype-item like the bellringer etc. These mold could very well be a Smurfette made for testing the material and not for being given away or sold on the market???? This Smurfette could be like the bellringer are now in 10 years. OK. I know I am carring away a little. But you must admit that if you have it you would very much like it to be rare.

But it could very well be sold for 5 euros in a month.

/André

[André]

OK,

both feets on the ground again, right.

regarding the eyes Tojo.

These eyes I like. I don´t know why they had to make her look up??

/André

[André]

And regarding eye-lashes.

It is not always good.

I think this Smurfette looks like she has been drinking to much. But ofcourse it is a "partydress"????

/André

[SmurfingH]

Maybe they made her look up to show that she's thinking about her conversation? Part of me hopes you're right about her being a prototype, Andre, for your sake. The bigger part of me wants to be able to get one myself!

[André]

Hilary,

I think you don´t have to worry.

There is actually no point in making these promo-stuff if you don´t spread it out, right??? But you never know.

/André

[agent smurf]

Nice pictures Andre, thanks for sharing them with us. I thought that they almost never get the eyes on the smurf figurines right because of their big noses. So that the painters would have problems to paint them closer together even if it was intended this way by Schleich or other companies. You know what I mean. goodbye.

[Gerda]

I always thought there was a limit of how small an order could be before schleich produced it

[André]

I agree with you Gerda,

and I don´t know if there is a difference if BASF owns the mold or not.

I am just thinking load since I think that is the best way to comunicate ( maybe not all the time ). Probably 50% is wrong and 50% is right.

So you tell me where I am right???

/André

[Smurfysmurf]

Schleich owns some part or all of the ownership of it, or their name wouldn't be on the markings. Take for example the McDonald smurfs, that Schleich doesn't own (no mention of Schleich on them)

I still feel that you are partly right, and think that the display box with the insert will become a real collector's item. Even if they are distributed inside it, more and more of the boxes will get lost as time goes by

[Smurfysmurf]

Why do you think BASF owns the mold and not Schleich?

It was my understanding that Schleich created both molds for BASF to advertise their new product. That wouldn't transfer ownership of the mold though

[André]

Maureen,

Lilou´s contact on BASF told us that BASF owns the mold. Could mean nothing though???

Gerda,

This is what is mean: I am a fan of crosswords. I solve them all the time and I like the hard ones. So if you want to solve these you always has to think futher ( if you know what I mean) because the constructor always tryies to "trick" you.

In this case the first and probable scenario is that they will give these away in a fair soon. Maybe 84% chance. And then these will be all over ebay.

The second scenario: These are made for materialtest only and for VIP-customers only. But why would they make a box with the writing like this??? Seems stupid?? Maybe 15% or less chance. Then these would show on ebay maybe once each month.

The third scenario is that they made this mold in 2008 and for some reason slowed down. And maybe thay have no intention of making many of these. For example why do they make a mold for the bellringer and then only produce "a few" of them? Something must have stopped them, like money, politices etc. I am just thinking load here so forget this if you don´t like it. Maybe 1% chance. Then these are very rare and will only show on ebay a few times. But this is very unlikely because of the CEO showing this box on the conference.

So my guess is that you will all have these within a year.

/André

[André]

Maureen,

This is what Lilou wrote:
""I just talked to the product manager who is in charge of the plasticizer those things are made with. I was informed that these are exclusive VIP-gifts. The company which is producing them is not allowed to sell them, infact BASF owns the forms they are molded into. They may be ordered by department heads or higher in hierarchy"

And this is intresting if the mold was made 2008. Then they have already taken the cost of making the mold??????? If 2008 means the mold was made then???? But if they stopped or waited a while they maybe can make just a few for materialtests??? You follow? This is unlikely but not impossible.

/André

[André]

And Maureen,

I would agree with you in every part if it wasn´t for the year. The DR.Dinch have the year 2007 and Hexalotte 2008, almost the same.

Why wait until now to give her away????????????

If it had been 2009 or 2010 on them I would just have said: OK, these will be all over Ebay soon.

But this makes it harder. Or could it be I am just looking for fishy things on her!!

/André

[Smurfysmurf]

I think the mold was made in 2008, which explains the year. For example the 2009 smurfs have the 2008 marking, the 2008 smurfs have the 2007 marking and so on. It probably takes a few months from making the mold to actually having the final figure.

I am not sure why Dr. Dinch shows 2007 and first appeared in 2007 unless you consider that the mold was made early in 2007 and he appeared late the same year which is never the case with normal smurfs or Hexalotte. The CEO showed her this year as well, so I really don't think she was already available last year, however she was clearly in the making, because remember that Frank Oswald first mentioned the possibility of a BASF smurfette late last year when I was in contact with him.

I had forgotten what Lilou wrote about BASF owning the mold, but I still believe in order for Schleich to take the trouble of creating new smurfs (even if they don't own the mold, they more than likely pour and paint them, why else would their name on the smurf) BASF had to sign for a certaiin amount of smurfs.

There is this huge controversy why the Christmas Prototypes weren't mass produced. I, personally, believe that they were produced by Applause (hence the marking of at least W. Berrie) but then W. Berrie lost interest in smurfs and never pursued these smurfs. I have never heard that they were meant as promotional items, but everybody seems to agree that they were meant to be sold, so it would make sense that Applause stopped producing them when they stopped producing smurfs. It simply was cheaper for them to stop with them and to cut their losses than to produce them in big numbers and not to sell them. The tragedy of it is that they would have probably been the smurfs they had made the biggest profit off as they were completely new and there was already a huge smurf market back then.

BTW...I am not much into crossword puzzles but grew up with a grandmother who was and she always asked me when she got stuck...I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie books, so I like your way of thinking and I am always up for a nice discussion....and to learning new things

[André]

OK Maureen,

I can´t fool you. I am just trying to make this more exciting.

But you know me from the discussion of the finacialcrise. I like to think in potential scenarios. Most of them turn out to be ludicrous, but it is a nice way to keep the brain cells going, right????

You want more pictures of Hexalotte????

/André

[André]

Maureen,

what about this scenario.

You tell me W.Berrie lost intrest in the Smurfs and stopped production of the christmas prototypes. What if BASF´s intention was to give them away last year, but because of the finansialcrise changed their mind and stopped Schleich from making these. And then as Lilou wrote they only use the mold for these "exclusive gifts" for VIP-customers.

And why would the BASF contact say this, if these were massproduced and was meant to be given away for free on a fair??? It is not much of a "exclusive gift" if it is given away for free on a fair???

This is just thinking loud ( this time I spelled it right I hope). You know what I mean.

/André

[André]

this is part of the marking on her.

And the marking is the same as this years smurfs so I am just stupid, OK???

/André

[SmurfingH]

...I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie books,

Me too! I have all of them!

Andre I like the way you think too but I do think this will be on the market very soon. Hopefully she won't be more expensive than the chemist smurf.

[Tojo]

That's interesting that she has the town & postcode as markings.

@Maureen: Agatha Christie came from my home town (Torquay) & the museum there has a very interesting exhibition of her works etc