[André]

Hi,

before starting with the Bullysmurfs, I would like to give you this overview over the markings and then I guess it is easier for you to see the logic in all this.

So forget all the yearinformation you have read in collectors catalogues, Bully museum catalogue, sellers information.

This is the 100% correct information!! Just kidding, but I believe it is very close to correct, could be some minor errors.

The reason I know this is that Bully, just like Schleich in the 70s, changed the marking every year. So actually it is simple to date all Bullysmurfs.

This is the overview picture with the moldyears. Sold the year after.

As usual we show the variations for all smurfs later in the Variation section.

For everymarking I show here a older markingversion not possible. For example a smurf made in 1978 can not have a marking from 1975. But off course a smurf made 1975 can have the marking used 1978 if Bully changed the mold or wanted to add this marking.

[André]

The first 17 Bullysmurfs are the only ones possible to find without any markings. So I believe these were made before Bully got the license to make these. When Bully gave them the license around 1973/74 they added Peyo in the mold.

I also believe the first 11 was made before the 6 waldbaur-smurfs.
In 1974 Bully added the waldbaur smurfs to the catalogue with peyo marking. But I believe these were made for waldbaur before getting the license so therefore these can be found with no peyo marking also.

The Bully digger was never sold by Schleich and has no Schleicharticelnumber.

[André]

In 1975 Bully added the handetched marking. So no smurfs made 1975 can be found with no markings at all or only peyomarking.

The Bully Gargamel, Smurfette and Astro was never sold by Schleich and never got any Schleich articlenumber.

[André]

In 1976 Bully only made 3 new molds.

They had this marking.

And on the poster you can see that these were the only new ones added and sold 1977.

[André]

In 1977 Bully used this type of marking on all there new molds. ( except for the Ballerina??? only exception I found so faar. )

[André]

In 1978 Bully changed the marking again and all new molds got this marking.

[André]

The last year Bully made smurfmolds was 1979. And off course they changed the marking this year also!!

A very small bullymarking. All new molds got this marking.

[André]

Because of this we can date the smurfs pretty accurate.

For example this tiroler marking.

This mold was made like this in 1977.

And the axe smurf got this marking in 1976.

[André]

In 1980 Schleich got the worldwide license to make smurfs and got all the Bullymolds. They are all in the 1980 Schleichcatalogue.

Therefore the logic tells us Bully could not have made these after 1980, right!!
So when it says 1981 in the DSK forget it!!! And as we all know many of the years are wrong, so no surprise!

What do you think?? Correct??

Something to add???

[Tintin]

Hello Andre

Again very interesting but to tell you the truth….
I have been collecting different markings for years but never thought of this before.
So what can I say about this ??? You could be right because it sound logic…............

Greetings Tintin

[André]

Hello Andre

Again very interesting but to tell you the truth….
I have been collecting different markings for years but never thought of this before.
So what can I say about this ??? You could be right because it sound logic…............

Greetings Tintin

Thrust me Frank!!

We have Stefans Bully catalogues from 1974, 1975. I have the Bully posters from 1976 and 1977. We have the Schleich catalogue from 1980.

So the years 1978 and 1979 must have been something like this.

But off course the years could "differ" by maybe +- 6 months because like today they sometimes puts information like this on the posters.

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

It's not about trust, i just never thought this way...........
I have always been happy when i found a smurf with different marking.
So i need some time to let this come to me

Tintin

[André]

For me the picture is very clear.

I see the logic in it and it goes 100% correct with the articlenumbers, order the smurfs were sold, markings etc.

If you think about it. Do you think Schleich today when they change marking would have different type of markings on the 2010 years smurf??? No, I don´t think so!! When you change a marking or logo you change them on all items, like the new peyocreation logo on the boxes!

The same with the articlenumbers. If you want to sell something you give it a articlenumber. And Schleich gave all the Bullymolds they got new articlenumbers except Gargamel, Smurfette and Astro. The only reason they should have done like this is if they would have replaced their own version, but I believe they did not. Therefore they didn´t sell them!!

If they would have sold them, still with Bully-marking like the other,they would have got a articelnumber, right??

[Pitufo]

Hi Andre

It's not about trust, i just never thought this way...........
I have always been happy when i found a smurf with different marking.
So i need some time to let this come to me

Tintin

Me too!!!!!!!!!!!Such an amount of info last few weeks taht I need time to learn it all...BIG TAHNKS André!!!!!!!

[stampysmurf]

Thanks Andre for all of the hard work you have put into this research!

[bundleofkent]

Outstanding Andre outstanding...!

I have nothing to add - that is how good this is

Can I just say that the hardest hand-etched Bully to get is astro-I have never seen it with "ordinary" colours-just dark blue jacket (twice) and the sonderbemalung with silver helmet.

Maybe some-one has this marking??? It will exist but is MEGA rare

Thanks soooo much Andre

Martin

[André]

Outstanding Andre outstanding...!

I have nothing to add - that is how good this is

Can I just say that the hardest hand-etched Bully to get is astro-I have never seen it with "ordinary" colours-just dark blue jacket (twice) and the sonderbemalung with silver helmet.

Maybe some-one has this marking??? It will exist but is MEGA rare

Thanks soooo much Andre

Martin

Thanks Martin,

As you say there are some markings that are more rare than others. I have a pretty good idea about which markings. The handetched astro is as you say extremly rare.

I will explain a bit more about the this in the threads.

But first I want to explain who rare the Schleichmarking can be and why I am so sure Schleich sold the Bully smurfs with Bully markings and why Bully astro, Bully smurfette and Bully gargamel never was sold by Schleich.

Thanks to Stefans cataloguepictures ( Thank you so much again Stefan! ) we can see that in 1985 Schleich removed some of the smurfs. The pictures of the old smurfs in the catalogues from 1979 to 1984 are the same so they don´t tell us so much.

But when they removed smurfs they took new pictures.

On these pictures you see that Schleich still sold there own version of Astro, Smurfette and Digger. And no Bully Gargamel is shown. So these 4 Bully smurfs were never sold by Schleich and never got any articlenumber. On this picture you also see the new mold swimmer, thinker, gardener, torchbearer, money, angry etc etc. So these were the actual versions Schleich sold in 1985.

[André]

And now to the Bully markings and Schleich markings.

If you look at these 2 pictures you can see which of the Bullysmurfs Schleich removed from the catalogue 1985.

They removed these Bully smurfs:

20068 Kicker
20072 Trumpet
20077 Naughty
20079 Jolly
20082 Shy
20084 Handstand
20089 Painter
20095 Flute

All these smurfs are very hard to find with Schleichmarkings, except for the 2 last ones which was sold later also. 20089 painter was sold with only Schleichmarkings as a super from 1986, and 20095 flute was also sold in the 90s.

But the first 6 ones of these are rare with Schleichmarkings. So this tells us that Schleich must have sold these probably to around 1983 with Bully markings. Maybe not more than one year with Schleichmarking.

This also tells us that the Schleichmarked painter 20089 were almost always sold as a super. Could have been sold like the other 6 for a very very short time with Schleichmarkings as a normal.

[André]

A funny thing with these pictures are also that they only took new pictures of the rows with changes so for the rows with no changes the old pictures were used!!

So on the rows with changes the ones pictured are the new Schleichmarked versions.

[André]

In the 1986 catalogue there were no changes regarding the Bullysmurfs but in this catalogue they took new pictures on all smurfs so there you can see the old smurfette and all the Schleichmarked versions of the Bully smurfs. After 1986 they removed some of them again. And these are also not that easy to find, but still sold for a few years with Schleichmarking.