[André]

OK,

I think Martin may figure it out know??

As said in the first post I made in this thread, I think many of you have this promo smurf. But at the same time I only know one person having this item.

It was sold in Australia, but could also maybe have been sold in one more country. ???

[Smurfysmurf]

Would it be a similar situation as with the VFL Rugby?

It is almost a like a promo. And I think it is the same with the Australian rugby smurf. I think it was sold as a promo for VFL( Australian Football League( before 1990) and just like the Hexalotte and Dr Dich they as promovaraitions don´t get any articlenumbers like the others( at least not in the same articlenumberserie).

When this smurf first was sold by W Berrie in US 1982 it got the articlenumber. That is why it got a higher articlenumber, eventhough sold in 1981 already by BP Australia. They also used the same base then as on the HK mold for the first rugby sold at the same time by BP then.

So the HK rugby was never sold by W Berrie in US, but in Australia as you can see on the BP advert from 1981 on Dyars site. Together with the VFL variation of the Australian rugby.

I add the picture of Dyars poster and I hope it is OK with him??

Also the logotype used by VFL before 1990.

[André]

Maureen,

that sentence about the base was way to long. I had to read it several times before I understood what I wrote myself!!!

A good guess. What item do you mean???

[Smurfysmurf]

I don't know Andre...I am not too familiar with smurfs sold soley in Australia in the early 80s and then brought into the general production line.

The only ones I know so far are the smurfee (blue icecream) and the VFL Rugby...not aware of any others

[steveparkes]

Could it be the all blacks rugby smurf?

[André]

No,

I think I have to give you another clue soon.

I promise I give you the answer next week.

[André]

OK,

I promissed I tell you. Not fun anymore, right?

If you look at these 2 pictures do you see anything special??

[smurfowen]

Are you talking about smurfee?

[André]

No Pierre!

[Tintin]

Hi

Still haven't got a clue

Tintin

[André]

I thought that someone here would see it???

OK, Frank. Now you will see it.

I have added two smaller pictures so you see what I mean.

[Smurfysmurf]

I guess it's the tankwart...but you will have to explain your clues, Andre..because they are not making sense to me

[Tintin]

Hi

Yes now i see !!!!

Tintin

[André]

Maureen,

it is not just the tankwart. It is the BP promo playset.

I hope I was not wrong when giving the clues but as far as I know only one person that I have heard of has the BP promo playset in box. But many of us have the loose BP smurf in this playset.

Maybe I was wrong???

[Smurfysmurf]

Yes, I understand that clue.....but how did the first picture from yesterday give us a clue it was the playset? As far as I know that display was released in the UK

And how did you find out the playset was released in Australia or was it released in all of the countries that ran the BP promotion which would be the UK, South Africa, Holland and Australia?

[André]

The first picture did not show the playset.

But I wrote like this: -If you look at these two pictures do you see anything special? The reason I showed both was that those were the ones used in the auction. And also it would be too easy if I only show the last picture???

Who told you it was sold in the UK?? It could have been sold in more countries than Australia off course??? But I think they stopped with the promotion in UK before they did this in Australia. But as I wrote when giving the clue about australia I also wrote that it could have been sold in maybe one more country. ??? But that is just me guessing. I know for sure it was sold in Australia. The box still has the "price-sticker" but not so you can see the price. As I told before in another thread. The seller of these items owned a BP-station in Canberra and all items are from that station. The sellers husband was the president of the Australian Service Station Assosiation when the smurfs were launched and they have told me about the launching of the smurfs and the parade they had then. They have a picture of their daughter with a dressed up smurf from that occation. They also went to the launching of the smurfs in Hongkong then.

Regarding the years BP sold smurfs in different countries. I don´t think they did it exactly the same years in all countries. Just like with the smurfs sold in US it took awhile for them to get there and also the promotion could have stopped in different years in different countries, right??

[André]

This playset was sold with different materialcolours on some of the parts.

So not like the normal pump shown in the DSK for the BP-promo. Off course only the stickers could have been used on a normal pump but that seems a bit strange???

[André]

Also one reason for guessing it was sold in the UK is that the BP-smurf has a yellow dot. But many many of the smurfs sold in the BP stations in Australia had yellow dots. They used both Hongkong-made smurfs and smurfs from Europe.

Maybe Martin or any other collector from US tell us when they stopped selling smurfs in UK in the stations? I know they stopped with the National items in summer 1980?? After the olympics?? Or??

Also in South Africa. When did BP sold smurfs in South Africa??? We only have heard the stories of the rugbysmurfs.

[André]

For example they used stickers like this.

Lia and Benny have shown us gold-stickers with made in Hongkong on Bully molds. Maybe they used them outside EC???

[André]

The reason for the yellow dot scuba diver could be that in 1981 they did not have any Hongkongmade diver. It was made one year later.

Same thing with many of the other smurfs.