[André]

Hi everyone.

I have a question for you. Many years ago I got a miller smurf with a red-brownish sack in a big lot. It looks like the volksbank promo on Christys site or in the DSK 4, but it does not have the same print on it. Since it is hard to see what the print looks like, because of age, I assumed it to be the volksbank one.

But then I saw this auction. The seller claims it says 1000 on the front of the sack and that could be correct on the one I have, since it looks like a number 1 in the beginning. But I would guess it could be one or two letters also?? Like 1000 DM?? Have anyone any information about this promo?

http://www.ebay.de/itm/190735736295?nma ... _cvip=true

[Lia]

Could be the same one that Bernd always has for sale?

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Werbe-Schlumpf-M ... 27cb9ac1c3

Lia

[André]

Thanks Lia,

That is the correct one, I guess!?? When checking closely with light it has 1000 embossed in the mold of the sack. But then it also seems to have had some kind of printing also???

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

You made me curious with this one.
I knew i had one with a bad print and a promo print.
At first when i looked at the bad one, i was happy because it was
one with the 1000 on it.
But when i saw the other, it has the same print .......1000 under the white.
You can't see on the picture, but it is there !!

Maybe this smurf was first made with the 1000 print and they changed it at the last minute.

Tintin

[Simon X]

Hi André, I don't know whether I want to talk to someone from Sweden after the football match yesterday

As always you have shown that you can really well observe such details on smurfs...I can see that "1000" (?) on my promo with printing as well, although it's really difficult to see it (I only see the "1" and a "0"). I add a small photo.

I wondered what the "1000" could mean. My guess: There were 1136 Volksbank credit unions in 2010...You can see them in this list. Maybe the smurf was first produced to celebrate the 1000th? But I don't know when that was...

I even found a German document about the history of the Volksbank/Raifeisenbank advertisement, but the word "Schlumpf" or "1000" is not mentioned there (didn't read it, just searched for the words). You can find it here at "Die Geschichte der genossenschaftlichen Banken-Werbung".

If you are really interested in that topic, you could write a mail to the address (giz@bvr.de) on this website. It says this is the "long-term memory" of the credit unions.

[André]

I understand Simon!

It feels like a victory for Sweden. Normaly if Germany leads 4-0 after 60 minutes the match is over. I assume the grman players already in their minds went to the pub?

[André]

It is funny that it looks like there was another print on all of them. But at the same time it is very unlikely that all of the once we have seen have gotten the printing completly removed, right. Therefore it is likely that the logo that was printed on these ones were removed. Maybe they got the logo wrong the first time???

To me it seems most logical that the ones with the removed logo was sold or given away first??? Or did they changed their logo sometime?

[André]

Simon,

I found this information about the logo.

"1981 wurde ein neues Verbundzeichen
mit Hilfe der Schweizer Agentur Hiestand
eingeführt: Die historischen Symbole
beider Seiten wurden grafisch modernisiert
und in Kreisen nebeneinandergestellt
– entstanden war ein harmonisch
wirkendes Logo, das zwei Jahrzehnte
Gültigkeit haben sollte."

Does this mean the new logotype with both logos together were made in 1981? Before that they did not have them together. The miller smurf was made in 1981, so it could be something there??? Maybe it was a way to introduce the new logo??

[Simon X]

Does this mean the new logotype with both logos together were made in 1981? Before that they did not have them together.

Yes, it sounds like they mean that logo. But it has differences: They say it's in circles (like on this logo), but one the smurf only the right part is in a circle. Probably not a big deal, but a bit confusing.

[André]

Thanks Simon,

I found the information in the link you gave us. I understand most of the german I read and will read more later. But I skipped all parts before 1978 since this smurf was not made then. It could have been made after 1981 also, but we know it could not have been earlier since the logo on the sack was not made before.

Usually these items have some kind of logic connection. Like Fix & Foxi, Dureco, etc. But could off course sometimes also be a company desided to use smurfs in their promotion and then it is harder to guess the years.

But when checking markings, comparing with other smurfs, paint, etc. we can limit the probabal years of production. Have anyone seen this number on the other sacks? Or was it a special sack just made for this promotion??

My guess is that the number has nothing to do with the company. It is just a way to show that it is a moneysack instead of a wheatsack??

If the number 1000 was important they would have painted the number 1000 or made it more obvious, right??

[Lia]

I checked mine, but I can`t find any indication of a year, just w.germany inside the foot and peyo on arm

Lia

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

I just checked my Drawigran, and also on this one there is a 1000.
Then i checked a few normal ones, and i can see ( not very clear but it is there ) a 1000 to................

Tintin

[André]

Correct Frank,

I checked mine also a few days ago and many of the sacks have 1000. So it was not a special mold made for only promos.

[Tintin]

Hi Andre

It seems like it, but then ...............for what the 1000 ??

Tintin

[Arno]

I use this topic because I have 2 questions about the miller - 20152.
As it was his turn to be checked, I looked at mines and found 2 millers without ears of corn on the wheat bag, but saw some relief markings on it : "1000".
Well this has been discussed here and I can see on all my miller's bags "1000" on relief.
The mold existed already (thirsty - 20057), so they only had to create the wheat bag. Probably as you said in 1980-1981 for the Volksbank, with brown bag, then for normal business with beige bag.

First question :
I don't have any brown bag miller (sadly), but got these 2 without ears of corn some years ago. As they were not mine and don't know about their history, I wonder if they are fakes or not : it must be easy to remove the ears, though I can not see any trace of that ?
Does someone own such millers ?
Do some bags without ears exist in playsets (I don't have any) ?

Second question :
I saw on Dyar's site a variation of that mold made in HK. I was surprised, because I did not notice this mold in the Wallace Berrie / Applause catalogs published here. Moreover, if there would have been a HK mold, I would have thought this one would have had Wallace Berrie Co. markings on it ; on the Schleich Catalog from 1986, many molds pictured are from HK (even if that does not mean they were sold like that in Europe), but most of the ones sold in Europe were WBC "unsold" I guess.
And it is possible for some non smurf collector to put some wheat bag on the hands of a HK smurf that has lost his bottle...
So, one more time : do you own such smurf, marked HK ?