[André]

Modt of the early smurfs were made for campaigns. I think BP, National etc told Peyo what they would like and he then gave the job to Schleich and Eva. They were just manufacturers and after Peyo approved the designs. None of the early designs I think was made as a wish from Schleich to Peyo.

These were designs BP wanted.

Then in 1970/71 Schleich started selling them also, but just the same molds BP wanted. The designs were made for BP. I would guess Schleich started with the emblem in those years.

The 6 first ones were made for Kelloggs, not for Schleich. They just sold them later.

And as you see Normal was not sold, only gold.

[André]

Tommo,

The spy you have has peyo on the back of the heels, right?

[André]

You asked about when they added the peyo marking.

In Eva Zippels notes she writes when she makes molds( formen) and she writes that she changed 4 of them in february 1969. Before papa.

And then made 4 molds in april 1969 after papa in march.

[Tommo]

Hi André,
I've got the one with peyo on the back of the legs, but I've also got one with no markings on it at all. You can see it in the Spy thread. It's the one with the holes under the heels. Here are the pictures again.

Cheers, Tommo

[Tommo]

Under the feet.

[André]

Tommo,

Now I am gonna make both you and me happy and give you a very good proof for what happened.

As always if you want to find out the history you have to follow the molds.

The spy you have is the 2nd mold.

First is the kelloggs spy.
Second is the one you have. If you look closely the mold was changed. They added a part under the heels. Probably to make it stand better. This was probably made in 1969.

And you can also see were the old edges were under the part they added. And that part is a perfect match for the kelloggs mold.

Third mold is the one I have with added peyo marking. And with filled holes.

This is also proof that the same company made all 3 different ones.

And that Schleich made the ones I show early in this thread.

[André]

Another picture where you can see that they just added the part to make the heel higher not at the toes.

So probably it tipped over.

[André]

The 4th marking is the one Arno shows in the spy thread. Same as mine, peyo on the back of the shoes and emblem under the feets.

This also prooves that Schleich made all of these versions since it is the same mold, but with adjustments in the mold. Higher heels and added markings. But same mold. Same company.

So Schleich made these early Kelloggs smurfs.

[Tommo]

Absolutely amazing information André This also helps to explain where the Angry with holes in the heels fits in, and also the Normal smurf mold painted as either the Prisoner or Brainy, which were done this way as BP may have run out of the Brainy and Prisoner molds at the time?

Do you know how long the Kellogs promotion lasted for?

Cheers, Tommo.

[André]

I think the Kelloggs promotion only ran a short time in 1965 and then a short time in 1966.

Probably not that big quantities.

The success and hausse came when BP did this big campaign in 1969, with adverts all over the newspapers.

And then as you say they ran out of figurines all the time and probably some painters made these quick solutions to help children to get the figurines they were missing.

So the normal smurf painted as prisoner and brainy most certainly was done when BP sold them. That also goes well with the markings on these.

[André]

I think I remember Schleich told me the holes were because a tool was used to remove the figurines from the molds. So therefore they probably changed those molds later so it was easier to get them out of the molds???

When they added the markings under the feets the mold was changed again

[The Smurf Collector]

Thank you Andre, this is extremely interesting.

Do you know what countries Kellogg’s had this promotion?

[André]

According to Peyo it was a promotion in the Benelux countries. So Belgium Netherlands Luxemburg. But it could be mainly Belgium.

Probably it was a depatment of Kelloggs that was in charge over these countries. But then the promotion could have been in just one of the countries??

But Belgium for sure.

That’s what we have heard a long time.

It is just the mystery which smurfs were in these boxes.

Now I am pretty sure the boxes contained these early made Schleich smurfs.

[cheesy4you]

Here I found a pic from this advertising

[cheesy4you]

Complete series

[cheesy4you]

I also saw there are comic strips from Kelloggs from 1964

[Tommo]

We've now come full circle. We all discover, thank you André, how the smurfs started with Schleich, in the same year we know Schleich are ending with them.

[André]

There is still though not clear if the actual smurfs were in the boxes or if you got a voucher, which you could send and then got the smurf.

In Sweden, where the first Schleich smurfs were sold by Kelloggs, you bought them by sending in a order and recieved them later in a package.

As you can read in the Peyo book, Kelloggs were offering a real plastic smurf when buying a corn flakes box.

And if you read the ads it says that you got a voucher. See picture.

So it could be that a voucher was used from the start or they used this later for remaining stock after campaign??

[André]

Here is a newspaper notice from 1979 where they write the story about how the success started in Sweden.

In 1976/77 the toy company Käpphästen got the sole right to sell them in stores in Sweden and at the same time Kelloggs sold them on vouchers on the boxes.

But I assume that before sole right was sold to Käpphästen the figurines maybe could appear in toy stores if local stores bought them directly from Schleich/Bully??