Regular Smurfs

If you mention the name "Smurfs" everybody pictures one of the little blue goblins that have been produced by Bully and Schleich since 1965 and were sold in the millions worldwide. During the first years, the figurines were made after the characters from the comics. Later more and more areas (school, sports, leisure) were covered with the little blue gnomes. The newer figurines from the '80s originated from the cartoon series (Hefty, Puppy, Smoogle, Sassette, etc.). Smurfs are trendy - that's how Cellphone Smurf, Inlineskater, Techno, CyberSmurf, etc. were born over the past years.

Meanwhile, there are more than 330 regular Smurfs - a great incentive to collect. Compared to other fields of collecting, Smurf collecting is affordable for everyone - most figurines can be purchased for less than 10 Euros.

Of course some figurines are more common than others - depending on the produced number. Really rare ones are only the Christmas Smurfs (praying Smurf, praying Smurfette, Smurf with wreath, Smurf on candy cane), some Smurfs that were sold mainly in the USA (baseball Smurfette, graduation Smurf) and the Smurfs holding surprise cones, which were sold only for a short time. But it is also getting more difficult to find the first 100 Smurfs made (gold Smurf, angry, thirsty, congratulation, etc.) in good condition. Besides, collectors have to remember that over the past few years, many Smurfs were only produced for a short time (caveman, jockey, monk, viking, etc.). Due to the fact that the number of collectors keeps growing, it is almost certain, that Smurfs that are today considered "mass-produced," will become scarcer in the near future.

Super Smurfs

Since 1978 Schleich produced Smurfs with movable parts that were sold in small boxes - the super Smurfs. It is quite obvious that the small parts can easily be lost. So it is not very surprising that it is becoming more challenging for the collector to find complete super Smurfs. Super Smurfs in their original boxes are being offered more scarcely than before. The catalog prices refer to super Smurfs in their original boxes - prices for figurines without boxes are set about 25% less. The design of the boxes changed in 1995. Some collectors prefer boxes with the old design. No distinction is made between old and new design, since it is difficult to find those Smurfs with boxes at all.

Promo Smurfs

Promo Smurfs are pictured in their own chapter. The area of promos is likely to be the most interesting one for "Smurfologists" - new and undiscovered promo Smurfs appear here and there. Even recently, Smurfs are being used as advertising medium (e.g. McDonald's 1998). Those promotional figurines are always issued in limited editions, so collectors should always ensure to get their samples before they become expensive.

We were able to picture most of the well-known figurines, in cases where the same logo is used on different Smurfs (Sparkasse logo, Smurf in BP bags, etc.), we only pictured a few of them.

Due to their limited edition and very high demand, promo Smurfs are "hot" items and are changing hands for great amounts of money, and the problem of fakes is quite present. More in the chapter "fakes".

"Non Toxico"

Many Smurf figurines were reproduced in Spain during the '80s. Schleich's old tools were used for that purpose, that explains their smaller size, the slight inaccuracy in shape and the somewhat harder material. These figurines bear no markings, it had to be omitted for legal reasons. Originally, all those Smurfs came with a little sticker saying "Comics non toxico" (non-toxic comics). They are interesting for many collectors because they were not painted following Schleich's guidelines. Many new color variations originated this way - there are for example 10 differently painted variations of the French Fries Smurf (bag red, green, yellow, blue, etc.). Since the choice of colors is arbitrary and edition unknown, no extremely high prices are paid for "Comics non toxico" Smurfs. The colorful variations certainly make a nice addition to a large collection, still, they are not considered original.

Mini Smurfs

Mini Smurfs are a rather unexplored area of Smurf collecting. Those figurines are about 2 cm (0.8") tall and are remakes of the "big" Smurfs. Mini Smurfs are made of different materials. The sleepwalker Smurfs on small, round stands are game tokens from a Smurf board game, nonetheless, they are being collected separately. Not too many collectors have focused on this field, so it can't be said for sure which figurines are more common and which ones are rare. Presumably, many more minis will appear that are not yet listed in this catalog.

Smurf-a-Grams

The figurine stands on a pedestal, a rectangular base, a musical box or a cloverleaf. The Smurfs on pedestals in association with a printed text were sold as little presents and "greeting-figurines." Sometimes they came with a special packaging, intended as gift box or for mailing. All Smurfs on triangular and rectangular stands with cards, that were officially sold in Germany, are listed in this catalog. Smurf-a-grams not mentioned here are not original. Since Schleich also sold other cartoon figurines on stands, some "home makers" try to benefit from the collector's enthusiasm and glue Smurfs to the stands of other cartoon characters. Those "fakes" should not be bought. Whoever offers such stands cannot be considered a trustworthy dealer.

In addition to that, many stands were made for foreign markets (USA, England, Italy, France, Netherlands, Denmark), with imprints in their particular language. This area of collecting bears many secrets as well - it can't be said how many foreign stands exist. Our prices refer to the numbers of stands known to us, and might change significantly.

Raw Smurfs

The figurines are single colored and unpainted. Naturally, there is one (sometimes two different) single colored raw of each Smurf. That's how the Smurf looks before he is painted. For better understanding, we'll call these figurines "unpainted Smurfs" instead of "raw Smurfs." Although many collectors are looking for those unpainted Smurfs (the price should not be higher than twice the price of the regular painted Smurf), raw Smurfs are made from different colored material and were not painted. In the '70s, A company named Waldbaur used those raw Smurfs as give-a-ways for their chocolate products. Sometimes Bully and Schleich made raw Smurfs in very small editions as "test versions" to test run tools and materials.

Today many collectors are enthused over unpainted and raw Smurfs. Those figurines made from different colored material can only be faked with very great effort. Many raw Smurfs exist in very limited numbers and are therefore very sought after and expensive. Raw Smurfs of newer Smurf characters should be approached carefully since it is not exactly known how many of them actually exist.