Blue Cavern

Hi,

I would like to give you some information from the boxes that could be interesting for some of you. And also show the first variations made for these.

We start with the emblemboxes.

As said before they have the articlenumbers 590 and 591.

The large house was made first in 1976 and sold in 1977. Maybe late 1976?? The garden playset was first made in 1977.

The playset was sold for 6,50 DM in 1977. Same price on my first fenceplaysetbox from 1978.

In 1977 the printed Schleich-marking with the S after did not exist, so all smurfs made pre 1978 were made with either the schleichemblem or no schleichmarking. For example the gardener, torchbearer, thinker and sitting all exist without any Schleichmarking.

You can see that they used the same picture on both the large house playsetbox and the garden playset. That together with the information on the boxes tells us that most likely there is a first large house playsetbox with emblem also.

Maybe Schleicher can find out what articlenumber it could have?

The supersmurfs did not exist in 1977.

Just like with the large house box made in 1978 with the new articlenumber 40001 and new schleich logo, they added this to the playsetbox in 1978.

Now brand new: the super-smurfs.

Therefore I am pretty sure no supersmurf box exist with the Schleichemblem and with a number in the old articlenumber serie.

The boxdesign is from 1978, but as you see my box has a CE-sticker. That is because my box was sold by Bader in the early 90s.

Regarding the marking on these houses from 1977 they had the schleichemblem and the same peyo marking as this old house Schleich made already in around 1972/73.

Since Schleich used that marking on the oldest houses I am pretty sure this marking also is the oldest on the large house.

Here are the first markings on the first large house with articlenumber 40001.

In around 1978 Schleich started with a new peyo marking. They added this to the large house roof. So this is not the first house roof, eventhough a very early roof.

The first smurf that got the new peyo-marking was the postman made the same year as the gate.

It seems most Changes happened this year when Hermann Schneider got in charge.

So exact same marking on this roof but the new peyo-marking is added.

The garden playset from 1977 came in brown and green and had emblemmarking and old peyomarking. same peyomarking as the gardener.

In 1978 new playsets were made and therefore also numbers added on the front. So playset 1 to 4 were sold.

Notice that the large fence and gate playset boxes only were made the first year.

Here are all the first releases of those boxes. Well the garden playsetbox you can ignore since it was not the first variation of that box. But it has the pricetag with the price in Sweden in 1978.

The back on all these should say that only 4 playset existed.

I remember that we used to say that if we tripple the DM price we got the approximate Swedish price when I was young.

That goes well with these boxes.

6.50 DM in Germany and in Sweden 19,75 or 16,95.

I got these boxes both from Germany and from Sweden.

It was in these boxes these first variations of the gate and the mushroom were sold.

Grey gate and orange mushroom.

It seems the flowers could be red, white or yellow in the beginning. Always soft.

On the boxes you can read that the small cottage was sold this year in 3 colours. Also the supersmurfs.

To be continued.

OK, let´s continue with the first releases in 1978.

The cottages were made in 3 colours from the start.

The first markings looked like this.

There is a very strange thing with the german box.

On the box the variation of the cottage made in Hongkong is shown.

It has a roof molded in a different way and also darkbrown door and windows. I marked the biggest difference on the roof with an Arrow so you see what I mean.

How is that? I have no idea.

Could be that the Hongkong-mold was made early but never sold the first years. Only made as a prototype first and then later used in Hongkong??

The german house was never sold with darkbrown doors and windows as far as I know. But already in the beginning sold with both lightbrown and grey doors and windows.

The first Picture of the cottages on the poster from 1978 shows that the roofs had handpainted dots. I have found those roofs sometimes in old collections but they are rare to find. Normaly the roofs had spraypainted roofs.

I have Before written about the rare old cottage with the red butterfly which is painted like the old yellow butterfly. It is also shown on old Schleichpictures in catalogues and on displays.

It is in the 1980 catalogue for example.

However that cottage is not among the oldest ones I Think.

If you look at the details on the butterflies the oldest ones have "holes". See arrows. Both the oldest german butterflies and the Hongkong butterflies have this.

But then they skipped this. Could be because that butterflymold was shipped to Hongkong and used for those cottages and a new mold was made???

Anyway there are lots of different butterflies. Here are some major differences on some of them.

If you want to find the old red butterfly you should be careful not to get a faked repainted new red butterfly sold with the cottages together with the french Magazine. Those red butterflies are a lot thinner and have different thicker feelers.

All accessories sold in the playsetboxes 1-4 was made Before the new printed Schleich logo was made and can be found without that logo.

Except the grass!!! I have never seen that accessorie with the emblem.

It is also not shown on the poster from 1978 so it could be that it was added just when they made the logo-change??

If anyone have the grass with emblemlogo please let me know.

Regarding the smurfs sold at this time and made pre the printed Schleich logo.

If you look at the poster from 1978, probably made when the new logo and the new articlenumbers were introduced, you see all the normal smurfs Schleich had made then.