Blue Cavern

PostPosted: **Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:20 am**

Alan posted it on his forum so I stole it from there

The release date of the World of Smurfs book is August 1st and it can be ordered here

http://www.amazon.com/World-Smurfs-Cele ... 528&sr=8-1

Looks like it's a history of the smurfs and will concentrate more on the cartoon series, movies and everything else connected with smurfs but not so much on the PVCs

Still an interesting guide of course, but don't think it will answer our questions about the figurines

Product Description
"The Smurfs" began as a comic strip in October 1958 in Belgium and quickly gained popularity, launching popular comic books and the classic figurines still sold today, but it wasn't until the NBC eighties cartoon that audiences everywhere fell in love with Papa Smurf and Smurfette. After years of re-runs the Smurfs are hitting the big screen. This summer Sony is releasing a life-action Smurf film starring Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria (Gargamel) and featuring voices from Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, George Lopez, and many more. The upcoming film release has generated new publicity for the series and has introduced a whole new generation to the characters. "The World of Smurfs" will feature extensive character bios of Smurf village residents like Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and Hefty. It will also delve into the history of the smurfs, with a biography of the creator, Peyo, and a look back at the popular Hanna-Barbera produced cartoon series. And of course, no history of the smurfs would be complete without a behind-the-scenes look at their upcoming movie. "The World of Smurfs" will be the ultimate collector's item for both new and old fans. The upcoming Smurfs movie has reignited pop culture's focus on these little blue characters, and there is no other book that chronicles the smurf's history from comic strip to cartoon to live-action movie. Ours will be the first and only book for all the smurf fans.

From the Back Cover
When "Les Schtroumpfs" arrived in a Belgium comic strip in October 1958, no one could have expected the global fame and consciousness they would reach. The elflike blue wonders gained popularity in Europe through comic books and classic figurines, but it wasn't until they became the stars of NBC's Saturday morning lineup in the 1980s that all of America fell in love with the Smurfs. Now, thirty years later, the Smurfs are headed to the big screen in a star-filled live-action/CGI hybrid.
The World of Smurfs is the first book to take fans through the creation of the Smurfs, from the early days of their creator, Peyo, as a struggling cartoon artist; to the global phenomenon they became; to the recent Smurf resurgence, including the 2008 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon and 2011 movie.
Along the way, Smurfologist Matt. Murray explains the process of creating cartoon and CGI versions of the Smurfs from Peyo's original sketches, and provides character bios for favorite residents of Smurf Village including Papa, Brainy, Clumsy, Hefty, and Smurfette. Fans young and old will appreciate this comprehensive compendium of the Smurfs' world, detailing how it has grown and adapted in the past fifty years.

About the Author
Matt. Murray earned his BFA in film, television and radio production from NYU. A former president and the first executive director of NY's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, he curated their popular "Saturday Morning" exhibit and crafted events and programming such as the year-long retrospective "1986: The Year That Changed Comics." He contributed to and was interviewed for the "I Smurf the Smurfs" documentary on The Smurfs Season 1, Volume 2 DVD and has served as the "Smurf Consultant" on Papercutz' series of Smurfs graphic novels. In addition to his Smurfology work, Murray is an actor, pop culture blogger and a collector of original comic, cartoon and animation artwork. He lives in Bethlehem, PA with his cat that is not named Azrael.

PostPosted: **Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:41 am**

Hi Maureen

Not sure if i will buy the book, since it's in English and i am still more a pvc and the old comic books fan.
We will see, i am sure it's not the last thing that comes out this year.
A lot will come our way....................
The toyshops already have a lot of smurfy items for sale.

Tintin

PostPosted: **Wed May 04, 2011 2:58 am**

The book sounds interesting.

Can't wait to read it.

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:58 am**

I noticed it is possible to see some pages on this link under more smurfs.

http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/The_Wo ... 00729.html

There is a small thing I think they should change though.

They write, which I have seen on many places on internet( maybe from the same source??

) , that Bully made the Kelloggs smurfs in 1966.

This is not possible. Volkmar Klaus worked for Schleich until 1973 and as you know was married to Schleich daughter. When he left Schleich in 1973 he started the company Bully. Bully never existed before 1973.

Since Bully did not exist then and Volkmar worked for Schleich it must have been Schleich or another company making these kelloggs smurfs.

The reason for this mistake could simply be this:

Maybe Volkmar Klaus was the one in charge of the manufacturing of smurfs when he was working at Schleich?? And that could also be the reason he was alloved to make smurfs by Peyo when he started his company Bully in 1973. He was the one with the contacts regarding the smurfs??

And since Volkmar Klaus was known as Mr Bully, when his company started, they later when telling the history about who made these smurfs said Bully made these. But actually then he was working for Schleich??

Just me guessing again.

But the fact remains. The company Bully did not exist before 1973!!

One other thing that explains why we can see mold year 1974 on the Schleichsmurfs.

When Volkmar Klaus and some experienced workers left Schleich for Bully in 1973, Schleich still had the rights to make smurfs. So Schleich stopped making smurfs in beginning of 1975 or end of 1974. From this point Schleich lost the rights to Bully I believe and was not allowed to make smurfs for a few years. And as we have told before Bully had the rights for the smurfs in Germany all the way to end of december 1979.

When Schleich started making smurfs again in 1977/78 they also started using the articlenumbers we see today.

I don´t think they used the same articlenumberserie before 1974. But I would love to know the articlenumbers on the old Schleichmade houses from around 1972.

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 5:17 am**

Eventhough I think most have heard this before from me I will add this information directly from Bullylands german homepage.

Small scale production in the beginning from Volkmar Klaus garage in 1973, before he opened the factory in Ronsberg with bigger "machines" in 1978.

So either Kelloggs had these made by another company or they had them made by Bully after 1973. ??? But Lia showed us pictures from Kelloggs ads from 1966 I think.

"In einer Garage fing alles an …
1973 startete BULLYLAND mit der Produktion von Spielfiguren in einer kleinen Garage in Spraitbach, nahe Stuttgart. Vier Jahre später konnte dann auch schon die Einweihung eines neuen Verwaltungsgebäudes mit Lager, Zentralversand und Bürokomplex gefeiert werden. Zur Vervollständigung des Unternehmens wurde 1978 ein eigener Produktionsbetrieb in Ronsberg im Allgäu mit Formenbau, Konstruktionsabteilung und Fertigung eröffnet.

Schließlich wagte sich BULLYLAND 1985 auch noch über den „grossen Teich“. Die Gründung einer Tochterfirma in New York, die BULLYLAND TOYS INC., brachte weiteres Wachstum durch die Herstellung von Werbefiguren und Spielwaren für Partner wie McDonald`s, Ford oder Schweppes mit sich.1987 wurde zudem unser Vertriebs- und Organisationsbüro in Hong Kong, die BULLYLAND (H.K.) LTD, eröffnet.

So umrundeten BULLYLAND-Figuren nach nur 14 Jahren Firmengeschichte bereits den gesamten Globus. Damit der weltweite Bedarf an BULLYLAND-Figuren schließlich weiter gedeckt werden konnte, wurde 1989 die Erweiterung des Produktionsbetriebes in Ronsberg vorgenommen."

For those of you who don´t understand german just used Google translation tool, then you get a pretty good translation I think.

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:47 am**

That`s all correct and useful info André
Yes, the add from Kelloggs is in the Spirou from March 1966

Lia

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 9:06 am**

Andre,
I think the assumption that Bully made the first smurfs came about because the first unmarked smurfs that were given away are exactly like the smurfs with the first Bully markings.

It's easily explained why this was, but could also be misleading to those with only a basic knowledge of Schleich and Bully (like myself)

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:50 am**

Andre,
I think the assumption that Bully made the first smurfs came about because the first unmarked smurfs that were given away are exactly like the smurfs with the first Bully markings.

It's easily explained why this was, but could also be misleading to those with only a basic knowledge of Schleich and Bully (like myself)

I understand your point Maureen and agree with you.

Most smurfs collectors don´t know much about Bully.

But for PVC collectors this is very misleading information. So therfore I think it is right that I tell you this??

There are a lot of thing concerning colourvariations, CNT, Hering, Minimodels etc we can have many different opinions about. But the fact that Bully started his firm in 1973 and therefore could not have made smurfs in 1966 is not something we disagree about, right.

Since this is very basic information I think it must be very easy for everyone to check. There are a lot of alternative scenarios from who, when and why the Kelloggsmurfs were made and I would love to get the real story, but the scenario that the firm Bully existed in 1966 is not a possible scenario. The founder of Bully, Volkmar Klaus, worked for Schleich before 1973.

If not another company called Bully made smurfs in 1966???

Not likely, right??

So either Volkmar Klaus made these smurfs when he was working at Schleich or he made them after 1973.

My guess is that it, just like with the BP smurfs in 1965, was Schleich that made these smurfs used as promos in Kelloggs. Or that there were a completly different company and not PVC smurfs in these Kelloggs-boxes???

But I am only guessing!!

There are a lot of fact behind this.

1. Schleich tells us this story.
2. Bully tells us this story.
3. If you look at the moldyears on all molds made by Bully, 1973 is the earliest year. No Bully molds made before 1973. So the figurines also tells us this.
etc. etc....

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:12 am**

Oh definitely, Andre

I am very thankful for all of your investigations and that you have set some of us on the correct path

One of the confusing things is that the first smurfs had no markings, but I guess back then, nobody could imagine how popular these (and other similar figures) would be, so there was no need for markings...

PostPosted: **Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:40 am**

Oh definitely, Andre

I am very thankful for all of your investigations and that you have set some of us on the correct path

One of the confusing things is that the first smurfs had no markings, but I guess back then, nobody could imagine how popular these (and other similar figures) would be, so there was no need for markings...

I think only the first smurfs Bully made in mid 70s had no marking. Maybe because he made these in his garage and had to handetch the markings. We also talked about that Peyo did not like that he used unmarked, unpainted smurfs at carnivals and they throwed them to the children. Maybe they gave away some of the smurfs they painted wrong or smurfs being bad in the molds at these carnivals. For a smaller campany with only a few employees this is very possible. Larger companies usually have very strict regulations regarding scrapping things from production??

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 6:53 am**

I looked at the translation Joaquin sent us when he read the book about Peyo.

“Middle years of 60´s, the distributor of Kellogs for Benelux had the idea of giving a small figurine made of plastic for the purchase of a box of corn flakes. A small serie of small figureines was created for that reason: standard smurf, brainy, black, prisoner, papa…The success was quick. (…) But the action of Kellogs stopped. (…) The manufacturer of the figurines, the german company BULLY FIGUREN asked Peyo what to do with molds: if destroy them or continue with the production. Peyo asked Dupuis if they wanted to be a part of the bussines of figurines but the answered: Mr Culliford, we sell paper but not toys made of plastic”. Peyo decide to go on creating ALONE figurines and signed an contract where you could read he was the only beneficiary of the profits and his editeur (DUPUIS) has not rights (talking about figurines, I mean)”

When reading this it also goes very well with the Dupuis-keychain-smurfs made in 1966.

1. The year goes very well with kelloggs-boxes.
2. The figurines mentioned goes very well with the Dupuis ones. Just switch Brainy with Gold. The Schleich papa was made first in 1969.
3. The countries these were to be found in goes very well with the Kelloggs-boxes. Languages: French. ??
4. This also could explain why they write about asking Dupuis about the molds.

They could mean like this regarding Bully.
When Bully got the rights to make smurfs in 1974 they got all the molds, including the Schleichmolds( same as the court desided in 1979. Bully had to give all smurfmolds to Schleich). So maybe Bully got the Dupuis molds also and then asked Peyo what to do these old Kelloggs-molds. Peyo then asked Dupuis, since he was involved in these, if he still wanted to take part in making figurines. And then Dupuis answers that they were not intrested in making toys only comics.

So the thing regarding Bully could relate to the year when Bully started in 1973 and only the first part of the text is about when they started making these for Kelloggs in 1966???

Is there something I have missed???
I just got this thought when reading Joaquins translation again.
Since Schleich also told me they had no direct memory of any Kelloggs-smurfs.

And since Fram wrote this on Kittys Cavern it seems that the traces of any Dupuis smurfs stops in the early 70s. So maybe Dupuis left the figurines to Peyo when Bully started making smurfs in 1973. And that is the connection to Bully. Then everything goes hand in hand or????

From Kittyscavern:
"These are the last new figurines made by Dupuis, and by the early 1970's, no trace of them can be found anymore in the magazines or catalogues."

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:52 am**

I was wondering, too, if these first smurfs in the Kellogs promotion were the Dupuis smurfs...their mold is quite different to the Schleich/Bully ones so it would be interesting to find out if Bully got their molds as well...and why they didn't use this mold if Peyo gave them the right for the figures

One thing confuses me though...as far as I know there is no Dupuis Brainy...if he had been part of the Kellog's Dupuis promotion surely we'd know of one of him at least?

Didn't Dupuis create those first smurfs much earlier than the mid 60s though? If they made smurfs for a pretty long time it doesn't make much sense that they suddenly remembered they are a paper company and not a toy factory?

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:22 am**

I was wondering, too, if these first smurfs in the Kellogs promotion were the Dupuis smurfs...their mold is quite different to the Schleich/Bully ones so it would be interesting to find out if Bully got their molds as well...and why they didn't use this mold if Peyo gave them the right for the figures

One thing confuses me though...as far as I know there is no Dupuis Brainy...if he had been part of the Kellog's Dupuis promotion surely we'd know of one of him at least?

Didn't Dupuis create those first smurfs much earlier than the mid 60s though? If they made smurfs for a pretty long time it doesn't make much sense that they suddenly remembered they are a paper company and not a toy factory?

When checking the information to be found regarding the Dupuis-smurfs they seems to have been sold in library and bookstores. And there you have the close connection to Dupuis comics. Same with the Kelloggs-boxes which had a comicstrip also and also the Kelloggs ads in Tintin Journals. So I think he was not intrested in making smurfs like Schleich and Bully did. Just selling them in toystores as loose figurines. You understand what I mean.

Regarding Brainy I think he was never made. But as I said it is very close to be the correct 5 figurines if you just switch Brany with Goldsmurf. Normal, angry, prisoner and papa goes very well with the Dupuis-smurfs made in 1966, right. And if you wanted to give away smurfs in 1966 I would definatly have papa among them if you made 5 different ones. I personally think these 5 Dupuis-smurfs covered many of the most important smurfs at this time if you wanted to use them as promos in Kelloggs.

Regarding the Dupuis-molds I think Bully never would use them because they were so different from the other ones and since he just came from working at Schleich and had worked with all the Schleichmolds he probably wanted to still use these. And that´s why he asked Peyo what to do with the Kelloggs-molds he did not want to use. ???

So faar it makes sence to me, but we can´t be sure.

And I think if Schleich made all these smurfs for Kelloggs, I think we would have found information about it since that company still makes smurfs and have done it for a long time.

Dupuis only made them for a short while and only a few and stopped over 40 years ago?? So these could easily get lost in history, right??

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:27 am**

And one of the most important things Maureen.

Why would Bully ask Peyo about the Schleichmolds, since Dupuis had nothing to do with these, right??

The Dupuis-molds on the other hand makes sence if Bully asked what to do with!!

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:46 am**

Yes, it makes sense to me, Andre...and it would fit the final puzzle why we have no real record of the smurfs given away by the Kellogs promotion.

Another thing that fits is that Schleich surely would have mentioned the promotion in their book had they started creating smurfs for it?

It's fun putting piece by piece together

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:41 am**

Actually,

when reading the translation Joaquin gave us it never says Bully made the Kelloggs smurfs. This must be a thing that everyone reading this book has interpeted because of the reason that Bully asked what to do with these molds. But that must have been in 1973 when he started his business and got all the molds. And off course Peyo had to ask Dupuis since they were Dupuis-molds.

So Joaquin,

if you read this or anyone else who has the original, meaning not translated, book. Can you check if this was the only time Bully-figuren was mentioned??

Maybe Lia still have the french copies from Joaquin and can check.

For me it is getting clearer and clearer that it must have been dupuis-smurfs in the Kelloggs-boxes in 1966!!

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:31 am**

What does conserve les moules means in this text? I get canned mussels in Google translate.

Does it mean keeping the moulds?

"Mais le fabricant des figurines - à l’époque la société allemande Bully Figuren - conserve les moules et demande tout naturellement à Peyo ce qu’elle doit en faire.

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:56 am**

I have the pages and try to translate after dinner!

Lia

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:01 am**

Thanks Lia,

Not too much wine to the dinner though??

PostPosted: **Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:06 am**

Hi everyone...Interesting information, André

I am sorry but I am again in Spain and I am afraid it is note asy to find the book here. The only pages I copied are the pages I sent to some of you by emails