Blue Cavern

I've found out what the deletions are for the end of 2005.

20104 Pirate
20471 Carpenter
20517 Hippy
20520 Techno
20464 Swot
20474 Adventurer
20519 Hip hop
20523 Show Off

There's no playsets or buildings on the list, just these 8 smurfs which I guess will make way for the 8 new ones. Good news I think that the range isn't being reduced further.

Hurrah! If they only delete 8, they will continue selling the others, and it would be logical that they would replace these at least!

I'll have to check if I have those eight already, I think I still miss a few (I've only started buying the complete sets from 2003 onwards).

Thank God i have those ones, bring on the 8 new ones ! roll on next year ! I wonder what they will be, hmmmmmm !

Phew! I've got all of those ones Looking forward to some new ones..just wish they'd make some more buildings and playsets

That's interesting to see K

I think this is one of the most exciting things about being a smurf collector...wondering what they will come out with next

Thanks for the info Karen.

I hate seeing things deleted but on the other hand, there are always new ones to look forward to and there is always a chance that the ones being deleted this year will reappear again in the future.

I agree Dyar, you never know what they'll bring out next but you always know you'll love it.

Thanks for the info Karen, that's good to know, I'll need to double check I have all those

Thank you for the info Karen!
I'm missing a few of that list so I'd better get on with it and buy those as soon as I can.

Thanks for keeping us up to date karen

Luckily I now have all the current normals so won't have to do any panic buying, unlike last year. Like everyone else I'm looking forward to hearing what the replacements will be.

Great info Karen, nice find out in advance!

Trish

I'm just bumping this post up so people can keep in mind which smurfs will be discontinued at the end of 2005.

Thank you for bumping this up Karen...I am working on a production list of each year and the deletions, re-issues etc....I wouldn't of remembered that you posted the deletions if you didn't bump it up. Perfect timing as usual

I have been going through the Smurfs in order of release and making a list of what was available and what was deleted/re-issued each year. I am only up to 20052 Cleaner but I have found some interesting facts that I will be able to use at some point.

Did you guys know that these smurfs (20037) Doctor & (20040) Gift have been on the market for about 29 consecutive years now

They were both released in 1978 for the first time and although many smurfs have come and gone since then, these 2 have not had a break and according to Karen's list up above it seems that they will once again be part of the Golden production in 2006. I cannot believe that these 2 have been in production for 29 years non stop. It begs the question though, why doesn't Schleich/Imps take these 2 off the market and give them a rest for a while. Surely they can replace these 2 with another older figure that we haven't seen for a long time as it makes no sense to me to keep them on the market year after year after year after year. I am 100% sure that there are even undiscovered galaxies in the universe that have at least one variation of these 2 smurfs....so come on, please give us new productions of 2 older smurfs and retire these 2 ones for at least 5 years.

The Gift Smurf is one of my worst sellers as well, I realised this had been in production for many years purely due to poor sales. The Doctor is slightly better but still not great. For me the best seller by far is the Scuba Diver Smurf and also the Bride and Groom, probably because these particular smurfs appeal to non-smurf collectors as well. Scuba Diver Smurfs have a cult following among Scuba Divers and I have even had Dive Shops buying them wholesale from me to sell on to their customers. Recently someone bought about 150 smurfs from me for their wedding guests just because their nicknames for each other were Smurf when they used to talk to each other online.

tehehaha.. I can imagine the bride and groom smurfs on top of a wedding cake. I only hope their footprints don't ruin it

I guess the eight new ones would be the 2006 series or are they additional to these? I'd hope the 2005 ones stay around a bit longer than the 2003's ones mentioned above.. one would think they would be less complex to make and more classic in design.

Daryl

I am guessing by the fact that they released the classic range this year that they will never again issue the original 1960s/70s Papa, Gouchy, Smurfette, Brainy, Mirror etc again. I guess they have had their run and there will be no more variations of these to be produced in the future.

But I do hope they rerelease a prisoner, golden and angry Smurf in the future, as they are fun basic Smurf models. Old moulds or something new, I don't really care.
I suppose they are quite free to produce what they want next year (for 2007), but the new Smurfs after that would have to be a tie-in with the movie. I wonder if the football Smurfs will stay after the worldcup in Germany is over though, or if those will be the next eight to go

I am guessing by the fact that they released the classic range this year that they will never again issue the original 1960s/70s Papa, Gouchy, Smurfette, Brainy, Mirror etc again. I guess they have had their run and there will be no more variations of these to be produced in the future.

Hi Dyar

I strongly agree with your statement (though I share Fram's wishes they'd bring the old ones back). Many of those early smurfs just aren't compatible "look and feel" wise with modern smurfs. It seems that modern consumer tastes expect a certain consistency. I actually like the small molds better--at least the "sitting" and "thinking" small molds...

Because I like collecting variations, I hope they bring back some of the older molds too with new markings. Although they would look out of place among the new style these days.....not that a lot of people would care about this of course.

It's been interesting reading the debate about the Classic set released this year. Initially I was a little disappointed due to the similarities to earlier productions (Papa especially) but it was great to hear that others totally approved of them to balance things up. That brought a new angle for me to view these and I can now appreciate that people really loved seeing the simpler smurfs like the first productions.

I think we all agree that we would rather see Schleich continue to make smurfs each year even if they disappoint certain collectors from time to time. At least we can say...there's always next year

I really wish they'd reshuffle the Golden 50. Sometimes it seems Schleich has smurfs in maintenance mode. Like the company doesn't want to drop them, but doesn't want to put too much energy into them, either. That's why I was surprised by the Halloween smurfs. The "vintage look" of 2004 appealed to me, but Schleich could have gone to greater lengths with new postures (like: papa smurf hiking for magic reagents, dreamy leaning on his elbows and daydreaming, smurfette plucking a weed from her garden, et cetera).