Blue Cavern

I am pretty sure this was mentioned before on this board, but I didn't find the thread..
I was wondering why there are different variations of some smurfs for some countries...

I can think of three right now

Icecream smurf (red-white - America, blue-white Australia)
Teacher Papa Smurf (board is different)
nurse smurfette (White dress, blue apron - America, blue dress, white apron - Germany (maybe Europe)

It makes collecting more fun, but I was wondering why this was so as most seem to be made either in Germany or HongKong.

Hi Maureen

Yep you're right there are a ton of different variations depending on where they were released and you covered some of the major ones too.

The Hong Kong variations were for the US & Australia markets and I am guessing New Zealand as well. I think W Germany were for Europe and the UK although later on of course the markings varied and possibly were only made in one place and spread throughout the world witht he same markings from there on.

The Papa with Blackboard (English version) was only released in the US I think.

The Blue & White Ice Lolly & dark blue shirt on the Australian Footballer were only released in Australia.

Brainy (yellow glasses), Skateboarder (yellow shirt) were only released in the UK.

I am sure there are plenty of others too as these are just off the top of my head and I think I mentioned all of the ones you did already. I am not sure about the Nurse but you're probably right with the markings you mentioned if you have HK for America & WG for Europe.

It's interesting that they changed the colour schemes though....kind of glad they did but I wonder why as you would think they would keep them all the same.

Dyar

This is an interesting topic as well, not sure if you had seen it Maureen.

http://www.forum.bluecavern.com/viewtopic.php?t=1715

hi Maureen!

also the Yellow glasses Brainy, is another one

Hi Maureen, yes it is an interesting topic.

Why they are different I really don't know but as Dyar mentions, certainly originally the country productions went to different areas of the world. I am trying to think of a reason why a certain colour might have been more popular in a different part of the world but I am having trouble.

One example that might give an explanation is the fireman super. The WG smurf is black and silver whereas the HK smurf is yellow and red. This may be because the firmaen in Europe wore the black uniforms whilst the American firefighter wore yellow jackets. I am just guessing at this but it is one idea.