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The very first Bully smurfs pictured in 1974.
Bully was founded in 1973 by the former Schleich employee Volkmar Klaus.
Irmingard Hieber made all the Bully smurfs.
Bully sold their first 17 smurfs in 1974. The molds were made in 1973 or 1974.
They got articlenumbers from 1010/1 to 1010/17.
Just like you can see on the poster above Bully sold their first smurfhouse in 1975. This
year they also got all the 23 smurfmolds Schleich had, since Schleich from 1975 on had no
rights to
make smurfs anymore. All molds are owned by Peyo and he decides who will have them. :)
When Bully sold them in 1975 they gave them articlenumbers 1010/500 to 1010/522.
Smurfs made before 1976 and sold in 1976 had
no markings, only peyo markings or handetched Bully and Peyo markings.
The new smurfs added were given the numbers 1010/18 to 1010/22.
Also Gargamel and the heroes from the new movie "La Flûte à six schtroumpfs ",
Johan and Pewit, were sold this year with articlenumbers 1011/1 to 1011/3.
The house got the number 1011/H.
A new version of Astro and Smurfette were also made before 1976.
So all the ones pictured above were sold during 1976.
Bully built their new factory in 1976.
In the new factory all smurfs got printed Bully markings.
So all new smurfs sold in 1977 and after that, had printed markings.
Bully only sold 3 new smurfs in 1977.
Articlenumbers from 1010/23 to 1010/25.
It was also the first year the display was sold. On these pictures you can see that they still
sold the old Schleich molds.
One interesting fact is that Bully sold the new smurfs Schleich started making in 1977.
The reason why Schleich also started making smurfs again was probably because of the movie.
So in 1977 Bully sold these smurfs.
Another interesting fact for collectors could be the order these were sold by Bully. When Schleich
got these back and started with the new articlenumbers in 1978 they just copied the order.
But since Smurfettes last number was 00 they put her last among them. That also tells us they
most likely got the molds back in late 1977. That could mean that Bully could also have sold
Gardener, Coin, Torch, Mailman and Icehockey before they stopped selling Schleich mold smurfs.
In 1978 Schleich new CEO, Hermann Schneider, managed to get the license for the smurfs back.
They write after tough legal battles. They got the international license, but it was not until 1st of
january 1980 Schleich got the Worldwide license and Bully was then not allowed to
manufacture anymore smurfs and had to give all molds to Schleich.
So from 1978 on, we can only see smurfs made from Bully molds on their posters and boxes.
The 8 new smurfs added this year got articlenumbers 101026 to 101034.
Since Astro and Smurfette had been in the sortiment/line with the old Schleichmolds they added
them last
and gave them new articlenumbers. So the new number for Smurfette became 101035
and Astro got the number 101036.
During late 1978 or early 1979 Fisherman, Archer, Pupil, Pirate and Scot were sold.
They were given articlenumber 101037 to 101041.
I only have a first variation picture from 1978/79 on two of them. Archer and Scot.
8 new molds sold in summer 1979
The first 8 got articlenumbers 101042 to 101049.
Then the last 8 new smurfs made by Bully and sold in autumn 1979.
After 1st of January 1980 Bully was not allowed to manufacture smurfs anymore. Peyo gave all
these molds to Schleich to continue producing them. But since Bully made these molds Schleich
was not allowed to remove the marking in these molds until 1984.
Schleich had their own versions of Smurfette, Astro, Digger and Gargamel.
So afaik Schleich never used those Bully molds?
Here you can see that Schleich explains that they took over all the Bully-molds
and produced them. Peyo wanted it this way so collectors could get a complete smurf collection.