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Smurfs and Kellogg´s

This is probably one of the biggest mysteries among PVC Smurf collectors. :)
Which Smurfs were sold with the Kellogg´s Corn Flakes in 1965 and 1966?

Many collectors thinks that the first Schleich smurfs came with these cereal boxes. The reason
for this is probably because what is written in the book "Peyo l'enchanteur" by Hugues Dayez.

We know that the first Schleich smurfs were made in 1965, but Schleich says they made them
for BP Holland then. Another thing that is strange is that Bully Figuren is mentioned with
this promotional action. Bully Figuren was founded in 1973 and could not have had anything
to do with the promotion in 1965.

We still do not know which figurines were used, but we have a lot of facts and know
for sure that Kellogg´s sold PVC smurfs from Bully Figuren. This however was
around 1976 and continued for a few years. For example in Sweden and Denmark
this was one of the ways you could buy the Bully smurfs then.

Here are the facts we have so far.

1965

Many of these smaller adverts like this one exists in French. This one is translated to german.
Basicly the translation to english is like this: " From now you get a voucher on each
box of Corn Flakes, which can be changed for a real small Smurf made in soft plastic."

These type of vouchers were used on many Kellogg´s boxes. I found a similair one on this
Golden grahams which gave you a free dessert on McDonalds. :)

This is my advert from 1965/66. It is from a magazine and tells a bit more compared to
the smaller ones. translation is approximatly like this: "Thanks to Kellogg´s you can collect
real little smurfs mascots" The word mascottes were used many times for the Dupuis
smurfs made from Vinyl or Latex. But on the other hand they were not made of soft plastic.:)

But the Keychain Dupuis Smurfs were made of soft plastic. ??? Still a Mystery.

Another good thing to know is that the boxes, as written earlier, did not contain any smurfs.
The translation is like this: "Come and see the Smurf movies at the Super markets. There you
will be able to exchange you Smurf voucher from the Kellogg´s Corn Flakes boxes,
or the ones from the Rice Krispi boxes. Projections are indicated by advertisments
and posters." So it is very hard to say which figurines were exchanged in the Super Markets.

Later in 1979 we find more solid information from BP. :)

Kellogg´s, BP and Bully Figuren in late 70s

Many of the old smurf collectors in Sweden says that they bought their first PVC smurfs from
Kellogg´s. They say you could order them from Kellogg´s by filling a order form from the
back of the boxes. Starting around Christmas 1976. I have always tried to find proof for that
and finally I found the missing pieces. In Denmark. :) Kellogg´s sold the smurfs in the same
way in both Sweden and Denmark.

In this Newsletter from BP from August 1979 you can see that Kellogg´s sold 600 000
smurf figurines in Scandinavia in this promotion. And wanted to continue the promotion
because of the success. They also say that their co-operation had been instrumental in
promoting Smurfs in Denmark.

Many collectors remember you got Smurf stickers with the boxes and that was during the same years.

This is the advert that was the missing one and it says exactly like the old swedish collectors
always have told me. You could buy 24 smurfs from Kelloggs for Christmas then and they
got one each day from their parents in december.

Translation is like this: " We also have a Smurfy offer for you: You can also buy the Smurfs
as funny soft plastic figurines. There are 24 different ones to choose from.

Swedish cutouts from back of Kellogg´s boxes

I was lucky to buy these 2 years ago from a seller who said she bought all these smurfs from Kellogg´s

These were then sold in 2 series with 24 items each then, so this was probably around 1978.

You can see that the images are exactly like the Bully Figuren postern from 1976/77.
So therefore we can be 100% sure that these were smurfs sold by Bully. This was
also at the time when BP started negotiating about selling smurfs in the UK.

So my guess is that this was the years( around 1976/77) when Peyo asked Dupuis if he wanted
to be a part in manufacture and sell smurf figurines. Dupuis answered "-We sell printed
papers, not plastic toys". So in my opinion the text in the beginning refers to these years.

Still no clue about the 1965 Kellogg´s Smurfs though. :))

Could be either of these: the first Schleich Smurfs or the Dupuis Keychain Smurfs.

Here is another text about the Kelloggs Smurfs.