Promotional Smurf Figurines
Promotional Smurf Figurines
Many members have asked for a special page regarding Promotional Smurf Figurines. This page will inform you about all those beautiful smurfy creatures that have been a perfect tool in many advertising campaigns. Astro knows of around 130 promotional figurines. One way of creating such a figurine is to reuse a figurine that has already been issued by Schleich and imprint for example the company name or the product name anywhere on the figurine. Sometimes there is also a colour variation involved. Some figurines are brand new moulds or previous moulds with additional attachments relating to the advertising campaign. Peyo and his family have always been very supportive when it comes to charitable and educational causes. All issues have to be licensed by I.M.P.S., International Merchandising Promotional Services. However, Astro does not know if all the figurines mentioned on this page were properly licensed.The figurine Thirsty, Schleich No. 2.005, came in handy for several promotions approaching thirsty people. There is a Thirsty figurine holding a Fanta bottle, a Coca Cola bottle, a red bottle with the print WIWA on it, and a Staatlich Fachinger bottle, shown here.
If we examine this further, it seems as if Thirsty has also been used once in a campaign for Philips, where it is holding a regular Philips lightbulb. Philips also has two more promotional figurines where another mould has been reused. The second one is holding a black Philips battery, and a third one is holding a Philips energy saving lightbulb.
While looking at this closely it seems as if the following figurines have been used holding particular promotional items:
Halloween Smurf, No. 2.0136
Miller, No. 2.0152
Hamburger, No. 2.0158
Apple, No. 2.0160
Some very recently released promotional figurines was a set of 10 McDonalds Smurfs (1996). McDonalds was celebrating the 25th Anniversary in Germany and the Netherlands. Here are pictures of both sets of five.
McDonalds had a month long Smurf promotion in the UK/Ireland/Iceland from April 3rd - May3rd, 1998. There was a set of 10 Smurf figurines available at McDonalds, which is identical to the German 25th Anniversary set from McDonalds, mentioned above. The only difference is that the Smurf holding the Number 25 has been replaced with a Smurf holding a Happy Meal Bag. 6 Million Smurfs have been produced for this McDonalds Smurf promotion!
Not enough that England had special McDonalds Smurfs. There was a second promotion going on in Germany, which consists of another 8 McDonalds Smurfs. Wow! Have a look.
Astro wishes to send a smurfy thank you to all the smurfy friends from Germany, that ensured that North America knows about this!!!
We are staying in the Fast Food Industry. Quick, a restaurant chain in Belgium, included one of six SuperSmurf sets with their "Magic Box" in 1995. They were sold out in a hurry. All figurines have the Quick letter Q embossed in their heads. The figurines are:
Smurf in Treetrunkcar, No. 4.0232
Smurf in Bed, No. 4.0240
Papa in Rocking Chair, No. 4.0228
Smurfette in pink car, No 4.0241
Sassette in Bathtub, variation of No. 4.0235
Smurfette with Vanity Table, No. 4.0234All of the above were sealed in plastic bags and included a small Quick Restaurant flyer.
Another set that many smurfy friends are asking Astro about are the Hardee's Smurfs on the Skateboards. There are six in total. Papa on a red Skateboard, Smurfette on a pink Skateboard, a Smurf with a green life preserver on a yellow Skateboard, Smurf on podium on orange Skateboard, Sassette on green Skateboard, and Puppy on blue Skateboard. Here is a picture:
There are several figurines circulated by banks.
Volks- und Raiffeisenbank had a figurine holding a red piggy bank with the emblem of the bank on it. Another figurine is Miller, No. 2.0152, with the emblem on the sack. There are two more from Volks- und Raiffeisenbank. Both times Money, No. 2.0029, is being used. Money comes as a single figurine with the logo on his hat and without the logo standing on a piggy bank in form of a red sack of money.And there is a whole series of 10 figurines by Sparkasse, another bank, in Germany. Their emblem is a red letter S, sometimes in a red circle, with a red dot on the top. All figurines have the emblem on the back of their heads. The figurines were:
Traveller, No. 2.0088
Trumpetplayer, No. 2.0072
Skier, No. 2.0091
Painter, No. 2.0089
Soccer, No. 2.0068
Jester, No. 2.0090
Cleaner, No. 2.0052
Smurfette with Skipping Rope, No. 2.0168
Emperor, No. 2.0046
Angler, darkbrown rod, ylw. line, No. 2.0101
Hangglider, No. 2.0036, patch on back of wings with logo
The Merkur Bank in Germany also chose the true blue friends to advertise. Their white emblem showing in a grey square was put on the head of the following figurines:
Handy, No. 2.0171
Waiter, No. 2.0162, silver tray, red glass, white rim
Waiter, No. 2.0162, brown tray, white glass
Bricklayer, No. 2.0148, white pants
Bricklayer, No. 2.0148, blue coveralls
Schoolgirl, No. 2.0173
And the Commerzbank in Germany brought out a keychain with Hockeyplayer Smurf, No. 2.0032, and the Commerzbank logo on the helmet and head.
Smurfs, because of their cleanliness, have also been successful in advertising for Laundry detergents. The figurines were simply thrown into the laundry detergent box. There is for example OMO, a German laundry detergent. One Smurf is holding the box of OMO laundry detergent with the emblem on it.
And there are Soccer, No. 2.0068 and Rugby, No. 2.0065 with the letters OMO written on their backs, as well as Tennisstar, No. 2.0049, with OMO on his white shirt in the front.Here are Rugby OMO Smurf and the Smurf with the laundry detergent.
And here is a list of the Silan promotional Smurfs. All of those have Silan written under their feet:
Baseballbatter, No. 2.0129
Soccer Smurfette, No. 2.0163
Jogger, No. 2.0172
Papa with book, No. 2.0174
Scot, No. 2.0105
In 1990 one very special Smurf figurine was exclusively produced for the Belgian store Grand Bazar. Have a look at it
Isn't this smurfy?In the eighties the Medication "Paracodin" was provided with another exclusive figurine. It is a cough syrup. Have look:
And he also comes in three colour variations. One has a white hat and red scarf, one a white hat and a yellow scarf, and another a yellow hat and yellow scarf.
In 1995 there were two exclusive figurines for a service organization supporting the handicapped in France. You might have seen the image before. Check them out:
The First-aid figurine has been used for "Deutscher Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund", a charitable workers organization, as well as for the Belgian Red Cross. Here is a picture:
The next group we want to look at is Gas Stations. The Cleaner figurine has become famous for their advertisements. Simply putting the particular logo on the cleaners coveralls made him a unique smurfy character. The National Gas Station in the USA, Shell in Germany, BP in England and France had promotional figurines. The National Gas Stations even had a SuperSmurf-like assembly including a complete playset with the logo on the gaspump and the cleaner figurine. Need to smurf up?!
BP, besides the Cleaner figurine with the emblem on the coveralls, had a Congratulations and Champion Smurf with a BP-green wreath put on a yellow base for their 75 anniversary. The Champion figurine has the BP logo on the hat and a white 75 on his chest. This figurine also came separate and without the 75 on the chest. And to make this complete BP France put the 75 anniversary Champion on a white triangle stand, saying "Maillot vert du Tour de France".
Shell simply put purple coveralls on Cleaner, black shoes and the logo on the coveralls. You can also find Cleaner on a triangle white stand again, this time with white coveralls and the logo glued on, and the particular Shell Station put their address stamp on the stand. Another special figurine by Shell is the SuperSmurf Go-Cart with a slightly modified cart and the sticker from "Jungenwerk der Shell AG", a charitable organization for young boys by Shell. And again we find Cleaner in blue coveralls with the Shell logo imprinted and even a complete SuperSmurf Shell Gas Station.
Now we are going to look at a variety of promotional figurines. For example Schimmel Pianos had the SuperSmurf Piano Player. The piano has a special red sign above the keys with the Schimmel logo.
Smurferman, No. 2.0119, has been advertising for Shoes from Schuhhof in Germany and Schuh Neumann. Both imprinted their emblem on the base.
And Ice-Jolly was provided with various flags in his left hand. For example for Schoeller Icecream, with a "Schlumpfhausen" flag, an Inter-rent flag, and a Schurrenhof flag.
We all know that the Smurfs have always been teaching the kids to brush their teeth. Therefore it is only clear that Toothbrush Smurf, No. 2.0064 did a great deal for toothpastes and dentists. There is Toothbrush Smurf with the imprint "PDH-Dental" on the back of his head, with the imprint "Prophylaxe-Gruß", with the imprint "Zur Belohnung von Dr. Wolfgang Koch" (for being brave from Dr. Wolfgang Koch), and of course Colgate Toothbrush Smurf.
And Dentist Smurf, No. 2.0209 at one point was available with "Toothman", in German "Zahnmännchen" on the head. This is a small drawing of a figure using just a few lines.That is not all for Toothbrush and Dentist. BROXO left an imprint on Dentist's, and Fluocaril on Toothbrush's head.
Very special is a set of three by Freedent, that were released in Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. They were green Appel, Dentist and Toothbrush Smurf and they came with a flyer saying: Ik Smurf Freedent! and Smurf Gezond eet een Appel.Peugeot chose to use Torchbearer and put their emblem on his tricot for their advertising campaign.
Torchbearer also comes with the British Flag on his white T-shirt.
Believe it or not, the Smurfs also advertised for a German Brewery. Beer Smurf was holding a mug with beer and the writing Henninger for Henninger Bräu on it.
You all probably know Karamalz, a non-alkoholic dark beer. They came out with a set of five figurines. All had Karamalz written on their now dark brown hats. They were:
American Football Smurf, No. 2.0132
Golfer, No. 2.0055
Jogger, No. 2.0172
Rugby, No. 2.0065
Referee, No. 2.0191Zeiss Glasses in Germany used Brainy to promote their glasses. Again there is a print on the back of the head "Carl Zeiss W. Germany". Brainy also comes as keychain with a small white square frame reading ZEISS West Germany inside. To be different there is also a kaleidoscope with Brainy Smurf on it by Zeiss.
Fix & Foxi Comics at some point included Singer Smurf, No. 2.0038, with their comics. In red letters there was Fix & Foxi imprinted on the sheet where the musical notes usually are. Here is an image of him.
TV Bargau in Germany imprinted their name on the back of the head of Fieldhockey, No. 2.0133, and also on American Football Smurf, No. 2.0132.
Sportverein Bayreuth chose Ice Hockey to advertise their club by imprinting SV Bayreuth on the back of his head.
And Ice-Hockey comes with a blue outfit and stick, and the imprint HCAP on a white background on his back.
And Bodybuilder, No. 2.0417, advertised for "Sports & Fitness" in form of a keychain. Here he is:
Supersmurf Cyclist comes on a blue stand saying "Special Telepoche Tour de France 84".
Ice Skater, No. 2.0121, has been produced with the imprint Ice Capades in the USA.
Ice Skater also comes as a keychain with the imprint "Holiday on Ice".
Gloria evaporated Milk has a special figurine also. It seems to be the Apple mould, holding a mini version of a Gloria can of Milk.
Then there is the Air Freshener Smurf by I.M.P.S.. He carries a red helmet with a black visor under is arm and stands on the black base which contains the Air Freshener.
Fischer, a German Toy company simply put the Angler Smurf on a white triangle stand with the red writing Fischer on it.
Schlumpf Skat is really something nice for the collector. It is the card skat featuring Smurfs on it instead of the usual King, Queen, etc. and it came in a box with the card player Smurf. On the card in his hand is the ASS Emblem. He also came separately with the emblem or with the emblem and the writing ASS on it.
BASF used the Trumpetplayer, No. 2.0072 for advertising. His hat has the letters BASF on the back.
Maybe you know that Soccer is a very famous sport in Germany. There are many teams from many different cities. The best ones play in the "Bundesliga". All of those at one point had there own Soccer Smurf wearing the shirt and shorts in the colour of their team and came with a sign with the team logo in a green case. The sign could be fastened to the site of the case. All teams together make what is called the "Bundesliga Leiter" (Bundesliga ladder), which is about 2 feet wide by 3 feet high.
They are:
Article-No. Team Shirt Shorts Socks 4.3111 FC Bayern München red white red 4.3112 Hamburger SV white red white 4.3113 VfB Stuttgart white, red stripe across white, red stripe white 4.3114 1. FC Kaiserslautern red red red 4.3115 1. FC Köln white white white 4.3116 Borussia Dortmund yellow black yellow 4.3117 Borussia Mönchengladbach white, green stripe white, green stripe white 4.3118 FC Schalke 04 blue white blue 4.3119 Eintracht Frankfurt red, black vertical stripe black black 4.3120 Vfl Bochum blue blue white 4.3121 Fortuna Düsseldorf white red black 4.3122 Bayer Leverkusen red, black vertical stripe red red 4.3123 1860 München blue white white 4.3124 MSV Duisburg blue, white stripe across white blue/white 4.3125 Bayer Uerdingen blue red red 4.3126 1. FC Nürnberg red black red 4.3127 Arminia Bielefeld blue blue/white blue 4.3128 Karlsruher SC white blue white 4.3129 Werder Bremen white green green
And finally Astro wants to show you an image of a group of 8 Smurf figurines used in Italy to educate the kids about the traffic signs. Another good cause!
Here they are:
I am sure that there are many more promotional figurines out there. This is definitely not a complete list. But Astro hopes that it gives you a good idea on what is out there. It is incredible. Unfortunately I am not able to post all the images at once, since that would cause my file transfer fees to hit the roof. I chose my personal favourites amongst the promotional figurines to be shown on this page. And more will be added in the future! Keep smurfing.
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