Dupuis Smurfs,
history of the very first Smurf figurines
Dupuis, the editor
of the Smurf comics and of the Spirou magazine, where the stories
of Johan and Peewit and of the Smurfs first appeared in, started making
vinyl and latex puppets of its most popular heroes in 1957. That first
one was the Marsupilami.
In November 1958,
a few more Marsupilamis were added, and a Peewit. At this time, the
Smurfs had already appeared for some two months in the comics of Johan
and Peewit, but they weren't yet very popular, and Peewit was a favourite
of the young readers. In the following decade, a whole bunch of figures
were made in different sizes, from 5 cm to a whopping 80 cm.
With the Peyo
figurines, one year later, in December 1959, the first three small
(5 cm) Latex Smurfs were made: Papa, Normal and Angry. At the time,
they weren't available as keychains yet. These were the first Smurfs
in the format and approximately the material as they have later become
world renowned from Schleich and Bully.
By 1963, they
were joined by a Johan and a Benoit Brisefer (another hero of Peyo,
but he doesn't figure in the Smurf comics).
In the summer
of 1964, the life-size (three apples high, or 15 cm) Normal Smurf
is for the first time for sale, at the time for the price of a new
comic (45 Belgian Francs, about 1.1 Euro). The small Smurfs were 28
Francs (0.7 Euro), Peewit 65 Francs (1.6 Euro), and Johan 89 Francs
(2.2 Euro).
In the summer
of the year after, the Giant Smurf (a normal Smurf, 30 cm high) became
available as well, giving all three ranges of the Dupuis Smurfs for
the first time. A few months later, near the end of 1965, arrived
the life size Angry Smurf and Papa Smurf, giving us 3 small Smurfs,
3 life size Smurfs, and the Giant Smurf.
Those were joined
by the life size King Smurf (with cape!) in the spring of 1966.
Finally, at the
end of 1966, five keychains were made: the three small Smurfs already
available, plus Prisoner Smurf and Golden Smurf. It is unclear though
if the last two ones were also available as normal figurines instead
of as keychains.
At this time, all
previously issued figurines were still available, so quite a wide
range was available in the shops (these were sold in libraries and
basically in every shop that sold comics in France, Belgium and the
Netherlands, and probably some parts of Switzerland and Canada as
well). At the same time, the first Smurfs from Schleich were available
as well (since 1965, although at the time probably only in Germany)
These are the last new figurines made by Dupuis, and by the early
1970's, no trace of them can be found anymore in the magazines or
catalogues.
Text kindly supplied
by Fram
Please visit the
Smurfs Shop at Kitty's Cavern
before you go!
