If you try to type the smiley/variations (text-based), the forum software renders them into the yellow graphic smiley as per your post. What I did was put a bold / slash bold in between each character which tricks the software into thinking that I'm entering them as separate characters. It will also work with underline / slash underline or italics / slash italics.
Code:
[b][/b] e.g. :[b][/b]-[b][/b])