Page 1 of 1

Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 7:58 pm
by Blumenschlumpf
Hello, fellow smurf friends,

my kindest greetings from Germany!

I like the early smurfs, because some classic comic books and early schleich & bully figurines are among my dearest childhood memories. Losing trumpeter in a sandpit, learning to dive diving for jungle.. or imagine to be four and find handstand as your easter bunny.

Schtroumpfissime and cosmoschtroumpf were among the few bedtime stories that my mummy read to me as much as my dad, because her French was so good. The smurf that was a mechanic somehow resembled my grandfather, a locksmith, who had built our house where we all lived together. I also remember that, for my forth or fifth birthday, my father drew and coloured all the inivtations for my kindergarden friends, each sporting a smurf, quickly sketched and scaled up from the b/w bully catalogue from those days. I let a couple of these slide behind a cupboard – because on that following morning I felt I was not ready for as many kids as were smurfs drawn!

Like most kids, we had lots of toy figurines old and new, but the smurfs stood out. It may be that you did sense the sculptors behind this, their adorable work, being a kid. I loved the size and the feel of smurfs, but those were but natural assets of their worked out personalities. So I loved smurfs. I felt the early smurf figurines were the real thing.

Suddenly, your life as a teenager is here, there and everywhere, and smurfs retain the tiniest spot, but that is okay.

The boom and the attitude of the producers of making whatever human pastime or profession into a smurf had only just started affecting and undermining the overall quality of my lot of smurfs, while, of course, at that time, I couldn’t put my finger on it. So I feel lucky now, that I was little when the smurfs were few. The smurfs started their career in advertising, but they could be themselves. Later, they were advertising the human way of life, and very much lost themselves. And this stands until now, I think. But here is room for argument, I guess, and many would beg to differ!

As for my smurf story, someday I found my old smurfs and fell in love again, bought missing and ruined and of course even smurfs unknown to me on ebay, spending only little for a lot of figurines, all in beautiful condition, picking up some oddities along the way, licensed, fan art or plagiarism, if they were about in spirit.

So, that's it for now, one more person, half man, half Schlumpf! :)

Blumen, Bäume und Stechwinden..

See you around, guys!

Kind regards, Till

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Fri Nov 23, 2018 11:06 pm
by The Smurf Collector
G'day and welcome to the forum.

We look forward to hearing more about your past and current smurf adventures.

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 1:09 pm
by CuriousSmurf
Greetings! I am so excited that I am not the only new member now! Since you live in Germany, I have a question for you. My mom went to Germany (we are Americans) this past summer and I asked her to see if she could find any smurfs there to buy for me. She came back saying she didn’t see any. But I am not sure what stores she went to there. So, where do they sell smurfs now in Germany? Are they sold in toy stores?

Welcome to the forum! It is pretty quiet but everyone here is friendly and helpful. It may take a while to get a response, but someone has always come through with a helpful answer for my questions.

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2018 5:24 pm
by Blumenschlumpf
Hello,

thank you for your friendly welcomes!

Good to know, Curious, there are enough smurf people returning to the blue cavern to hear our questions! :)

In Germany, smurfs are often found printed onto h&m children’s clothes; and of course kinder’s Überraschungseier keep bringing out new series, but I am not aware of how often. McDonald’s do individual series, too, I believe. The movies are heavily advertised, so there would have been some merchandise on the streets, too. But the 2018 Schleich smurfs are still sold in the toy stores. I took a picture by chance in a toy store last May; this was on display:
20180526_154432vv.jpg
20180526_154432vv.jpg (74.79 KiB) Viewed 3532 times
I will go check at that store, how many of them are still left. Will they be shelf hugging because of Germany’s poor games at the World Cup? :(

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2018 11:28 am
by Blumenschlumpf
20181126_135555v.jpg
20181126_135555v.jpg (68.7 KiB) Viewed 3523 times
12 sold, 18 remaining in the Schleich shelf.. Schlumpfine sold best, Weltmeister worst.. all too logical, but okay.

Horst Hrubesch is trainer of the German women team now!

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 8:46 am
by Tommo
Welcome to the forum!!!! :wave: :welcome: :party:
Tommo

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 4:02 am
by Bundleofkent2
Hi Till,

Lovely to hear about your childhood stories and the schlumpfe!

Might I say that your written English is incredibly advanced!

A journey through the history and chronology of the smurfs is best achieved via Andre’s website The Cursed Country......he has single-handedly enriched smurf collecting incredibly.

The peak years of this forum were probably 2006–>2011. Life, facebook, and tragically, death (Maureen) have intervened since.

Ask any questions you want, one of us will do our best to answer or guide

Martin

Re: Hallöchen!

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 3:27 pm
by Tojo
Greetings! I am so excited that I am not the only new member now! Since you live in Germany, I have a question for you. My mom went to Germany (we are Americans) this past summer and I asked her to see if she could find any smurfs there to buy for me. She came back saying she didn’t see any. But I am not sure what stores she went to there. So, where do they sell smurfs now in Germany? Are they sold in toy stores?

Hi!!
The big department stores such as Kaufhof & Karstadt sell smurfs in their toy departments. Also there are toy shops such as Vedes that sell them. Last month Ferrero had a series of 10 figures in their surprise eggs + 4 more in their maxi eggs. So it is possible to find smurfs in the shops here but you need to know where to look. They're definitely much easier to find here than in the UK. As a kid I only remember the car window stickers from the National petrol stations....