Blue Cavern

Hi All

I'm Daryl (Kiwischlumpf) from NZ. I'm not exactly new here but haven't been around for many years.

I'm looking to reconnect with fellow smurfers to see where everyone is at and hopefully get the collection moving again.

I moved away from actively collecting our wee blue critters over ten years ago and moved on to other collections.

This last week I have finally got my smurf collection out and am busy cataloguing it against the 2013 Gian and Davi book (which has been sitting on my shelf since when it was released). I haven't done a smurf census since 2005, and can only guess at the numbers I have. I kept my collection going in like a maintenance mode up until 2018, so have all the major releases up until then.

Looking around, many of the collector websites that were around back in my day have disappeared or haven't been updated in an age. I took my own site down in 2020.
So feel free to say 'Hi' to this born-again-smurfer

Welcome back.
After my divorce my homepage vanished so it is not very surprising other sites are down too or at least orphaned.
But meanwhile the information here is so detailed for normal smurf nearly no site can add additional information.

Happy smurfing

G’day Daryl from across the ditch (Melbourne)

I recall reading about your collection back when I first joined the forum. This was probably over 20 years ago. Though the forum is not as active as back then, there are still some very passionate collectors who enjoy this space.

Looking forward to hearing about your collection and thoughts on Smurfs

Cheers
Kath

... hmm pondering existential questions on life, the universe and everything... and now "my thoughts on Smurfs".

I must admit I am pondering the question on how we define what is a Smurf for my Smurf census. I know the regular PVC critters are definitely in, but then we start having to consider other like the smaller Kinder surprise smurfs or the larger de Agostini and McDonald's 60th anniversary set. At which point we have to say what about plushes and plastoy and even garden ornaments. My relationship living with the smurfs can only be described as "it's complicated".

Welcome back Daryl!
As Andreas and Kath have said, there are still some of us keeping things going on here and new variations keep turning up As Andreas said, I don't think there are any websites out there with as much information as we have here for the normals, or most other things, and I would say that it's more accurate than Davi's catalogue
cheers, Tommo

Hi Tommo
Yes I have spotted a few missing items from Gian and Davi's 2013 catalogue and am cross referencing it with the German 2000 catalogue. I have been noticing the postings in the variations section. Very cool.. reminds me I must check up on a couple of smurfs I have (Fix foxi and SLA) that I believe were fakes. There is no details on the promos in either of the catalogues!!!

Hi Daryl, I'm about as active on the smurf front as you've been so it's good to see you back here.

I still buy the new Schleich smurfs every year & if there's a promo deal on such as at McDonalds then I try to get those too (although I wasn't very successful last year with those as I ended up with mostly doubles).

I'm glad that this site still exists though as it's a fantastic site for reference

Hi Tojo.
I haven't decided if I resume collecting the schleich smurfs yet. I ended with them in 2018. Instead I have been concentrating on the other brands as they seem more interesting to me at the moment.
Happy smurfing
Daryl

Hi Daryl,

My only advice is not to use the Davi catalogue as it is very inaccurate , has lots of fakes, and has mistakes all over the show.

Use Bernd Maiers and Frank Oswalds…………..

BW

Martin

I tend to buy the handful of Schleichs every year and add them to whatever box I can reach in the attic and call it a day. To be honest I don't really like how they look these days (since the first movie?) but I'm a completist so there you go.

I'm seriously considering getting rid of my collection, it would help a lot with storage space and it's good to de-clutter. Not something you might want to read on a collectors forum maybe!

hi, Daryl.
I´m Carlos ( lobo) and I experienced more or less the same years ago. I paused my collection at 2013, in my case due to financial problems and I recently started again to fill the voids ( hard task by the way since some recent smurfs are very expensive). The prices now are incredibly high for some pieces but I´m determined to buy the Schleich ones I´ve missed these last years. I´m not really interested in smaller or bigger smurfs, just the regular Schleich or Jakks size, although i´ve always loved Kinder smurfs. I think I have a pretty good collection of fakes which I adore ( the uglier , the better) and The new Famosa ones are ok although some of them don´t stand by themselves. I even made my own smurfs for a while...
Smurfs have been part of my life since I was a small child when I read "The Black smurfs" for the first time and I hope I won´t ever abandon them again.
Thank you everybody for keeping this forum open.

Hi Carlos
Welcome back. The good thing about smurf collecting is that they don't deteriorate when left in a box and so can be resumed at some later date without issue.... eg no batteries to replace or settings to be reconfigured (I have a camera collection where this is a problem).
I really thought they would capitalize more on the "lost village" smurfs after they introduced all these cool new characters ... maybe breath some new life into the collecting themes etc, but apart from a few small exceptions they haven't come out with many.
I can relate to what you said about the prices.. its a good thing I got the smurfs I have, when I did. If I was to start collecting today, then I would probably have not got going, as they are so much more expensive now.. and so many fakes and scammers out there.
I only have 5 schleich, 2 kinder, 2 giochi prezios and 6 jakks smurfs to get.... although I'm sure I'll get others on my journey before I get these
Ciao

I agree Daryl, if I had known how much I would have spent, time and money, and how much room they take up I would never have started I do love finding variations though, especially as things have slowed down the more that I have found.

hfos, I completely understand how you feel. I don't have the time, or the heart, to sell my collection especially when I think how much of a chunk Paypal, eBay and the tax man would take from the money.