These are made by Medicom, a Japanese company and are called UDFs: Ultra Detailed Figures. They've remade a selection of rare smurfs. They are about 50% bigger than normal smurfs: 77mm vs 53mm.
Not sure. Maybe to distance themselves from being accused of producing fakes? And a little bit larger to tie them in more with the size of the other things they produce? And maybe a condition from Peyo franchise?
I wonder which collector they asked for the designs??
The blue/red captain I used to think was genuine, but I believe is a fake so it is a strange choice of figure.....I would stick my neck out and say it was something to with Davide......