Did you know they were created in 1958!
If you lived through the 1980s, chances are you owned, listened to or watched the tiny blue gnomes named The Smurfs. They’re actually much older than that, as Belgian cartoonist Peyo created them way back in 1958. And since then they’ve been entertaining (and boring the minds out of) millions of people around the world. Which brings up the question: How can the Smurfs be both universally popular and so boring that watching their “adventures” makes you want to take a smurfing gun and smurf yourself? from 8 Facts About Smurfs That Are Actually Kind of Interesting
In the above photo, you’ll see that Bahoukas has a wonderful variety (well, as much as possible with the little blue Smurfs characters) that include new PEZ Dispensers, Chatter Chum – pull the string and he talks (the largest on the right), a Push-Puppet Smurf (in the middle), the tiny PVC Smurfs (in front) and a collection of Smurf Character glasses (14 in all) produced in 1982 by Wallace Berrie & Co.
Smurfs
The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike—mostly male (a few female Smurfs have appeared: Smurfette, Sassette, and Nanny Smurf), short (three apples high),[5] with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality (for example, “Handy Smurf” wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear). Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat sarsaparilla (a species of Smilax) leaves, whose berries the Smurfs naturally call “smurfberries” (the smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the sarsaparilla).
The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: “Lazy Smurf”, “Grouchy Smurf”, “Brainy Smurf”, and so on. All Smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 Smurfs, but this number increased as new Smurf characters appeared, such as Sassette and Nanny. All of the original Smurfs were male; later female additions are Smurfette and Sassette—Smurfette being Gargamel’s creation, while Sassette was created by the Smurflings. from Wikipedia
What role did the SMURFS play in your growing up years? Or how did you cope as a parent? It’s most interesting to learn some of the changes connected to the SMURFS in the U.S. where they were changed from the original black characters to blue.
Five Euro Smurf Coin
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Smurfs, the Belgian Mint issued a five Euro Smurf coin. The limited edition coins come in numbered boxes – only 25,000 were produced! The Five Euro Belgian Smurf Coin was produced in two forms, colored and plain silver. Both coins have a diameter of around 1″. The coin reads “Les Schtroumpfs 1958 – 2008”, “50” in the middle, “Peyo 2008” underneath that, and “De Smurfen” on the bottom. The Smurf coins were issued by the Royal Belgian Mint and are a series of commemorative coins from Belgium. from BlueBuddies.com
Photos of the coin from the same sight:
So there you go … more than you ever wanted to know about Smurfs. Ready to add to your collection? Maybe you’re ready to start collecting. Either way, stop by Bahoukas Antique Mall and Beer MuZeum to see what we have. Of course, we’ll be watchin’ for ya!
