779 Cute Cash.

I was hoping that with the impending release of what is sure to be the Smurfs’ cinematic suicide that the original Smurfs figures would be reproduced and presented for consumers again.  I have not been disappointed.  Although not available locally, shops in distant lands have said figures.  I managed to get two so far.  Brainy and Jokey.  Prior to this the only Smurf I had was a Papa, from an ill fated attempt to cash in on 80s nostalgia about 5 years ago.  The thing about that toy is you can tell it’s not a “real” Smurf.  Meaning that it was not produced by Schleich.  It’s not so different looking that the average person can tell, and he looks more or less normal standing next to the new recruits.

My goal is to slowly get representations of all the main Smurfs: Handy, Hefty, Smurfette, Grouchy, Lazy, & Artist.   There are some other characters I would gather up if they exist, but I doubt they will be released unless the movie sparks a renaissance for the franchise, and my fear is that if it does it will be for the horrifying CG designs.

Honestly I’m not sure if representations of some of the Smurfs ever existed.  My memories are vague.  Greedy and Baker were combined into a single character for the cartoon, but the toys may have had the comic license in Europe.  I prefer the comic version of the continuity, but the cartoon is really very faithful to it up to a point.  Once they ran out of original stories things started getting wild and they had to deviate a lot.  That’s common for comic to cartoon transitions.

Anyway, Brainy and Grouchy were always my favorites, so if I only find Grouchy I’m still pretty much set for Smurfs.  It’s important to set reasonable goals.  Reaching a little isn’t bad though.

The books are still coming out at regular intervals.  So that’s  fun too.  I’d kind of like them to publish some more of the Johan & Peewit stories, so I could see how the whole thing started out.