[Arno]

When ones tries to understand smurf figurine's history, many times one read about the different Smurf collectors clubs and forum or seller-collectors.
I would be grateful if some of you could tell me more about people who are not on web anymore but contributed to the story of collecting :
- the Smurf collector club, then SCCI for international - I have read on Maureen's website - has been founded by Suzanne Lipschitz in 1986 in the USA. Here on Blue cavern we can read the SCCI letters, that is a great luck. The last letter dates from 2000 so I guess the club ended that moment ? Did some of you belong to the SCCI and could speak about it ?
- Blue cavern is I think a forum that endures, even if not very active nowadays. Was it founded by Rachel alone or in association with other UK collectors ? In 2004 ?
- The British collectors club : who managed it ? when ? it does not exist anymore, does it ?
- Mushroom village ?
- Kitty's cavern ?

One of the reasons why I ask you that is also about the informations that you could get in these sites.
For example, I remember visiting Kitty's cavern ones and saw many interesting datas ; same with the British collectors club (or was it another club ?) where you could find original BP archives scanned. It is a pity that all these informations are lost in a way.

[Smurfysmurf]

Hi Arne,
the Smurf Collector's Club International SCCI was founded by Suzanne and is pretty much the authority on smurfs throughout the 80s and 90s (or pre-internet age). Suzanne has a great relationship with Schleich and was able to get a lot of information from them as well as other collectors. Unfortunately, Suzanne had to step back due to a brain tumor and eventually sold her collection to
Mushroom Village who became the official successor of Suzanne. MV had a store and forum for many years, but recently decided to close the forum and sell the collection including the items from Suzanne

Blue Cavern was founded by Karen from Kitty's Cavern and Rachel around 2004. It was connected with Karen's online smurf shop but became more and more a serious and fun forum and meeting point for collectors all over the world (pre Facebook age). As you know, it holds a lot of information that was discussed, amassed and investigated by some of the Leading smurf collectors of the time. Even though we are not very active any more and most smurf information is now being traded and discussed on Facebook, I still think this is a site every smurf collector needs to visit due to it's wonderful achieve

I don't have a lot of information about the British Collector's Club. It was founded by a couple with links to BP. Karen from Kitty's Cavern bought the rights years ago and houses a lot of information on her website. When she got out of the smurf business, the sold the rights to Alan who revived the club. The club also had a forum but I am not sure if it still is active. As Blue Cavern it is now mainly on Facebook. Alan has contacts with Sony and is a great resource for the US release of smurfs.

Mushroom Village and Kitty's Cavern were mainly stores, which now no longer exist. Both have pretty much sold their inventory and parts of their personal collection.

I think Andre has had contact with the original owners of the British Collectors Club, and he also had direct contacts with B BP and Schleich so he may be able to give you some information on the clubs. There are still a lot of members among the smurf collectors who were part of the SCCI, the BSCC, MV and of course Blue Cavern. I am not sure how much information they have though as to dates and background information of the running of the club.

[Arno]

Thank you very much Maureen.

Now I understand better the connections between people and clubs that existed before or are still on the web.
I am not surprised that André had contact with them. It is good that he did and shares so many documents.

I am "Facebook free" and should stay this way because I care about freedom : joining Facebook means to accept their conditions and just to know that, for example, everything posted on Facebook becomes Facebook's property is unlike my way of thinking. But I know it is a very easy way to communicate nowadays.
At the moment, there is still enough to find on ebay so that I can get new smurf's variations every week.
I prefer a club or forum made by smurf's collectors and administrated by some of them. Thank you also for that

[André]

Hi Arno,

I am not a fan of Facebook either actually. But it has its up sides, because it is very easy to use and easy to post pictures, information etc. Nowadays it is mostly persons selling items.

I try to add all information I get on my website. It has no sales and the only goal with it is to share information.

But it is time consuming so I slowly add things all the time.

Today I will add pictures about the BP promotion in South Africa. Liz Evans sent me pictures which I am allowed to show.

I also added basicly all the catalogues in high resolution on the website. So everybody can see them and make closeups.

[Smurfysmurf]

The problem with Facebook is that old posts get lost on there as new ones are posted...and yes, most new posts are less about sharing information but about selling stuff. What annoys me to no end is if you posts a picture of a new find, you get mainly questions if you are selling it...No..if I was, I would say so

My other pet peeve is that there are now so many smurf groups on Facebook, it's really really hard to keep track. Not sure why everybody thinks they need to create their own one which is basically the same as the other ones (not meaning yours, Andre, which is really different to all the other ones and more an extension of your website )

Anyway, it can be fun and informative as well about new items..and since you are signed in anyway, it's easy to post, as Andre said.

But...I miss the good old days, when we were a community on a forum called Blue Cavern....big big sigh

[Tojo]

But...I miss the good old days, when we were a community on a forum called Blue Cavern....big big sigh