If anyone is interested in reading my paper, there you are:
Why is collecting smurf figures such a fascinating hobby?
For more than forty years, German Schleich Company (Schleich S) and Bully have released more than 500 smurf figures. Each year, the release of the new series, containing six or eight smurfs, is highly anticipated by thousands of collectors worldwide. So one might ask, why then is collecting smurf figures such a fascinating hobby?
Smurf figures are tiny, light and they represent human-like characters. "Smurfs are about three apples high. They live happily down in the woods." Of course, this except taken from various Smurf comic books, does not apply to any smurf figure. Yet there is some truth behind that quotation. Talking about the size, one normal smurf figure is about 3" small and weighs up to fifty grams. Therefore one could easily carry a smurf along in his pocket. Apart from being tiny and light, most smurf figures also represent human like characteristics and emotions such as sad, shy, angry, smiling and laughing. Other types of smurfs represent historical figures e.g. Christopher Columbus or seasons e.g. Easter and X-Mas.
Collecting smurf figures is a world-wide phenomenon bringing people together.Smurf figures are sold or rather have been sold in many countries, e.g. Australia, the UK and the US. In 1986, the first international club for serious collectors of smurf figures, the
S.C.C.I. (The Smurf Collectors Club) was founded by the late American collector Mrs Suzanne Lipschitz. Until its dissolvement in 2001, the
S.C.C.I. was indeed the most influential smurf club in the world, with many national clubs to follow. When more people were able to access the internet towards the mid 1990's, many websites and discussion boards were created in appreciation of the smurf figures, e.g. a Welsh board called
Blue Cavern (
http://www.bluecavern.com). This discussion board consists of members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. Additionally there are even fairs held in Benelux. The largest fair, called
Passion takes place annually in the Belgian town of Houdeng-Goenies and it is visited by more than 5,000 people all around the world. For more information on
Passion, one might consult the website
http://www.saussard.be .Alternatively, anyone interested in obtaining smurfs and who does not wish to attend a smurf fair, may either get hold of the latest series in toy shops (this does not apply to every country) or find older smurf figures at eBay or at fleamarkets.
There are uncountable variations of smurf figures, such as the markings and colors. The marking, which can be found, e.g. on the base or the back of the smurf, refers to the year and the country of production. In this case, variations can be defined by distinguishing the different markings. E.g.
Papa was released with at least six variations, one of them only contained "Peyo 1969", while another marking was reading "Schleich Made in Hongkong".Due to the fact that every smurf figure is a hand painted product, there are also differences, in the colors used for the figure. This is called a color variation. E.g.
Brainy was released in at least four variations of the pair of glasses that he wears, namely, black, red, white and yellow. Since there can be also combinations of both variations marking and color or additionally sorts of variation, such as size etc., it is impossible to tell the exact number of each of the individual smurf figure and therefore one won't get bored of collecting.
Talking about problems to happen, once one has started to collect smurfs, one problem frequently occuring is the fact that some smurfs require a lot of space! There is one series of figures, which I haven't mentioned yet. These series, which had been produced until 2003/04 was called
Super Smurfs, since they were sold with additionally items, e.g. car in tiny paper boxes. Since most people used to throw the boxes away, many serious collectors prefer the Super Smurfs in their original boxes. However, this problem can be avoided, if a collector buys the Supers without the box. Another benefit is that a collector might save up to seventy-five percent of the collectors price used for the collectors guides.
Another problem is that collecting smurf figures can be quite expensive. About six years ago, three very rare X-Mas smurfs
Christmas Smurf with Stocking,
Christmas Angel Smurf and
Christmas Bellringer Smurf appeared for the very first time on eBay. According to Schleich, there are only four figures of each of these figures existing, which had been originally produced in 1985 and which were never officially sold. These smurfs fetched up app. 2,700 US$ each, never to be seen again for auction. Nevertheless, there are also lots of other smurfs, which are also quite expensive, due to the fact that some of them were only produced for export. E.g.
Baseball Smurfette (smurfette is a blonde female smurf) was only available throughout American, Canadian and Australian toy shops. Therefore this smurfette figure usually costs between 150 to 300 Euros. However, this should not shock anyone, since most smurfs can be obtained for less than 4 Euros either at toy stores or at fleamarkets. In case, one wants to save money, he might swap with other smurf collectors or buy more expensive smurfs from trustworthy sellers at any of the Smurf Collectors' fairs. If in doubt, one might either consult an advanced collector for further information or check out any smurf discussion board.
On delivering this essay, I tried to state some of the reasons, which attract people smurf figures, such as their resemblance to human either by their character or the working attire, they wear. Another benefit is that you can make friends either by signing up to one of the smurf discussion boards on the net or get directly in touch at any Smurf collectors' fairs held in Benelux. Additionally, one won't get bored, once he discovers another variation not mentioned in any of the collectors' guides. I also listed up some more serious problems resulting from collecting smurf figures, such as money, since there are also quite rare smurfs, since not all smurfs have been sold worldwide, such as Baseball Smurfette or space, when it comes to collect
Super Smurfs in their original boxes.
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Maureen 
When I was there many years ago it was 
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This was an excellent class, since our lecturer had been really modest and friendly towards every student. She even allowed us to call her by her forename. Credits for this course were given for regular attendance, participation in class, one oral presentation (I did a group work on "Irish New Wave" films with two classmates), posts on the official class blog and two homeworks which had to be sent in by mail. 
