[Azrael]

Okay,

So, I spoke to a very lovely lady at the BBC today about the Smurfs birthday. It will be published on the BBC website tomorrow but i wanted to give you all a heads-up about what I said, just in case anything is changed. I doubt it will be cos she was lovely.

I spoke for about 45 mins, so I'm sure she'll only use a couple of quotes, but it was mainly about Smurf obsessives.

I said that I personally wasn't and that everyone should know where to draw a line, like other collectors of Star Wars and such.

I said that old smurfs were generally considered more popular than the newer ones and why.

I spoke about the characteristcs of the smurfs and why they appealed to people (eg, like PEANUTS and WINNIE THE POOH) we can all associate ourselves with the individual traits etc.

I said about how some people charge silly money for smurfs when, generally, the average smurf costs about 4 pounds, even if it was made years ago.

I mentioned the sisiters fair and how great it was.

Unicef.

The figures this year.

Then spoke about the film and got some inside goss!

That I'm a normal person with a job, mortgage and girlfriend and that I'm not odd, nor do people consider me odd. I just have smurfs. Some people have swarvoski, some collect dinky cars. I have smurfs.

I said that the BSCC was starting agin in celebration on the 50th and that people should get in touch.

I said that as long as people who collected them lived nice, normal lives and didn't go too far with it then there was nothing wrong, and that smurf collectors are some of the nicest people I have met. Any collector can cross the line, but that tells us more about the person... not the smurfs.

I hope this was ok with everyone. It was more a conversation of psycho-analysis of collectors than anything else.



Al

[bwalters]

Hi Al; That sounded pretty good to me. I am about as normal as anyone can be. Except for my smurf collection. Most people can't believe that I collect smurfs. Great job. Bill

[Smurfysmurf]

Sounds like you were the perfect representative for collectors worldwide, Al

I can't wait to see the article...and great exposure for the BSCC as well.

[SmurfingH]

Normal? Well if you say so.

Seriously, it all sounds great to me Al.

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

You did a great Job, Al !!!

[Azrael]

Let us know what you think:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7686070.stm

I think it came across very well, IMO.

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

Wow!!! Congratulations Al!!!

Christy is also featured in it.

I'm very proud of you both.

[Smurfysmurf]

Nice article

Comparing it to your notes was very interesting though

[SmurfingH]

It's turned out well Al. So, where do you keep your smurfs?





(Just kidding so don't answer - publicly that is! )

[FlamingO]

Thanks for the heads up on this, your contribution and the link Al

I'm loving the comments people are adding at the end of the article, some of these have me in stitches

[eggie smurf]

I'm loving the comments people are adding at the end of the article, some of these have me in stitches

I'll have to read these as I only skimmed the article

[FlamingO]

The later into the night it gets the funnier they become . It must be the weekend I love the guy who confused his smurfs with lollipops The smurfette kayaker should have been entered to our home-mades competition and the lady who's off to retrieve her smurfs from her nieces - ''hey they weren't for keeps you know - give 'em back'' : Smurfs make people to the funniest things

[bwalters]

I guess there were more comment than I read. The people out there that read things into the Smurf that arn't there just kill me. Some people have nothing better to do in their lives. I kind of feel sorry for them. Not really. Bill

[Cassiebsg]

Great article!

Interesting comments... expect the guy that likes to read into stuff that isn't there.

As a kid and as grown up (and based only in the comics) I always took the smurfs as being the perfect society, where ppl do things not because they have to, but because they want to. Where everyone helps each other, so that they can all have fun after work (instead of only a few having fun while the rest works).
Introducing human problems into the smurf community was a great way to demonstrate how the society would fall to ruin with so little - like when they divided the town in the north/south dialect conflict or introduced gold currency to pay for each others work...

[Syd Smurf]

Very nice article Al

Dyar