I love those stories, so here is mine... sorry, it's long....
I can't remember which one was my first smurf, I always kinda had about 30, I don't even know who started buying them for me, I think I always had them, even before they started the cartoon series on German TV.
I remember, I usually kept the smurfs in the large smurf house in a plastic bag, and got them out every few months, until my mother gave me the permission to display them in the dining room....... that made for some interesting conversations with our guests..
I do remember having the King smurf, the smurf with the white feathers, the black and white soccer player (who reminded me of a German soccer player from the 70s) and others ,....
The funniest thing was, when I got ready to move to the US about ten years ago, my grandmother helped me getting my appartment cleaned out, and gave all the smurfs away without me knowing it.. ..
I didn't miss them really until a few months later and nearly had a heart attack when she told me she had given them away .....
They were my childhood memories, but she didn't see it that way....she told me, the less I take to the US, the cheaper I can get there....
I went back to Germany for a visit five years later, and told my grandmother (I was visiting her), that I definitly had to buy smurfs, because I couldn't find any in America, and five years was a looong time without smurfs. ....
Well, I didn't like the newer ones they sold in the department stores, so we found an old second hand comic store who had smurfs on display...
When the owner saw what I was looking at he gave me permission to go to his back room and showed me a big box full with smurfs..
He told me the prices were written under their feet and to take my time.....
I found nearly all the smurfs I used to have but it was too expensive.....
well, you gotta love my granny
She still felt so bad about what she had done five years ago, she bought them for me.
Spent over 100 marks for about 30 pretty normal smurfs...
She told me that would be my last gift from her, which it wasn't , but I am still thankful for those smurfs.
You won't believe it but the king smurf was the most expensive one in that lot for 10 marks........
Of course my collection has tripled since five years ago, after I found out that there are smurfs in America (you just have to go to ebay).....