Smurf facts

This is the artist who created the Smurfs. His name is Pierre Culliford or "Peyo". Peyo was born in 1928. He was from Belgium, and unfortunately passed away in 1992. You will find his name stamped on every smurf figurine, beside the Schleich logo. His son, Thierry Culliford, is continuing Peyo's smurfy activities.

The smurfs first appeared in a cartoon episode "The Magic Flute", in connection with Johan's and Peewit's adventures. Those two figurines definitely belong into every complete smurf collection.


From the drawing to the smurf!


The drawing is the base for the first mould, which is made out of plaster or wax. Before the mould is finally used to produce smurfs, a lot of detailed engraving and precision work is needed. This ensures you can enjoy all the smurfy little details on your figurines.
Every figurine was hand painted. It must be one of the reasons for the many colour variations you can find. At least, it used to be like this. Lately certain colours have been injected. But there is still a lot of detailed work involved until a figurine is ready.



Many people are under the assumption, that smurfs are no longer in production. I am glad to be able to say, that Schleich always has and still produces new figurines every year. Only in 1988 and 1991 were no new Smurfs manufactured. Up to including the year 2000 there were always 100 different figurines in production. Starting in 2001 the number was reduced to 50 due to the fact that many older moulds had become unusable. Those figurines were permanently taken out of production.
Thanks to Party Pigs, now Schleich North America, the present line of smurf figurines and accessories is available in the U.S.A and Canada.

There was also a difference between the European market and the U.S. market. Canada was in the past classified as "European market". Therefore some figurines were available in Canada, but not in the U.S. Today the US Market and the Canadian Market are identical.