This is just a place you can post to to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about you and your collection.

I'm Pete, the founder of MushroomVillage.com and I live in Bayside, NY which is in Queens, one of the 5 boros of NYC. Today (August 19, 2025) I am 36 years YOUNG (Hey, the one thing Smurf collectors have in common is they are young-at-heart!!)

I started collecting Smurfs in college, in about 1990. I was buying them for my girlfriend (now my wife!) "Hope." I'm a collector at heart though, and soon she had more Smurfs than she could fit on her Smurf Shelf - a custom-made shelf about 1.5' x 2.5' with 3" high shelves her Dad had made for her as a kid. She collected as a kid, and displayed them at college, but it wasn't until I came along that she began again.

Soon enough, I had to start keeping some because she just had no more room. When we graduated and got married, I started a Smurf site (then called eSmurfs.com) and the snowball really began rolling downhill! I made thousands of Smurfy friends around the globe and our casual collecting soon took on a new life when I became a North American distributor for Schleich (The manufacturer of collectible Smurf PVC figurines). Soon thereafter I became acuainted with Suzanne Lipschitz, founder of the Smurf Collectors Club Intl. Sadly, she was facing health problems and was seeking a new steward for the SCCI collection and membership.

I was honored to be selected by Suzanne, and am in posession of the SCCI collection of Smurfabilia, surely one of the largest and most impressive collections in the world. The SCCI was drawn to a close after 15 years of friendship and fun - there would be no more newsletters, but I continue to this day to keep her old membership abreast of Smurf happenings via postcard mailings in which I share the latest news, and offer the latest Schleich promos and new releases.

Just in case you are wondering, "IMPS" (the holders of the intellectual property rights to the Smurf likeness and image) forced me to abandon "eSmurfs.com" due to intellectual property rights violations - whatever. So we became "MushroomVillage.com" and you know what? I like that name even better! Their home was actually called "Smurf Village" but we all know they lived in mushrooms, so I think my new name still works well!

You can learn more of the boring details here:

https://mushroomvillage.com/smurfs-scci.html

And here:

https://mushroomvillage.com/smurfs-about.html

About my collection? Well, I do have a "full set," that is, at least one of every figurine Schleich produced. I also collect most variations and am an especially avid collector of old Smurfabilia (particularly items marked "Dupuis"), raws (unpainted Smurfs), Musters, promos, errors, and anything else especially hard-to-find. Some other Smurf items in my collection are mini Smurfs, brass and pewter Smurfs, Kinder Smurfs, porcelain, plastic and resin figurals, Candy Toppers, Smurf ephemera (like old news clippings, postcards, packaging for Smurf products, etc.) and pretty much anything Smurfy Schleich produced, such as Supers, playsets, super playsets, buildings, keychains, skateboard Smurfs, finger puppets, magnets, clips, desk sets, etc.

Well, enough about me! Please tell us about you and your Smurf collection!

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-Pete
MushroomVillage.com