====================== ABOUT THE SMURFY NEWS ====================== The Smurfy News is the largest Internet newsletter about Smurfs and Smurf collecting with ^ subscribers worldwide and growing. Welcome to our first-time readers! If you know Smurf fans that might enjoy the Smurfy News, please help us grow and forward this e-mail to them! To subscribe to the Smurfy News, please visit http://www.esmurfs.com and enter you e-mail address in the Smurfy News subscription form. To unsubscribe, please see the bottom of this e-mail. ========= FOREWORD ========= First of all, I want to thank everyone who checked in to ask if we are OK. It has been a rough time as of late here in NYC. Fortunately my wife and I, and our friends and loved ones are all accounted for - but like just about everyone else here in the city, we have ties that are too close for comfort to people who were not so lucky. My wife's coworker is missing her fiancé. She is fresh out of college, this was her first year teaching and on her second day she lost her fiancé. A school secretary is missing a nephew. Another teacher is missing a sister-in-law. My Uncle's son from his first marriage is among the missing Firemen. These are stories you hear everywhere you go in NYC. I took off that day for a medical test, but had I been working my day job, doing seafood inspections for FDA down in the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan, I almost certainly would have been trapped there, the towers are just blocks from there. And I know in my heart of hearts that had I been there, I would have felt a compulsion to go and help. And to think what could have happened had I done so and been there when they collapsed. Yes, it was a day all of us, everywhere in the world, were happy to come home to our loved ones, safe and sound. It's hard at a time like this to keep your head on straight, and to go about your business. I am sure you have all heard the call to return to normalcy, and I want to echo that sentiment here. It is important that we continue to do the things we would have done, maybe even a little bit more, just to help our economy. Take the kids to a movie, order in, buy a little something special for someone you love - things like this are the very foundation of our economy, and send a message to the world that our economy remains strong, and that we believe in ourselves and the USA. I surprised myself; not only by getting another Smurfy News put together, but by having it done a week early for a change! I guess as stressed and strained as recent events have made me feel, it has only made me work harder. So please accept my invitation to you to relax a bit, and enjoy the fruits of my efforts...read on for this month's Smurfy News! -Pete & Hope http://www.esmurfs.com ========= CONTENTS ========= 1) BACK TO BUSINESS! 2) NEW 2001 SMURF 3) SMURFY SEXISM: CREATED WITH A BIASED HAND 4) NY SMURF COLLECTOR ON METRO TV 5) NEW SMURF CLUB! 6) SMURFY AVATARS AND ICONS! 7) TAKING SMURF PICS 8) SMURFY NEWS GIVE-A-WAY ===================== 1) BACK TO BUSINESS! ===================== New items have been few and far between during the past month while I moved. I am happy to announce that I have now gotten to restocking the Smurf Shop, and now feature many, many pieces in stock that were previously out of stock. Many of these are rare and came out of advanced collections. There are only one or two pieces on those, so if you see something you need, go buy it right now, the Smurfy News will still be here when you are done! Everything is first-come, first-serve! Here's what's new in stock: 20001 Papa 20002 Normal 20003 Astro (finger up) 20005 Gold 20006 Brainy (black glasses) 20007 Angry (small mold) 20011 Laughing 20014 Sunbather (green) 20021 Sleepwalker (green hat) 20022 Author 20034 Smurfette 20035 Soccer (all blue outfit) 20035 Soccer (red/yellow) 20036 Glider 20038 Singer (yellow song sheet) 20044 Lover 20047 Trumpeter (yellow) 20040 Gift 20058 Champion 20060 Candle 20063 Tailor (with thread) 20067 Congratulations 20069 Jungle (light orange) 20075 Quack 20076 Courting 20077 Naughty 20078 Beer 20079 Jolly 20086 Present (red bow) 20086 Present (orange bow) 20098 Ballerina 20099 Head Cook 20105 Scot (Green Socks) 20106 Hunter 20111 Cupid (brown bow, W. Germany) 20116 Alchemist (dark green smoke) 20128 Amour (yellow bow) 20129 Baseball Batter (beige bat) 20129 Baseball Batter (brown bat, with "3") 20130 Graduation 20133 Field hockey (white injected) 20133 Field Hockey (red/white shirt) 20139 Nurse (white apron) 20142 Mermaid (green tail) 20142 Mermaid (silver tail) 20144 Indian (colored feathers, light brown pants) 20144 Indian (colored feathers, dark pants) 20149 Cheerleader (No "S") 20149 Cheerleader (with "S" on shirt) 20151 Graduation Smurfette 20157 Grouchy 20161 Clumsy 20163 Soccer Smurfette (no base) 20163 Soccer Smurfette 20176 Good Luck 20181 Gargamel with Net (yellow stick) 20192 Smurfette with Baby (regular blue baby) 20199 Smurf with Gargamel Mask 20205 Baby Smurf with Teddy 20217 Gown 20219 Pink Surprise Cone 20228 Fitness 20231 Hula Smurfette 20411 Azrael 20412 Bride 20413 Groom 20417 Bodybuilder (gold shorts) 20421 Smurfette with Flower 20424 Papa Hands Behind Back 20427 Caveman 20428 Cavewoman 20432 Horseman 20433 Horsewoman 20438 Mobile Phone 20439 Azrael Frightened 20449 Lead Guitar 20463 Smurf with Sandwich 20464 Studious Smurf 20466 Diver 20467 Chimney Sweep 20468 Climber 20469 Bouquet 20474 Adventurer 20501 Paul Revere 20503 Christopher Columbus 20504 Thomas Edison 20505 George Washington 40000 40th Anniversary playset 40220 School Desk 40224 Blackboard (math) 40226 Hammock 40234 Vanity 40249 Computer 40259 Schoolbench Smurfette 40260 Principal 40601 Gargamel's Lab 40623 Drum Playset 40712 School 49027 Gargamel's Castle 49001 Large house (red/orange roof) 51912 Smurfette with Candy Cane If you wish to order any of these pieces, please visit eSmurfs.com or the Smurf Shop and type the Schleich number or a keyword or two describing the piece (such as "smurfette gown," or "pink bag") and the listing will come up. Just click the "add to cart" button to add the Smurf to your shopping cart. Add as many or as few as you like, there is not minimum order. Click "Checkout" and follow the instructions on your screen to arrange for payment and delivery, it's very easy! Here is a link to the Smurf Shop: http://www.esmurfs.com/smurfs-shop.html AOL Click Here =================== 2) NEW 2001 SMURFS =================== We have also just received the last of the New 2001 Super Smurfs that were initially shipped to North America by Schleich. We have put orders in for more, as they are selling very swiftly. Please visit our home page at http://www.esmurfs.com to purchase the set of five Supers for just $30 or visit the Smurf Shop to buy them or the new 2001 figurines individually: http://search.cartserver.com/search/search.cgi?cartid=a-6296&category=Smurfs&maxhits=20&keywords=new2001 AOL Click Here ============================================ 2)SMURFY SEXISM: CREATED WITH A BIASED HAND ============================================ There have been many serious papers written exploring themes within the Smurfs such as communism or homosexuality. Here is a very interesting and well-written article on Smurfs and sexism by Mariruth Graham. "Cartoons are a highlight of a child's day. I remember waking up on a Saturday morning overcome with joy knowing that all day I would be watching my favorite television shows. Programs like "Jem", "My Little Ponies", "The Monchichis'", and my all time favorite-- "The Smurfs'", could brighten any kid s day. Now that I am more educated and less naive, I look back on that one show only to find latent sexism messages. "The Smurfs'" have only one female character, Smurfette, which creates many subtle problems. Smurfette's stereotypical physical characteristics, personal attributes, and anonymity role in the community promote inaccurate stereotypes of females. Smurfette's physical characteristics draw her as a stereotype which promotes sexism because of the prejudice messages the writers illustrate. From the moment you see Smurfette's physical features, blond flowing hair, attractive, and always in a white dress with heels. One will immediately expect her to be feminine in actions and dialogue. Studies show that children easily observe the feminine stereotypes, "North American children report that viewing sex-typed materials lead to sex-typed attitudes" (Davidson, Yasuna & Tower, 1979, Pingree, 1978). This study supports that children are impressionable and can develop attributes from television characters. In the cartoon "The Smurfs'", Smurfette always wears her hair down and when danger strikes she is forced to run in heels, is this fair? The creators of Smurfette confine her by the way she is dressed. This message is not positive for children. Smurfette's attributes, such as a tendency to worry and be silent, create subtle, but strong sexist messages. Whenever Smurfette speaks she first starts her sentence with the signal clause "Oh!" For example, she says to Papa Smurf, "Oh, I don't know how you could sleep all right! I've been worried all night!" referring to the younger smurfs spending the night outside alone. Because the writers solely choose Smurfette to endure feelings of anxiousness and concern for children's safety, they consequently draw with a biased hand. Whether the scene entails them running from Gargamel, the antagonist, or reflecting on the day in Smurf Village, the writers consistently position her next to or near Papa Smurf. In one show she silently stood facing the other smurfs adjacent to Papa Smurf while he praised their group work ethic. Visually, because Smurfette does no stand within the group of other Smurfs those watching assume she actually does not fit into the group's dynamics. When female children constantly watch Smurfette's daily routine, they subliminally accept her actions as right and tend to inherit various sexist qualities. However, when male children observe Smurfette's actions they will assume her as typical and expect other females to act and respond similarly. Smurfette does not have a specific job or title to her name; therefore others view her as insignificant. She does not have a trade or ability to bring any product to the community. Because Smurf Village resembles a communistic society, having a vocation secures a position in their communal environment. Characters such as Handy Smurf, the architect, and Jokey Smurf, the group's comic relief, all have definite responsibilities to the community and appear certain in the community. By not giving Smurfette a job or title relays the message that women should agree to any assignment the men give. Whether the task is to help save a fellow Smurf from Gargamel or take care of the adolescent Smurfs, she must rise to any and all occasions. Her unemployment directly correlates with her insignificance to the community. Particularly male children who watch "The Smurfs'" will begin to view female as subordinate and try not to embody and feminine qualities for fear of being insignificant. One study on children's television shows in Japan it suggests that children learn "being feminine is not rewarding in that it is consistently related to a loss of social power" (Rolandelli). If another smurf embodies a typically female characteristic such as concern for self-appearance, which Vanity Smurf does, or an interest in the arts, as Painter Smurf is, then the writers give them effeminate characteristics. Vanity Smurf speaks with a lisp and wears a flower behind his ear and his job seems vague which makes him insignificant as well. If "The Smurfs" theme song permanently stands in the heads of children young and old, what other characteristics of the show are, too? In order for a woman to be fairly portrayed in cartoons at this point, a feminist hand is needed. Nicole Hollander, author of a comic strip named "Sylvia", created a strong female character. Sylvia concentrates on friendships rather than relationships with men, finds no interest in politics or sports, but readers of the strip find her as a strong-willed individual with her own views about life. Consequently Smurfette wears a dress everyday; therefore, by appearance alone watchers do not see her as a serious character. Sylvia's humble and simple appearance and sharp, witty comments probably help people see her as a serious person and not just a woman. Because cartoons never get old or stop being syndicated, future writers should be more conscious as to what they write or how they draw a certain character because its actions and words affect many people throughout generations. ----------------------------------------------------- Works Cited: Davison E.S., Yasuna A., & Tower. "The Effects of Television Cartoons on Sex-Role Stereotyping in Young Girls" Child Development, 1979, p. 597-600. Pingree S. "The Effects of Non-Sexist Television Commercials and Perception of Reality on Children's Attitudes About Women", Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1978, p. 262-277. Rondelli "Gender Role Portrayal Analysis of Children's Television Programming in Japan" Human Relations, December 1991, p. 1273-99. ================================== 4) NY SMURF COLLECTOR ON METRO TV ================================== Congratulations Andrew Somer, our fellow NYC Smurf collector and fan! Andrew submitted a tape to Metro TV's new series "Hot Property" featured in the May, 2001 Smurfy News. Metro TV was seeking New York collectors and their collections - from fine art to Pez dispensers. Andrew submitted a tape and it was selected! Metro TV will feature Andrew's Smurf Collection on Sunday, Sept. 30th at 8:30 P.M. EST. Metro TV is Channel 70 on Time Warner Cable, check your local listings. We'll be watching! =================== 5) NEW SMURF CLUB! =================== I received the following e-mail recently: Hi, I have started a Smurf Collectors club in South Africa and would appreciate any updates and any information on Smurfs. Unfortunately here in South Africa Smurfs are not really popular, but there are a few of us who love them and want to keep up to date with all the Smurfy news. Regards Adrian Anema -=-=-=-=- PETE: Tell me more about your club and Smurf collecting is South Africa, my readers would love to hear it! -=-=-=-=- We are having our first Smurf Collectors Club meeting on the 13th of September. I will then send you a mail about the Club. At this stage I am the person who is running the club (self-appointed chairman). After the first meeting I will have more details for you and your readers. A later e-mail reads; "Our Smurf Club got off to Smurfing start on the 13th September. We all went out to a fish restaurant and talked Smurfs all night. I then handed each person there membership cards (What I did was, each person was able to nominate their favourite Smurf or the Smurf that best represents their personality and print it on their membership card), so my card had Beer Smurf printed on it. Currently we have 13 members, but are growing at a rapid rate. One of the members is a DJ of one of our big radio stations (94.7 Highveld Stereo). He has announced us and gave out my e-mail address, so there has been a response but not as big as I hoped for. Our biggest collection for one person is 400 Smurfs. Our next meeting will be in November/December for our annual Christmas Party. -=-=-=-=- PETE: Do you want to give me contact info? I will add your club to my Clubs list on eSmurfs.com... -=-=-=-=- Hi Pete, Thanks that will be great. Club Name: South African Smurf Collectors Club Address: P.O.Box 1332, Magallissig, 2067, South Africa Phone Number: +27 11 82 903 1090 (Cell phone) Contact person: Adrian Anema e-mail: adriana@isecure.co.za -=-=-=-=- I am glad to help spread the word Adrian, your club has been added to the eSmurfs.com Club List, available at the web site! Good Luck!! ============================= 6) SMURFY AVATARS AND ICONS! ============================= Have you seen the new look and features at the new eSmurfs.com Smurfy Bulletin Board!? The board has been upgraded and is Smurfier than ever! You can select a Smurfy Avatar to represent you and add smiles and true blue Smurfy icons to your messages like Papa, Brainy, Gargamel, Azrael and lots more with the click of a button! Participate in polls, or even start your own! Who's the coolest Smurf? What's your favorite new Super? Which promo do you want the most? These and others have been featured already, check back and see the results, or start your own! Have Smurfy Pictures you want to share? Now you can upload them to my server and attach them to your message FREE! You do not need your own server space, you don't need to be a computer geek, and you don't have to rely on some free Internet service that makes people go to their site for ads just to see your picture! This is just the beginning; there is lots more. The Smurfy Bulletin Board is THE place on the net to meet and greet your fellow Smurfers! Here's the link: http://www.esmurfs.com/cgi-bin/forum2/dcboard.cgi?az=lobby AOL Click Here! ===================== 7) TAKING SMURF PICS ===================== Creating digital pictures to post on the Internet is one of the best ways to show your Smurfs around. There are three good ways to do this- USE A DIGITAL CAMERA TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR SMURFS This has become very popular, especially as the price of digital cameras came down, and is probably the best and easiest method. Digital cameras will generate instant and ready to use digital images without having to develop film. Some models will store photos on a card or "memory stick" that must then be transferred to your computer. Others will put the pictures right onto a floppy disk that you eject from the camera and pop into your computer. USE A FLAT-BED SCANNER TO SCAN YOUR SMURFS This works surprisingly well for Smurfs and just about any other small item. Just place the item on the scanner with the side you want to show facing down on the glass. USE A TRADITIONAL CAMERA TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR SMURFS, THEN SCAN THE PRINTS If you have a flat-bed scanner, consider scanning them directly, it really will give surprisingly good results. If your scanner needs to be feed a document to scan, you can scan regular photographs. A traditional camera will require that you wait for developing, and you may get fuzzy shots and/or too small an image of the Smurfs unless you use a macro (close-up) lens. When you are using a scanner, a higher DPI setting will result in a larger final image on screen. Bigger is better. You can always reduce the size later, but you don't want to increase the size later, it will degrade the quality. I usually scan at 300 dpi, it's plenty, and results in an image far greater than life size. If you don't have a scanner, maybe a friend can scan them for you. There are also services that will develop your film right onto a floppy disk or CD, or even post them to a web page, where you can "grab" them. "OK, I GOT PICS, NOW WHAT?" This is where many people go wrong. Great pictures get attention, lousy pictures are ignored. How do you make attention-getting pictures online? Well, an important thing is how quickly your images will load. How many times have you left a page because of a slow-loading picture? That's why it is important to optimize your pictures before you put them online. Optimized pictures look good and load fast. The trick is to CROP your pictures, REDUCE your pictures, and COMPRESS your pictures. This is done in a graphics editor like "Corel." Just about every computer comes equipped with a graphics editor, or it may be provided free with a scanner or digital camera. Look each of these terms up in your editor's manual, or help menu. CROPPING PICTURES This means cutting away the border, so that all that remains is the subject. Doesn't it drive you nuts when a picture is slowly loading and there is line after line of empty space before you get to the Smurf? All that should be cut out. It makes the picture file larger, so it takes longer to load. The first line or two that comes up should begin to reveal the Smurfs themselves, not the square foot of empty table surrounding it! Do this first. REDUCING PICTURES This means shrinking down the size of the entire picture. Sometimes, cropping the picture will leave you with a small enough image. If not, use your graphic editor's reduce function to shrink it further. A smaller image has a smaller file size, and will load faster. I like approximately 300 pixels high or wide. With a single Smurf, that comes up about life-size at 800x600 resolution on a 17" monitor. If, after cropping the margins out of a photo, you are left with too small an image of the subject DO NOT use your graphic editor to increase the size! The quality of the image will degrade. Instead, reshoot the photo at a closer range, or, if you are scanning, select a higher DPI. One important thing to keep in mind is that some graphic editors will automatically resize large images when they are loaded. Make sure you are viewing pictures at 100% zoom or 1:1 ratio or you will be surprised with the "wrong" size image online when you are done. COMPRESSING PICTURES This means saving the picture file in a special format that can reduce the file size even further, without losing (much) detail. This also results in a faster loading picture. I think you get the idea here that a small file size, while retaining quality, is the key to successful Internet photos. The best format to use for Smurf pictures is the Jpeg. This is a file ending in .JPG and is an Internet standard for realistic (as opposed to iconic, or cartoonish) images online. Many digital cameras will default to Jpeg. If they do not, you want to be sure you can convert your pictures to Jpegs when you save them. The trick is to keep pictures uncompressed until you are saving it for the final time. Unfortunately, this can get a little tricky now. There is no standard for Jpeg compression. Different programs work different ways. With some, a high setting means high compression, with other programs a low setting means high compression. Check your manual or help menu for more information. Play around with saving under different compression settings, and then reload and view the saved versions to see what you can live with. The more you compress an image, the smaller the file will become. Of course there is a trade off...the higher the compression, the more detail you lose. Some programs prompt you to enter a percent, others a number from 1 to 100 or 1 to 256. Once you find the degree of compression you like you can stick with it always. It never changes, and will compress/degrade every image the same at any particular setting. To get a rough idea, try saving your image at three different compressions, the lowest, the highest, and midway. Now load the three images to compare them. KEEP YOUR MASTER IMAGE UNCOMPRESSED AND WITH IT'S OWN NAME! Once you compress an image, you cannot uncompress it! When your final version is ready, take note of its name and location on your computer, so you can find it again when you are ready to upload it! MORE TRICKS There are other tools that may improve the look of your image, such as brightness, contrast, intensity and others. Not every program has every feature, or uses the same names for the same functions, so you have to explore your program a bit. REMEMBER! It's OK to tweak a picture to make a better picture, but proceed with caution when you are looking to sell an item. It is very easy to erase damage and brighten colors with a computer! Don't misrepresent anything! NOW YOU ARE READY TO UPLOAD! You can upload your images to your own server or to a free hosting service, which typically makes it's money by forcing people to come to their site to see your pics, and then showing them ads. At the Smurfy Bulletin Board Board, you can upload your pictures for free to my server, then add your pics directly to messages on the Board to share them, or to ask for ID help! To learn how to do this, please visit the Posting Pics tutorial, located at: http://www.esmurfs.com/smurfs-postpics.html AOL Click Here! BOTH OF THESE TUTORIALS HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY BEEN ADDED TO eSMURFS.COM! ========================== 8) SMURFY NEWS GIVE-A-WAY ========================== This month's Give-a-Way prize is a copy of the Schleich book "Schlumpfe," the complete Smurf figurine book for all Smurfy fans! It is entirely in German, but is a highly sought after book as it shows each year's new production through it publication date of 1986. Lots of other cool stuff too, trust me, you want to try for this prize! Click here to submit your entry: http://www.esmurfs.com/smurfs-contest.html AOL Click Here A winner will be selected randomly from entries received and announced on the eSmurfs.com Bulletin Board located at: http://www.esmurfs.com/cgi-bin/forum2/dcboard.cgi?az=lobby AOL Click Here! GOOD LUCK!! =========== 9) CLOSING =========== You know, I meant to write about this above but forgot - eSmurfs.com is moving AGAIN! Many of you know I just moved into a new mushroom in Bayside, NY and I have decided to take an entire floor of the house which was supposed to be a rental, and convert it to eSmurfs.com! I have been working on the move for a few weeks, doing construction and building shelving, etc. I expect to make the big move on Monday, October 1st. I am anticipating that bringing eSmurfs.com back close to home will enable me to serve you better, wish me luck! I hope you enjoyed this month's issue and will follow it up by checking in with the site. Have a look around the Shop, or check out the new Bulletin Board features. http://www.esmurfs.com Have a Smurfy day now! -Pete eSmurfs.com ---------------------------- The "Smurfy News" is a free monthly e-mail newsletter published by eSmurfs.com (http://www.esmurfs.com) Joining or leaving the list is voluntary, we do not spam! Submissions are always welcome! Send them to esmurfs@esmurfs.com or hit reply now. All letters will be considered for publication unless the author requests otherwise. They may be edited for clarity and space, and we may print your first name and State or Country unless you request that we do not. All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the author. The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the opinions of eSmurfs.com. eSmurfs.com makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, about the truth or accuracy of the contents or information provided by the sponsors or by the writers. Use info contained herein at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Let the buyer beware. A stitch in time gathers no moss. Oh, and SMURF ON!!