Hard to believe it; the smurfs are older than I am. They were first developed in Belgium as a comic strip, although they were called "Schtroumpf." The little blue gang first became "smurfs" when they were translated into Dutch.

I remember them as little 1.5" figures holding flowers and so on, in the stationery stores in the mid-70's. I must have been early to the Smurf bandwagon, because my friends hadn't heard of them. But a few years later, there they were on Saturday morning TV.

Who was your favorite smurf?

Wikipedia link