Who would have thought that it would take as long as it has for Nasa to take inspiration from the smurfs in producing their new spacesuit. Up until now the Nasa astronauts have looked more like a Swoof like character in their orange bulky spacesuits. So in a desperate need to get with the times, the Nasa astronauts will now be wearing a more sleek spacesuit in a smurf blue colour. The cooler, more flexible blue outfits, with boots produced Reebok were designed for the Boeing Starliner space taxi.
The Swoofs were an alien race that was created by Papa Smurf using a magic potion he used to make Dreamy Smurf believe he travelled to another planet. The Swoofs are from the comic and the cartoon ‘The Astrosmurf’. In around 1973 Bully produced their own version of a swoof calling this Jungle Smurf, Ref# 20069. More recently the new Jungle Native Smurf Ref# 20783 released in 2015 has looked more like a Swoof!
Popularity of Astro Smurf was immense as both Schleich and Bully produced their own versions. First Schleich produced their version in 1969 wearing a clear plastic helmet with a white spacesuit. There is also a version of this where the white outfit has a red zip. Both of these also has his left index pointing upward. This was given the reference number 20003.
Later when Bully had the license to produce the smurfs, they made their own version of Astro Smurf in 1975/76 wearing a plastic clear helmet and a white outfit with a red square on the front. The Bully Astro Smurf has both arms outstretched.
Astro Smurfs were first sold in Australia around 1979 by BP Australia. Like the majority of smurfs first sold in Australia this smurf was made in Hong Kong by Schleich. I probably have at least twenty of these Astro Smurfs but sadly most of these have lost their helmets. If you are lucky enough to find one with it’s original helmet, ensure you display it carefully as they are very easy to break.
Astro Smurfs were last made in 1986 by Schleich. The good thing is that both the Bully and Schleich versions can still be easily found at a good price.
The thing I like the most about all of this, is that whenever a company or organisation decide to change their branding to the colour blue, people tend to make a reference to the smurfs. How cool is that!
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B