How Smurf PVCs are Made taken from the Smurf Book by Schleich.
First the artist at Schleich makes a sketch of the figure to be made,	then a sculptor takes the finished drawing and sculpts a figurine from clay or wax to make a metal mold from it for production.
once the metal mold is made, it is cleaned up and made ready for production. the mold is injected with the pvc material.	after it hardens and is set, the raw figurines are removed for cleaning and painting.
the raws are then given to a painter to finish, all the smurfs are handpainted.