Empire Gnomes and Lucky Little Leprechauns

On page 301 of the Der Schlumpf Katalog IV you will find some gnome-like figures which are sometimes confused with smurfs.

The Gnome Family were produced by a company called Carolina Enterprises Inc., Tarboro, NC, USA in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The advertisement left is dated 1978 and includes the Lucky Little Leprechauns which were a later addition to complement the Empire Gnome family.

You could collect these individually or with special playsets and they were marketed as little lucky pieces! Recent eBay auctions suggest a rise in popularity in these figures which have obvious similarities to the Smurfs.

For more information please visit this My Space page, it's devoted to Empire Gnomes.