This is how troll dolls were created:
Originally created in 1959 by
Danish fisherman and woodcutter
Thomas Dam,
[2] the dolls became popular in several European countries during the early 1960s, shortly before they were introduced in the United States. Dam, a poor woodcutter, could not afford a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila and carved the doll from his imagination. When other children in the Danish town of Gjol saw the Troll Doll, they wanted one as well and Dam began selling them locally. The originals, also called
"Dam Dolls", were of the highest quality, featuring sheep wool hair and glass eyes. Their sudden popularity, along with an error in the copyright notice of Thomas Dam's original product, resulted in cheaper imitations and knock-offs which flooded the American and North American shelves.
These imitations, also known as Uneeda's
Wishnik Trolls,
Treasure Trolls,
Gonks,
Norfins, and other trade names, commonly shared the signature tall hair, lovable face and pot belly. It was not until 2003 that a Congressional law allowed the Dam family of Denmark to restore their original U.S. copyright and become the only official manufacturer once again. A division of Uneeda, a company that made millions of dollars various times by manufacturing Troll Dolls in the U.S., challenged the restoration of that copyright in court. They lost when the court ruled that the Dam Company was the sole owner.
[3]Many people collect trolls; the originals maintain the highest value. Some collectors have thousands of troll dolls, ranging in size from miniature gumball machine prizes and pencil toppers to dolls over one foot tall.
[edit] Pop cultureThe fan base of trolls has been acknowledged and prominently featured on the TV sitcom
The Drew Carey Show, in which one of the characters, Drew's nemesis Mimi, collects them and keeps them on her desk at work. Another troll lover is Joy Miller from the movie
The Beautician and the Beast; she is a beautician who is interested in making new hair styles for her trolls. A troll doll is also featured in the
Toy Story movies but neither talks nor plays a significant role because of questions at the time regarding the doll's "
public domain" status, which would eventually return ownership by the Dam family. The trolls are also seen in the movies
The Borrowers,
Tank Girl,
Whore,
54,
Over the Hedge,
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and
Snow Day, the television series'
King of the Hill,
Gomer Pyle, USMC,
Living Single,
The Nanny,
Friends,
Step by Step,
7th Heaven,
The Treehouse Trolls,
The Simpsons (episodes "
Flaming Moe's", "
Bart's Girlfriend" & "
I Am Furious Yellow"), a troll figurine also has a brief cameo in
The Office and the album
The Bathroom Wall by
Jimmy Fallon.
[edit] 1990s and beyondDuring the doll's period of popularity in the early-mid 1990s, several attempts were made to market the concept to young boys. This included
action figure lines such as the Troll Warriors,
Battle Trolls,The Trollies Radio Show, which was a VHS of singing trolls doing such hits such as
Kokomo By the Beach Boys,
Wooly Bolly and
Do Wa Ditty.
Stone Protectors (which also had a brief
animated series), and even
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Trolls. The popular
Mighty Max line also had a series named
Hairy Heads, also known as Dread Heads. Success at these endeavors was marginal at best. Treasure Trolls were also marketed through other merchandise like T-shirts and even a
gummy candy. A
platform computer game was released in 1993 on
Amiga and
PC. Other games were released for the
NES and
SNES. This
fad capitalization even saw a 1994 re-release of
Dudes with Attitude simply modified into
Trolls from Treasure Island.
In 2005, trolls were modernized in an
animated series called
Trollz, which stars five trolls who live in a world of ogres, gnomes, dragons, and a bit of magic, but who have the same problems to deal as teens everywhere: boyfriends, pimples, clothes, money, school, and figuring out what it means to grow Trollish. The new Trollz campaign made no impact in the aisles of toy stores and on America's children. It was soon dropped. In 2007, the Danish company filed a lawsuit against DIC Entertainment claiming that the company financially misrepresented its ability to create and market a modern troll doll toy campaign and destroyed the image and goodwill of the legendary doll.
[4] I found this on wikipedia.
Sat Nov 09, 2013 12:13 pm by helpingfriend
Subject: Troll Dolls 
