Thomas Dam [Father of the Trolls]
The Troll Dolls were originally made to look like human babies, and were loosely based on the mythical trolls. The first Troll doll was a wood carving by Thomas Dam, a woodworker and fisherman who made the doll for his deeply upset daughter as a means of cheering her up. Dam later opened up a factory that sold the dolls during the 1960s.
These dolls have a more "sculpted" look compared to all later licensed Trolls, with more realistic features and often more varied appearances and poses, with overall a strickly more human-esque design. Part of this was because these dolls were produced as mostly collectibles, and therefore many dolls received much individual focus to stand out from each other; This is compared to later dolls, which were marketed more for play.
Originally, the dolls were made of rubber with wood shavings imbedded and hair made from sheep skin. This switched to plastic when production increased in the 1960s, as it was more endurable. The dolls had the traditional tan skin and usually brown colored eyes along with single hair color, save the two-headed dolls (as each head had a different color hair). Although the doll's hair could be any color, the oldest series favored more natural colors (white, black/brown, etc.), further made realistic with the texture from the sheep skin.
The later series also had other colored eyes (though Dam Things tended to favor natural human-like colors). The dolls were of both humanoids and animals. The dolls generally considered to be worth money to collectors, come from this era.
The dolls in this series often had the title of "Gonk Toys", "Gonk" referring to a type of egg-shaped doll that was covered in fuzz and became popular after World War II in European territories such as the United Kingdom. The term "gonk" itself refers to a type of goblin or fairy, which gonk toys draw their name from. They also went by the name of "Norfin Trolls" or in English "Gonk Trolls" or "Good Luck Trolls" (in later decades), or referred to as "Dam Trolls".
[Thomas Dam died of cancer in 1989, just before the Trolls craze of the 1990s begun.]
Dam never stopped making the dolls, and in the late 1980s, they saw a worldwide explosion of popularity. In the United States, the dolls were licensed under the name of "Russ" or "Russ Troll Dolls" by the company 'Russ Berrie and company Ltd'. Russ Berrie and company Ltd, were a successful gift company worth more the $100 million by 1983 and worked to sell "impulse buy" gifts. The production of Troll Dolls, one of its oldest products it had handled since the 1960s, lifted the company after the dolls suddenly saw a boost in popularity and by the end of their first year (1992) the company was worth more than $300 million, boosting the stock of the company which had seen a stock profit value loss for several years. Russ in turn handled the global distribution to other companies, and the dolls were distributed across Great Britain aEurope by other companies Russ had distribution agreements with.
Rainbow Troll
One of the most successful lines was the "Rainbow Trolls", which were Trolls with multicolored hair (traditionally, Troll hair was mono-colored). Between all of their variations, millions of Troll Dolls were sold, making them one of the most popular dolls of their era. During this era, Dam Things started to use the term "The Original Good Luck Trolls" to refer to their particular dolls, to note "They were the original Good Luck Trolls" and all others were fakes.
One of the most notable changes was to the size of the dolls, with these dolls being typically much smaller and having similar or near-identical looks. This gave rise to the standard "Troll Doll" appearance that became a familiarity within even the Trash Can Trolls card series, mocking them with a pair of "Generic Troll" cards: "28a GENERIC ERIC" and "28b NO FRILLS FRANK".
Due to the issue with copyright on "Trolls" in the 1990s, other companies decided to cash in on the popularity, there was also an issue with Russ Berrie and Company, Ltd itself, and the Dam Things company lost much of the profit from sales of Troll Dolls, despite the dolls selling millions of units. The situation also made identifying legit and illegit Troll Doll companies impossible at times for consumers.
This led to many Troll dolls by other companies during the craze in the 1990s as just about anyone could make a "Troll Doll" without Dam Things being able to halt the process. The counterfeits were attempts by the companies to cash in on the Troll Doll craze, since there was nothing stopping companies from producing toys and dolls with the "Troll" appearance.
There was also an animated short based on two toylines called "Magic Trolls & the Troll Warriors", as well as a live-action show called "Trollies Radio Sing-a-long", both of which were created in 2012 to exploit the craze. There was also "Super Trolls" and later a video game. At this point despite the number of counterfeits and animations, the craze was already dying with Russ having lost 37% of its earnings in 1993 from its previous year. Among the animations over this early 90s period were the Norfin Adventures, which were made 1993-1994 and were direct to VHS.
The company went through a 10-year battle over licensing. Dam's company Dam Things managed to sort the copyright issue and the "Troll Company" was created to handle global and USA licensing and marking of Troll Dolls, but this had the side effect of halting the flow of Troll dolls worldwide. Thus, this was also the reason for the sudden drop in popularity of the Troll doll in the second half of the 1990s, as companies could no longer flood the market with knock-off versions. At this point, "Good Luck Trolls" became the licensed name indefinitely of the Troll Dolls and all other names were dropped in favour of the licensed name.
There was also reports of a cancelled film and video game in the mid-late 1990s.
Due to their popularity, other Troll-like toys based on the Troll dolls continued production up until, and even after, DreamWorks aquired the Trolls licensing. However, because of the copyright issue being resolved, they rarely use the name "Troll". For example, the Zelfs have a name based on Elves, another mythical creature. They have an obvious design that alludes to the Troll Dolls, but base the design of animals.
In 2005, an attempt was made to bring back Trolls with a TV series named Trollz, but ended up being unsuccessful. DiC launched "Trollz" after acquiring the license from the Troll Company to relaunch and rebrand the "Good Luck Trolls" for a modern audience, as well as handle licensing for "Good Luck Trolls".
DiC itself folded and was taken over by the Cookie Jar Group, who in turn later were taken over for WildBrain (formerly DHX Media). Trollz was one of the properties listed as having contributed as part of the reason for the poor performance of DiC at the time, citing that license had performed poorly and cost the company a $2.3 million provision coverage cost, DiC had expected a high level of consumer production-consumption which had not been met. The licensing ended after DiC and the American "Good Luck Trolls" company came into issues over counterfeit dolls and DiC sued the Troll Company for not fully disclosed the impact of counterfeits to DiC, though DiC knew about the issue when they acquired the license. The company had seen a loss of $10 million from the previous year, making the loss from properties such as Trollz very impacting on its finical failings.
These dolls were based on fashion dolls and had a much slimmer appearance compared to traditional appearances. While it was common to re-use dolls of common characters, the series mostly abandoned the generic Troll Doll idea, with distinction given to dolls of characters. Until the later Fashion dolls by Hasbro in 2020-2022, these were the only dolls released that reframed from using the classic Troll Doll design.
As well as the slim build, their had hair styled in a particular hairstyle and each doll was based upon a single color scheme. The characters were all named, which was unlike the majority of past dolls, being each named after gemstones based upon their color and barely surnames which were Troll-puns. The dolls incorporated the Wishstones of "Treasure Trolls", and the Wishstone "magic" was kept but altered for the TV series and dolls "lore".
The toy company that produced the dolls was Hasbro, making it their first licensing with official Troll Dolls, though this was not their first "Trolls" toyline, as Hasbro had produced their own unlicensed doll line previously called The Original Battle Trolls.
Dark Horse Comics released a series of blind bag Troll Dolls that were licensed for sale in 2012, with the second release in 2013. These dolls mostly have gone under the radar due to their short run, and were the final release of dolls at the time of sales of their second series. Part of the reason for the company's short-run with "Good Luck Trolls", was owed to the licensing bid from DreamWorks at the time.
These dolls are brightly colored with variations of skin and hair, among which there are flocking and metallic textures. These dolls used the common generic Troll doll design in addition without variation. Though the design was similar enough to the dolls of the 1980s and 1990s, they were not the same design.
As licensed dolls, they carried the name of "Good Luck Trolls".
A year after the failure of Trollz, DreamWorks started the process of making their own Trolls brand by filing several trademarks. At the time, Dam Things had looked for a Hollywood movie company to help produce a licensed movie or film, they were met with huge interest. However, DreamWorks managed to secure the interest of the company and talks began in terms of licensing. However, rather than acquiring a license to produce a movie, other events happened that led DreamWorks to acquire more than just the licensing. They began to conceptualize the now abandoned Trolls film as a licensed tie-in with the Trolls franchise, at this point, DreamWorks was working under license to Dam's company as normal. However, much of the project's nature would change in 2010, when they began the process of actually acquiring the Dam Things "Good Luck Trolls" trademark in almost its entirety.
In 2013, DreamWorks officially announced that they had bought the full rights to "Trolls" from Dam's company for an undisclosed price; this allowed them to make Trolls dolls everywhere except the Scandinavian region, which Dam's company still has the rights over. No more non-DreamWorks licensed "Good Luck Trolls" were released from 2013 onwards. In 2016 they released Trolls, with merchandise alongside the "DreamWorks Trolls" brand and now both "DreamWorks Trolls" and "Good Luck Trolls" are owned by DreamWorks as part of the "Trolls" franchise name. The "DreamWorks Trolls" brand having established its Trademarks in its current form from 2014 onwards, while "Good Luck Trolls" establishing itself from 2015 onwards. Both are regarded as DreamWorks "Trolls" brand, but continue to be treated as separate entities.
Similar to the Dark Horse Comics dolls, the DreamWorks Trolls dolls have a mixed variation of colors, but draw influences from older productions, including Trollz and the original 1960s dolls. There are also references to the Trash Card Trolls within the series, though they're much more toned down than their original releases. Focus is on a handful of character dolls, but generic Troll Dolls do exist based on the DreamWorks design of Trolls, and the Pop Trolls are considered the closest Tribe to traditional "Troll Dolls" in design, while Funk Trolls are based on a giraffe doll from the 1960s. Additionally, Guy Diamond was modeled on a naked version of that era's dolls, be it without clothing.
In addition, DreamWorks handles the global sales of "Good Luck Trolls", which continue to maintain the 1980s and 1990s "look" that Troll Dolls typically became associated with, all dolls baring this appearance are counted by DreamWorks as part of this brand name. "Good Luck Trolls" continues currently to remain a toy-only brand with no current plans for expansion being known from the company.
Prior to the release of Trolls World Tour, Trolls was worth "$700 million" and was back to being a successful brand name. From 2020 onwards, all merchandise related to Trolls, both "DreamWorks Trolls" and "Good Luck Trolls" carry the "Troll" mark.
DreamWorks has other trademarks for specific Troll branding, but they're currently not in use, such as Color Mood Trolls and Trolls: Party Ever After. Both the Treasure Trolls and the Rainbow Trolls families from the Trolls movie era are named after classic toylines.
Dam Things ceased to maintain much of their original global licensing of "Good Luck Trolls" name post-2012, owed to DreamWorks now taking over the license and mostly focused on the history of Trolls Dolls, rather than production after DreamWorks has purchased the license, letting DreamWorks mostly handle the Trolls production. The continued legacy of Thomas Dam's company and Dam Things is held by his children and their families post his death in 1989. Dam Things is currently headed by Niel Dam.
Troll projects and licensing are still occurring with the approach the company takes being more geared towards traditional styles and artistic Trolls. The company has also been known to be involved with fundraising for Cancer research. The nature of the Dolls sold currently is different to that of DreamWorks Trolls, and DreamWorks own version of the "Good Luck Trolls", as Dam Things "Good Luck Trolls" carry the mark of Dam Things and now are purely marketed as collector's items, rather than toys. The dolls, therefore, often have a more artistic "look", with many have a sculpted appearance, and are often varied in contrast to the traditional Dam Things Troll Dolls of the past.
They continue to cooperate with DreamWorks in the promotion and distribution of the Trolls franchise, and both companies have run special promotions related to "Good Luck Trolls" globally and in Europe. Despite being by Dam Things, many of these dolls still carry the "DreamWorks" logo due to them holding the overall "Good Luck Trolls" license including joint copyright ownership.
TROLLS
