Mint in Bag 1960s Dam Troll

Toy trolls were usually sold loose during their original 1960s craze, but a few were packaged in clear acrylic cylindrical containers or, more rarely, plastic bags. This example, a seldom seen 5 1/2 inch Dam, is in beautiful, minty condition, with her red felt jumper and bright blue mohair in perfect shape. The bag labels her a "Danish Good Luck Mascot," an appellation sometimes given to early Dam trolls, particularly those sold in Europe, as this one was. She is my Absolutely Most Favorite Troll. I think she's beautiful, in her own homely way...

Troll Shanty Shack House

Here's another of the troll houses that were made for the little characters back in the 1960s. This one is the Wishnik Troll Shanty Shack, made by Ideal for Uneeda's Wishnik trolls. This was the house of choice for rural and mountain dwelling trolls who enjoyed banjo strumming.

Here's the inside, which features a cozy fire, bunk beds, and twin shotguns hanging on the wall, useful for chasing off the feuding  hillbilly neighbor trolls:

 Although I'm not really partial to hillbilly decor, the Shanty Shack does have some nice touches, like this ancestral painting on the bedroom wall:

Gumball Machine Trolls

I love vintage gumball machine prizes as much as I love trolls, so these next few items, tiny trolls sold in 1960s gumball machines, are some of my favorites.

First up are these 2 inch tall pencil toppers with yarn hair and rather frightening expressions. I keep one on my favorite pen at work, and everyone leaves it alone.

Next are my tiniest trolls: just 1 inch tall. They're cuties.

Here are a couple of interesting gumball machine troll rings, the perfect fashion accessory for the troll-inclined:

And here's my greatest gumball troll find ever: a hard-to-find-style with its original vending machine display card:

Cheerleader Trolls

Trolls dressed as cheerleaders comprised a hugely popular subset of the 1960s troll output. Some wore customized outfits for particular colleges and universities, while others sported generic "State U" costumes like these. Made by Uneeda, these Wishniks are ready to rah-rah. The larger, 8 inch version is a hard to find size.

Troll Car

Here's one of the most rarely-seen vintage troll accessories: the Troll Car made by Irwin Toys in 1965.

The 10 inch long car, sized to fit a standard 3 inch troll, is made of molded plastic in a lovely "fake log" design. It originally had a gold foil "grill" sticker on the front of the hood, that read "Irwin Wishnik REG'D T.M. of Uneeda Doll Company Incorporated c. 1965 by Uneeda Doll Company Incorporated." (Whew!) This lengthy declaration was the only such identification on the car, and unfortunately, the stickers invariably fell off. When the troll car is found today, it is almost always missing the sticker. For this reason, remaining troll cars are often misidentified as Flintstones toys (there's an eBay search hint for you).

Box 'O Troll Goodies

I almost passed over this little box when I saw it: just a shabby 1960s stationery box that probably held small greeting cards...

but something compelled me to open it, and was I ever glad I did:

Inside were a 1960s troll and her lifetime's accumulation of accessories and clothes (some homemade), all carefully stored in the stationery box 

by their original young owner. 

Packages of outfits and related accessories were sold for trolls during the 1960s craze, and the items seen here (hair curler, telephone, rolling pin and cookbook, shoes, etc.) all came from such sets. 

The tiny "baby troll" was a gumball machine prize. 

Shortly after finding this lot, I came across a matching boy troll, and he happily moved in with the lady troll.
Her 40 years of single-parenthood are now over.

Hi! Trolls

Here are two of the sweetest vintage trolls in my collection. Measuring only 2 inches tall (not counting their hair), they have pins on their backs so you can wear them, and for some reason they have "HI" spelled out in felt letters on their fronts. They're a fashion accessory and a low-tech communication device rolled into one!

 

 

Here's one of the Hi! trolls with her friend, Kampy Kiddle, a 1960s Liddle Kiddle doll. They just looked like they belonged together when I got them, and now they're inseparable.

Marx Troll Village!

Only two days ago, I was here lamenting my lack of the fabulous 1965 Troll Village Playset made by the Marx Company. Well, the toy gods have smiled upon me: I just found my Troll Village, in the online antique shop of one of my favorite dealers, and my sweetie was prevailed upon to buy it for my birthday (which is three months away, but that's close enough, in my opinion).

Doublenik Trolls

Doubleniks, the two-headed Wishnik brand trolls, are much sought by troll collectors, and tend to be much disliked by everyone else. ("Please turn those around," my friends say when they visit. "It's like they're watching us...") Strange though they may seem, Doubleniks have strong folkloric roots: multi-headed trolls feature prominently in Scandinavian tales, although their toy counterparts are less frequently seen. Here are my three, or six, depending on how you count them, all made by Uneeda in the 1960s.

 

This is my favorite, a very high-color example, 

with premium "spiral eyes" and day-glo hair.

A trippy troll! 

These two feature cotton candy and vanilla mint color schemes. 

The girls on the left wear a vintage troll dress.

  

The Doubleniks at home. It's a bit crowded.

Teddy Bear Troll

This particular 1960s troll is one of the rarest and strangest in my collection. Measuring 19 inches tall, it features a vinyl troll face on a stuffed body of synthetic fur, along with, inexplicably, a patched hillbilly type vest. It's like a psychedelic cross between a troll and a teddy bear, and for this reason is frequently called the Teddy Bear Troll. It's yet another toy that tends to disturb people. As one observer put it, "he looks like he's just waiting for you to turn away so he can attack and eat you." I keep him in a securely closed cupboard.

Marx Trolls

Here are a few unusual 1960s trolls that were made by the Marx Company. The larger 3 inch troll was called "Lucky Lou", and came in several different expressions. His tiny companions, just 1 1/4 inches tall, are from the fantabulous Marx Troll Village, a playset I have yet to acquire. You'll be the first to know when I do, though!

Here's the Marx Troll Village. Not mine, but someday, someday...

 

Batman Trolls

In the mid-1960s, Batmania swept the nation as a result of the hit TV show starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Batman iconography was extended to every product imaginable, including the contemporaneous fad toys, the troll dolls. Below are a few Batman related troll items from my collection.

First up is this large 5 1/2 inch Uneeda Wishnik Batman troll in his colorfully silkscreened costume. He retains his original, and unusual, bulging plastic eyes, but has lost his cowl and cape, which is typical for this troll.

Next we have a rather uncommon 3 inch troll wearing a one-piece winged cape and cowl. This troll is seldom seen, and it was really exciting to find one.

Conversely, here's the most commonly encountered Batman troll: a 3 incher wearing an odd red costume, perhaps to avoid licensing issues (some people call this a Robin troll, Batman's sidekick, but I don't think it looks like Robin's costume at all):

Lastly, here's my greatest Batman troll find: the Batnik Club Official Emblem, a sticky badge in the shape of a Bat Troll. Check out the highly detailed instructions for use on the back of its package! I haven't removed him yet, but it's awfully tempting...

 

 

Vintage Troll Bank

In the wake of all the financial brouhaha of recent months, it's hard to imagine friendly neighborhood bankers back in the 1960s giving out these fantastic 6 1/2 inch troll banks, imported from Denmark and bracelet-tagged with the respective bank's name. But that's just what they did. I think we'd all like bankers a little more if they gave out trolls with every transaction. Perhaps I'll suggest it to the Treasury Secretary...

Tiny Trolls

These are some of the smallest trolls made back during the troll craze of the 1960s. Sometimes vended through gumball machines, these are carded variations, measuring just under 1 inch tall.

 

 

Stuffed Troll Dolls

Two of my favorite trolls are these 11 inch dolls made by Scandia House in 1965. Unique and charming, with friendlier expressions than a lot of vintage trolls, these feature vinyl heads on cuddly stuffed bodies. Relatively hard to find, these two are made even more special by their provenance: they came from the collections of Debra Clark and Pat Peterson, authors of the two classic guides to vintage trolls, the Troll Identification and Price Guide and Collector's Guide to Trolls.

Caveman Trolls

Perhaps because of the concurrent popularity of the Flintstones cartoon, many trolls appeared in the 1960s dressed as cavemen. 

Here are a few from my collection.

 

These 3 inch Uneeda Wishniks model the two most commonly seen caveman fashions: 

the furry loincloth and the animal print wrap.

Here's a very unusual large troll, measuring 8 inches tall
and wearing his original outfit. Made by the 

Bijou Toy Company in 1963,
his name is molded into his foot: "Neanderthal Man."

He's really unique: no other trolls look quite like him!

Vintage Troll Carrying Cases

Most 1960s trolls were small, only about 3 inches tall (not counting their hair). Their size and variety made them ideal for collecting, which in turn necessitated the purchase of a carrying case, and there were many styles available. 

Below are two of my favorites, both made by the Ideal Toy Company. The first is the basic model, while the second is the much rarer deluxe version, complete with a little cave and waterfall inside. Cozy!

 

 

Another style is this carrying case made by Bunallan, cleverly called the Troll Troveling Bag. It's usually found with its cardboard clothes box missing, so this was a particularly happy discovery. It also came with its original owner's trolls, and I've kept them all together.

"Lucky Shnook" Monster Trolls

These odd trolls date to the 1960s, and were made by an unknown Hong Kong manufacturer capitalizing on the troll fad. Their scary heads have led to them being referred to as "monster" or "vampire" trolls, but the mint-in-package examples reveal their true identity: "Lucky Shnooks." Never would have guessed that one...

1960s Trolls & Houses

Toy trolls had a wide range of real estate available during their 1960s craze. Two of my favorite vintage troll abodes are the Stik-Shack, a Polynesian-inspired creation made by Ideal, and the rarely-found Troll Manor, reminiscent of a hobbit-hole, cozy and just a bit twee. 

Below, two lovely Scandia House girls wave from Troll Manor's front yard:

A tropically colored vintage Dam troll hangs out in front of the Stik Shack:

The Stik Shack opens into a beach hut, with wonderful images of jungle and surf visible through the downstairs "windows", and a fantastic "pad" upstairs:

1960s Troll Cave House

Besides the fantastic trolls, manufacturers during the 1960s craze made several wonderful troll abodes, little houses that often doubled as carrying cases. These homes were usually made of printed vinyl over cardboard or, less frequently, a particularly crispy and unfortunately fragile variety of plastic.

This posting showcases the most commonly found of the troll houses, often referred to as "the Troll Cave". While common, it is nonetheless spectacular: the outside looks like an intriguing, inviting cave mouth, while the inside depicts an uncommonly cozy cavern, complete with a carved stone hot tub, a roaring fire, and comfy chairs. The Dam trolls below look very happy living here, and I find myself wishing I could shrink down to their size so I could hang out in the cave, too...