You Know You Have Too Many Toys When...

You know you have too many toys when...you buy something you already have, because you didn't realize you already had it.

I recently was thrilled to win this vintage 1960s Batman Viewmaster reel set, complete with original package and story booklet, on ebay:

When it arrived, I gleefully headed to my "toy storage room", aka, my second bedroom, in search of my Viewmaster, where I discovered this:

a box FULL of vintage Viewmaster reels I didn't even remember I owned, with, resting prominently on the top, the 1960s Batman set.

So, if anyone needs a 1960s Batman Viewmaster reel set, complete with original package and booklet, drop me a line, and I can hook you up...

The Fashionable Ladies

The three little trolls below are some of my favorites. They look like fashionable "society" ladies, heading off for an afternoon of lunch, shopping, and ogling the pool boy. The girl on the left was made by one of the many unknown 1960s troll makers, while her two friends on the right are by Scandia House.

Troll Fashionistas.

Rooted Hair Troll

Most 1960s trolls had their hair affixed with glue: it was quick, which meant it was cheap to do. Time-consuming and thus more costly was the rarely seen alternative method of individually rooting each hair (just like a doll's hair). Trolls with rooted hair are hard to come by. I have only one, this 3 inch girl below with long salt & pepper locks. If you look closely, you'll see a little ridge above her brows, where the hairs have been individually rooted.

 She's special, and she knows it!

Unique Hair Troll

Scandia House made some of the most beautiful trolls of the 1960s. They're notable for their luxurious 'dos: big, BIG poufs of gorgeous mohair. I read somewhere that at the height of the 1960s troll craze, an entire year's production of Icelandic mohair was purchased by troll manufacturers. That's a heck of a lot of troll hair! Anyway, this girl has some of the most unique mohair I've ever seen on a troll: it actually has a frizzly wave to it, and, being undyed, it reveals its natural tint, varying from gray to ivory. She wears a vintage troll dress in a fashionable '60s print.

Stylin'!

The Bloo Family

One of the highlights of toy collecting is finding a group of toys that have remained together since they were packed up by their original child owner. It's interesting to see what children liked to keep together, and how they played with and stored their toys. Some of my oldest such finds date back to the 1890s (a doll trunk full of bisque dolls, their furniture, accessories, and tea sets).

One of the quirkiest is much more recent: a group of 1960s trolls, found inside a vinyl troll house, where they had been carefully stored by their original owner. Said child was clearly a very tidy and color-coordinated kid: her trolls were selected for the way their hair and clothes complemented each other. I call them "The Bloo Family". They're in minty shape too: this child was clearly a neat freak.

Mrs. Bloo is a 3 1/2 inch troll by an unknown maker. She has white mohair and wears a vintage felt troll dress and hair bow. Mr. Bloo, besides being a nudist, is a '64 Dam with a fantastic shock of blue mohair, and their daughter is a tiny 2 inch Scandia House pencil topper.

This guy, also blue of course, was in the case with the family of trolls above. I call him "The Bloo Family's Crazy Uncle, Who Lives in the Attic".