Troll dolls were created by
Danish fisherman and woodcutter
Thomas Dam. Dam was initially a baker, but when flour supplies suffered, he sought numerous other jobs, including fishing and selling logs. Whenever he was home, he would carve little wooden figures depicting various mythical creatures for his children. Eventually he started selling the toys, and by 1956 was developing larger figures for department stores throughout Scandinavia. In 1959, Dam opened a factory, Dam Things Establishment, and began producing the dolls out of rubber; in 1961 they switched to using
PVC plastic and made the dolls in various sizes They became popular in several European countries during the early 1960s, shortly before they were introduced in the United States. They became one of the United States' biggest toy fads from the autumn of 1963 to 1965. The originals were of the highest quality, also called
Dam dolls and 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. The Dam company never stopped its production of trolls in Denmark, where they were always a popular item. In the late 1980s, the Dam trolls started making another comeback in North America. E.F.S. Marketing Associates, Inc. was one of the few corporations granted permission to import and market the Thomas Dam trolls for resale in the United States. These Dam Trolls were marketed under the trade name of Norfin Trolls, with an "Adopt A Norfin Troll" logo on the tags. During the period of popularity in the early to mid-1990s, several attempts were made to market the troll dolls to young boys. This included
action figure lines such as
The Original Battle Trolls from
Hasbro, the
Stone Protectors franchise, and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Trolls. The popular
Mighty Max line also had a series named
Hairy Heads, also known as Dread Heads. In 2003, the Dam copyright was restored by the
Uruguay Round Agreements Act. The Uneeda Doll Company, a company that made millions of US dollars by manufacturing troll dolls in the U.S., challenged the restoration. The US
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the lower court's
preliminary injunction, enjoining Uneeda from manufacturing, distributing, or selling "Wish-nik" troll dolls. The
Toy Industry Association named troll dolls in its Century of Toys List, a list of the 100 most memorable and most creative toys of the 20th century. In 2005, Dam licensed the trolls to
DIC Entertainment as
Trollz. With this, the licensing campaign saw the troll dolls being pushed towards young girls, featuring products such as
fashion dolls and fashion accessories. The campaign failed and eventually lead into a lawsuit. In 2007, DIC sued the Dam company, claiming that they alleged claims of fraud in the inducement and negligent misrepresentation in connection with Dam's troll doll, and DIC's
Trollz, which was created after DIC licensed the brand from Dam. Dam counter-sued DIC, 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 doll. In 2013,
DreamWorks Animation acquired the intellectual property for the Trolls franchise from the Dam Family and Dam Things and became the exclusive worldwide licensor of the merchandise rights, except for Scandinavia, where Dam Things remains the licenser. == In entertainment ==