[1] The Toy Dolls' songs expressed a sense of fun, such as "Yul Brynner Was a Skinhead", "My Girlfriend's Dad's a Vicar" and "James Bond Lives Down Our Street", and songs titles often use alliteration, such as "Peter Practice's Practice Place", "Fisticuffs in Frederick Street", "Neville Is a Nerd", and "Quick to Quit the Quentin".
Covers have included "Blue Suede Shoes", "Toccata in Dm", "No Particular Place to Go", "Sabre Dance", "Livin' La Vida Loca", "Lazy Sunday", "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", "She's So Modern" and "The Final Countdown".
Most of the band members have nicknames, and are rarely seen without their cartoonish rectangular sunglasses (although they appeared bare-eyed on the One More Megabyte album cover).
After just a few gigs, Zulu left to form his own band and was replaced by Paul "Hud" Hudson on vocals for one concert.
After Hud's departure, the Toy Dolls became a trio, with guitarist Olga assuming permanent vocal duties.
Flip left in 1983, marking the beginning of a revolving door of drummers and bassists that would characterise the Toy Dolls line-up over the years (with Olga as the mainstay and only original member).
In 1980, a Sunderland businessman financed the Toy Dolls' debut single, "Tommy Kowey's Car" with "She Goes To Fino's" on the B-side.
After a gap of fourteen years since their last gig in Britain, 2007 saw a string of UK dates taking in cities from Glasgow to London, including a "homecoming" for a show at Durham University.
To celebrate the band's twenty-fifth anniversary in 2004, the official biography, The Toy Dolls: From Fulwell to Fukuoka, was published by Ardra Press.
[3] For their thirtieth anniversary in October 2009, the band received congratulatory messages from a selection of musicians, including Baz Warne from the Stranglers, TV Smith from the Adverts, Jake Burns from Stiff Little Fingers, and NOFX manager Kent Jamieson.
[4] The Toy Dolls live shows consist of synchronized choreography, timed moves, dances, jumps, and spinning guitars.