The dolls were first created in 1956 or earlier and were larger and made from a softer, more rubbery material than the smaller versions that became popular in 1959,[2] before becoming one of the United States' biggest toy fads in the early 1960s.

In 2003, the Dam company restored the United States copyrights for the trolls, stopping unlicensed production.

Dam was initially a baker, but when flour supplies suffered, he sought numerous jobs, including fishing and selling logs, and whenever he was home, he would carve little wooden dolls depicting various mythical creatures for his kids, especially his daughter Lila.

Eventually he started selling the toys, and developing statues for department stores throughout Scandinavia, but in 1959 could not afford a Christmas gift for his young daughter Lila and there carved a shock-haired bug-eyed troll doll from his imagination.

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.

During the period of popularity in the early to mid-1990s, several attempts were made to market the troll dolls to young boys.

[18] In 1992, DIC (who would later produce Trollz in 2005) released a half hour special called Super Trolls.

[19] In that same year, a direct-to-video sing-along special was released titled The Trollies Radio Show, with puppet trolls singing somewhat dated hits such as "Kokomo", "Woolly Bully", and "Do Wah Diddy", as well as some original songs.

Zok broke into the castle and reached for the crystals only to see them explode into pieces and fly to the Earth.

[21] It was directed by Mike Mitchell and co-directed by Walt Dohrn, with Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake providing the voices of Poppy and Branch.

[22] A sequel, Trolls World Tour, was scheduled for theatrical release on April 10, 2020, in North America.

[25] A platform video game simply titled Trolls was released in 1993 for Amiga, DOS, and Commodore 64.

In yet another Fox show, Family Guy, Peter Griffin transformed into a wishing troll.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord gives Yondu a troll doll in place of the Power Stone, much to the latter's delight.