For whom the bell trolls

Tauranga’s surprising past and present connections to the ever-popular Troll Doll.

words KARL PUSCHMANN  |  photos ALAN GIBSON

Damian Sutton.

Once upon a time, Tauranga was filled with Trolls. Hundreds of thousands of them, in all shapes and sizes, with their outrageously coloured, spikey hair and perpetually cheerful grin. Trolls were everywhere. And then one day, they were not.

This is not a child’s fairytale. This is a cold hard fact. Because despite more than 50 years of sustained popularity, not a lot of people know that Troll Dolls used to be manufactured here in the Bay. 

“The New Zealand connection started down at Sulphur Point with the company K. Pasgaard Limited,” says Damian Sutton, Katikati local and one of Aotearoa’s biggest collectors of New Zealand manufactured Trolls. “Kristian Pasgaard, his wife and two children immigrated to New Zealand with their two sons in 1959. In 1960 they got the license from Trolls creator Thomas Dam in Denmark.”

The company was one of only four Troll Doll factories in the world. There was Dam’s original factory in Denmark, one each in America and the UK, and the factory in Tauranga. As well as fulfilling children’s Troll needs here, the company also sent them abroad. Sutton reckons around 80 per cent went to Australia, and there are news reports of shipments weighing two tonnes being shipped as far as Africa.

The ’60s and ’70s were a boom time for the company. But in the ’80s interest in the Trolls began to wane and the local factory pivoted their focus to things like tennis balls and sporting equipment and ending the Bay’s 30-year association with the beloved Trolls. 

Sutton says that amongst collectors, the Tauranga-made Trolls are prized. 

“There’s a whole lot of different things that New Zealand did that the other three factories didn’t,” he explains. “Due to vinyl shortages, we couldn’t always make the ‘normal’ ones, so that’s how the weird and wonderful colours came about. They made them in four colours. We’re the only factory in the world that did that. Also, because of our sheep’s wool we have these gingery colours that the rest of the factories around the world didn’t make.”

Another interesting tidbit is that we also didn’t discriminate. Both the male and the female Troll Dolls manufactured here used the exact same mould. The only way to tell them apart was due to the Troll’s clothing.

“We’re the only one in the world that has done that,” Damian says, explaining that the female moulds used elsewhere had more “feminine ears”. 

These weren’t our only innovations. We also created strange and unusual Trolls, which were produced in limited runs and only made here. Things like Yeti Trolls (available in four different colours), Cow, Elephant and Giraffe Trolls and even Trolls that doubled as piggy banks. These have all become hot collector items.

To illustrate, he holds up a Cow Troll from his personal collection of around 1500 Trolls and says, “There’s about 10 different New Zealand cows. One of these is now $2,000 a pop.” 

He puts it down, carefully, and continues. “The locally made Yeti Trolls are worth between $200-$600 depending on colour and condition. And if you ever find a little blue three-inch Troll, they’re worth $1400.”

These Trolls are so desirable because the factory didn’t make them all year round. Production was seasonal and mostly focused on the lead-up to Christmas. 

“The New Zealand Troll has now become the most rare in the world,” Damian says. “Sadly there is not a full set in New Zealand.”

This is something that he wants to fix.

“My mission,” he states with purpose, “is to bring the New Zealand trolls home. To have a full set of New Zealand trolls so that we can see what we had in New Zealand. These are our native trolls! And people can’t see them.”

It’s an admirable pursuit and one that’s seen him connect with Trolls fans and collectors around the globe as he hunts to reunite our long-lost Trolls. His story starts aged eight, when his aunt brought him his first Troll at a craft market in Pokono. 

“I still have that one,” he smiles. “Family just continued to buy them for me. They’d arrive for Christmas or birthdays. Now I’m probably one of the biggest collectors in New Zealand. But it’s only in the last few years that I found out about the Tauranga factory.”

Despite the Troll’s massive popularity, he says that Aotearoa’s collecting community is relatively small. It mainly centres around the Facebook group, Troll Collectors New Zealand, a welcoming community of fellow Trolls lovers where people come together to share stories, and photos and buy and sell Trolls. As well as being an admin of that group he also puts on the Te Puke Toy Fair with a fellow collector twice a year. 

These days, it’s the thrill of the hunt and his mission to reunite the local Trolls that keeps him interested in collecting. But what was it that first attracted him to the Trolls? These little Scandinavian creatures that are often lovingly referred to as “ugly-cute”?

“It was the smiley face and the hair for me,” he says, thinking back. “And the constant happiness of the Troll. That’s what really drew me.”