Is this New Zealand's biggest Troll collection?

More than 30 years ago, at a humble craft fair in Pōkeno, Damian Sutton laid eyes on a wild-haired, wide-grinned Troll doll - and everything changed.

“The smile on the Trolls, you just couldn’t walk away from it,” he says.

"I think the spiky hair, the smile, as I was growing up as a kid having bad days through my childhood, it just kept you happy. Morgan was my favourite, I had a pram for it and everything.”

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Sutton, now living in Katikati, is one of New Zealand’s biggest Troll doll collectors. Just a few years ago, while researching rare dolls, he uncovered some interesting New Zealand history.

For a brief period in the 1960s and 70s, New Zealand had its own Troll manufacturing factory, based in Sulphur Point, Tauranga. It was one of only four in the world.

Since then, Sutton has been on a quest – to track down every last one of the rare, New Zealand-made Trolls to complete his collection, including the prized Yeti Trolls.

“The Yeti Troll comes in four different colours, and we’re the only ones in the world that uses the same mold for the female and the male body.”

Sutton says the New Zealand-made Yeti Trolls were crafted from whatever vinyl we could get our hands on at the time due to shortages.

“The eyes came from Germany and Japan, and we couldn’t get enough of certain colours, so we’re the only ones in the world that have the bright blues and pinks. Any other vinyl that we could find from around the world, we’d make a Troll out of it.

“We’ve got some very rare ones that no other factories made.”

Sutton’s collection began with the Pōkeno doll and grew with the 1990s Russ Berries, Wishniks, and whatever he could pick up at the $2 dollar shop.

A few years ago, while researching rare Trolls from around the world, Sutton discovered the story of how the Tauranga-factory came to be.

It all began with a Danish designer called Thomas Dam, who invented the original Troll doll after losing his job at a flour mill.

“He couldn’t afford presents for his children, so he actually carved a Troll out of wood for his daughter for Christmas and that’s how it all started.

"Then he started doing it more commercially and he got a big contract to carve a wooden tree into a toy store, and he decided that the tree wasn’t enough, so he had little wooden trolls on a spring bouncing up and down.”

By the late 1950s, Dam launched his first vinyl Troll, the Sawdust Troll, and began licensing them globally. In 1963, Kristian Pasgaard got the green light to start manufacturing the dolls in Tauranga.

For years, the factory made all sorts of Trolls – they had colourful hair, deep sunken eyes, wide grins and unique outfits. New Zealand was also responsible for creating some strange and unusual dolls made in limited runs, including Elephant, Giraffe, and Cow Trolls.

“The animals themselves, they only made around certain periods of the time. They weren’t all year around, so they were made mainly around Christmas time for families.

“The Giraffe came in one colour, the Elephant came in seven different colours. Recently, I bought a Thomas Dam Elephant Troll in a light blue colour from Denmark that cost me five grand to return back to New Zealand. There’s only three of those in the world and I’m the only one in New Zealand with that colour.

"There’s also seven different cows, including a very rare blue one with orange hair, which I’ve only seen one of in the world, and there’s also a Lion which I don’t own yet.”

Sutton reckons about 80 percent of the New Zealand-made dolls were exported to Australia, so he’s got a fair bit to track down before he can complete his collection.

"I've got about 1500 Trolls now and I'm looking for five Elephants, five rare Cows, and one small Troll at the moment.

"My collection has grown a lot since I was eight."