Who among us doesn’t remember the iconic Troll Dolls of our childhoods? Wild-haired, charmingly unattractive and, much of the time, stark naked, these dolls – complete with ostentatious belly buttons – were literally everywhere. They were cluttering our windowsills, crowded onto our desks and bedside tables, and hanging from our Christmas trees. Some sadists even shoved miniature Troll Dolls on top of their pencils (ouch).

There were so many of them, though, that we never dreamed they’d be worth anything when we grew up. Not actual cash money, surely. And so, as we grew older and our love for themed plastic collectables waned, we got careless. Trolls were given unflattering buzz cuts, biro tattoos, and (generally) upsetting makeovers. Some were lost in house moves, dumped in attics, or flogged at car boot sales. Others were – gulp – chucked into bin bags and sent to landfill.

And you know what? We all made a terrible, terrible mistake in writing off those bug-nosed little critters, because they’re actually making people a lot of money on eBay at the moment.

A lot of money.

That’s right: the Trolls – created by Danish fisherman Thomas Dam all those years ago – have piqued the interest of avid toy collectors online. Indeed, one of the original Troll Dolls (complete with a shock of orange hair and a wrinkly, Klingon-esque forehead) was recently priced up at £10,000 on eBay. 

Say that again with us, yeah? £10,000.

And, while this has been the highest-priced Troll on offer to date (and the huge mark-up could be a stab in the dark by a very optimistic seller, granted) there are plenty of others with eye-watering pricetags to consider.

Those who have been handed a 1977 Hawaiian Troll (complete with shirt and camera) at some point in their lives are in luck: these little beauties can pick up anywhere between £200 to £400 on eBay at the moment. The 1965 Viking Dam Troll model, similarly, sells for anything from £40 to £175 depending on condition.

‘Giant’ versions regularly rake in up to £200, with both the 1979 Henry version and the Livvy making their owners a bundle.

Meanwhile, a “rare vintage” Troll – still dressed in its original outfit – is going for £152.26. If you have a limited edition Troll (it needs the unique stamp and easily-identifiable cone-shaped head to prove its worth) to hand, you could do as this seller does and price it at £172.

Remember, though, not all Trolls are valuable today. They were produced in the hundreds of millions, therefore it tends to be the mint and rare trolls (as seen above) bringing in the high prices. So you better hope you played with yours VERY carefully when you were smaller and wilder.

But all in all, it seems a very good day to clamber into your loft/ring your mum and ask her to dig out any dusty little monsters that may be lurking there, so that you can turn them into cold, hard cash. Especially as Trolls recently came back into the public eye with a brand-new technicolour look, feature movie, and theme song (genuinely penned and sung by Justin Timberlake).

Oh yes, the Troll Dolls are very different beasts nowadays, which makes the originals even more desirable – particularly as millennials everywhere are attempting to explain what a real Troll looks like to the nieces, nephews and other small children in their lives. They need visual aids, people.

But collectors all over the world are desperate to get their mitts on your dusty old childhood relics, so that they can neatly store them away in glass cases and marvel at them for the years to come. And they’re willing to part with a nice chunk of money to do so – enough to buy you a Eurostar ticket, or something off of our Style List, or a cool new designer bag, at least.

If you reckon you have a Troll worth some big bucks, be sure to find out how much your toy is worth to a collector by checking the same or similar trolls under “sold listings”. Next, compare it to other higher selling auctions and ask yourself if it’s in a similar condition? Is your toy authentic? Does it still have the labels on? Is it still in it’s original packaging?

If it’s in mint condition then it might be worth selling it through an auction house or directly to a collectibles website. If it’s not, it’s probably worth sticking it on eBay for a moderate sum. 

Or, you know, you could carry on hoarding your Trolls until the day they’re worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, we guess. Your call…

Images: eBay / iStock