Life of Wry

Just to finish this story off…

Recall I found a tiny troll last week.  I stashed him away, forgot about him, found him, cleaned him up a little and he’s been sitting on my desk ever since.  Longer version here.

Well, this whole troll thing got me a little nostalgic, having gone through a major troll phase as a kid. I did a little research and learned that these trolls had come on the market in 1963 and completely swept the nation, becoming the must-have doll for baby boomer kiddos like me. The craze lasted only a couple of years, but it hit me at the peak of my own doll mania; I was 7 at the time and pretty much went apeshit over trolls.  I had lots (and lots) of them, like everyone else I knew, and built entire shoe box compounds for them to live and play in.  High times, for sure.

So, I decided I needed to buy a real one for old times sakes, and began a search.  Turns out, they aren’t that hard to find.  You can get big ones on Amazon (like the 6″ ones) but I wanted one of the 3-4″ ones, since that’s the kind I played with. On Ebay you can find just about everything imaginable which I found too overwhelming.

Eventually, I turned one up on Etsy (“the world’s handmade marketplace”). It had the color hair I wanted (royal blue) and seemed less adorned than most (she, I think she’s a she, was wearing a simple red felt cave woman dress). I had to join Etsy to place my order, which I did and now I’m a member of that community.

Bonus!

I placed the order and a little while later got an Etsy Conversation from the woman who was selling this troll.  Obviously she didn’t make the troll, but I guess she must have made the dress.  Here’s what she said:

Hi Kari,

First of all, I am proud to provide
your first purchase on ETSY.
Welcome to this great community,
I am sure this will be the first of
many great purchases here!

Thank you for visiting my store,
and I am happy you found your
troll. She/he/it is SO excited to be
relocating to sunny Davis. [After the
snowstorm here on Saturday, she
just jumped into the package and
is ready to go. She only needs her
red felt tunic, very low maintenance…..

She will be winging to your home
via first class [mail] with insurance
for her value. Her estimated date
of arrival is just in time to join you
for your Saturday evening plans,
more or less.

Thank you, and

Best wishes,
Barbara

This was the start of a number of back and forth communications, equal parts silliness and professionalism.  And, three days after placing my order, the package arrived today, from New York. The outside of the package had flower stickers on it.  Inside was a gift wrapped box. I tore off the wrapping paper and found the troll packed in a beautiful, sturdy homemade box with a button on top (very cool and I’m sure will come in handy for something). Inside that was my new troll plus two bags of peppermint tea (nice touch).  Barbara and I exchanged another round of Etsy Conversation and that was that.

So now I have two trolls (and a neato box and some tea).  And they’re a pleasure to look at (yes they are!).

I’ll forgo the shoebox compound this time around.