Customer Reviews

Trolls (Schiffer Military History)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was very excited when this book came out,as there are only a handful of books on the subject.Upon opening this volume,however,I found a nice assortment of pictures with NO TEXT WHATSOEVER.The makers of some trolls were misidentified,such as a Nissan viking troll identified as a Dam troll.New and old dolls were mixed,with little or no info as to the decade of production.AS a collector for many years,I was SHOCKED AT HOW INACCURATE the pricing info was.Many dolls which can currently be purchased for a dollar or two were shown with grossly inflated values,while an extremely rare tailed troll was valued at only $65,a fraction of it's current worth.A notation in the front of the book by the author admitted her limited knowledge on the subject,and attributed the pricing to a friend of hers who owns an antique shop.This would seem a fairly questionable way to obtain accurate info.A little research at garage sales,flea markets and on-line auctions might have yielded more realistic estimates.While there are some nice photos,there is little else to recommend here.Both the Debra Clark and Pat Peterson guides are a better bet.

While Trolls, by Jan Lindenberger, has tons of high quality color photos, it has little else to offer to troll collectors. The majority of the book is dedicated to modern trolls by makers other than Dam. The author values these modern trolls way above their actual value, while the vintage Dam trolls that she does include are often undervalued. She mixes modern and vintage Dam trolls on the same page with little or no commentary. Many of the vintage examples are in poor condition, with no explanation of how the condition might affect the value. While she gives the size and brand of most examples, some examples have no size or an incorrect size. She includes many vintage Dam trolls in a section simply labeled unmarked trolls with no indication that they were made by Dam. In this section she prices a clearly modern troll with neon, non-mohair hair, almost three times as much as a 1960's, mohair, dam troll.

This book was pretty much a waste of money. It includes pictures of fairly common trolls, not rare ones, and very little information. You can get almost as much information about trolls by simply browsing through E-Bay and you're likely to come across more exotic trolls in the process.

the problem with most of the books on this subject, as i see it, is that most of them were written while some trolls were still in production. check the publication date in the front of the book, information amazon should provide to prospective buyers. that makes any of these books pretty much worthless in today's market in my opinion. troll dolls at that time were worth only the market values, not collector's values, such as in today's market, making the books a waste of money to collectors. i know i would not have purchased the two books i bought had i known date of publication. they are of little or no value to me.

Excellent book for collectors & those that want to remember the little trolls of yesteryear.

This is an excellent Troll Reference book, I use it all the time.