Hasbro Blind Bag Dolls

The term Blind Bag refers to the idea of a toy hidden within packaging that is a mystery.

About

Appearance

As with every other franchise Hasbro has produced, Blind Bag Troll Dolls were made for the franchise. However, these series have changed direction several times and the type of product on offer in each Blind Bag series has varied.

The main attributes that have stood out is that these dolls are smaller than the Small range, standing two-thirds of that range at most. They're the smallest of the figurines range that Hasbro sells as a result overall. Detailing in the sculpture of each figurine is a lot more basic in addition, with details more likely to be printed onto the doll and then be part of the sculpture. Depending on the series, Hasbro has made use of color palette swapping to make cheap additions to the series. Even in later series, similar dolls often have only minor tweaks between them.

Representation of Characters

Often there is a large number of different characters to collect and overall. As a matter of fact, more characters are usually released in Blind Bag form then any other range for that franchise and several series of blind bag waves can be released within a year. For Trolls, this means characters like King Peppy, Karma or Creek, while denied releases in other ranges, have seen at least one release within a Blind Bag series.

Releases

Hasbro commonly produces these toys for their many franchises they handle due to their high profit; collectors will buy many of these in an attempt to complete an entire collection and duplication pulling is often very common. Due to the handling of the series, often there is a difference in rarity among the toys instead with odds of collecting a certain being different depending on the doll in question. As such, it is not possible for everyone buying these dolls to collect every single doll, thus making the rarer dolls more valuable then the more common, especially considering the large number of dolls seen in each series.

They are often suitable for parties as "goodie" bag toys, allow for collectors to trade dolls in an attempt to complete their sets or a cheap alternative for a parent wanting to make a child happy without much cost. It is common for these dolls to be around $3 - $5 USD, collections and other supportive sets reach between $8 - $15 new and do not usually go higher making Blind Bag toys considered a "budget" series. However, depending on luck and number of collectibles it can take between $40-$80 or higher to complete a single series set and the expenses to consumers come from attempting to complete collections, rather then odd buys.

Blind Bags are a non-compatible series most of the time. However, they're occassionally used to release small pieces for larger ranges. Here, a baby doll (far right) was scaled for use in the Small range.

Compatiblity with other ranges

Hasbro has often used their blind bags to provide extra releases for larger ranges from time to time, with the Trolls franchise being an example of this occuring (see the image at the right). As a result, although they could exist independently have times when they also overlap into other ranges; thus, they're not always a completely independent toyline.

Series

Miniature (2016-2019)

Series 1 blind bags

Main Article: Hasbro Miniature Figurines

Produced for the Trolls movie this was Hasbro's most extensive series. It is has the largest number of featured Trolls and different collectable dolls. A total of 12 series were produced that featured dolls from Trolls, Trolls Holiday, Trolls: Crazy Party Forest! and Trolls: The Beat Goes On!.

As the series went on, other supportive toys were produced to help bulk out collector collections and non-blind bag toys were also produced as a tie-in with the Netflix promotions that occurred in 2019 to go with Trolls: The Beat Goes On!.

Overlaps with the larger Small Figurines also occurred, with some critters and dolls intended to be compatible with both series being produced. The overlapping dolls mostly consist of baby and child figurines, which due to their size are able to scale with the larger range. The "Baby" figurines are slightly less detailed than the Small range babies from Trolls, but this isn't significant to render them completely incompatible. Nursery child dolls like Keith are slightly bigger but smaller than "adult" dolls. All these dolls have articulated heads in addition, but some of the "adult" dolls either lacked or had limited articulation. The only other toys compatible with the Small range are Fauna.

Tiny Dancers (2020)

Series 1 blind bags

Main Article: Hasbro Tiny Dancers

With the release of Trolls World Tour Hasbro replaced the previous blind bag series with a newer one. The releases of the Tiny Dancers was brief, but spanned 4 series within just a year.

The dolls were designed as both collectable toys and charms for jewelry.

Unlike the previous Blind Bag range, this set of figurines/charm are not compatible with other ranges.

Squad Minis (2021-2022)

Series 1 blind bags

Main Article: Hasbro Squad Minis

This is the current series of Blind Bag dolls to be released. Their based on a series of larger "Toddler Doll" released as part of their Medium range of dolls. They are based on Trolls: TrollsTopia characters and feature the Trolls as toddlers. The intention is for inventive play, while allowing them to cross over with the larger Small range figurines as "baby" characters.

The series finished in 2022, due to the loss of licensing to Mattel.