Hasbro Small Figurines/Trolls World Tour

In 2020 and 2021, Hasbro produced a number of figurines and sets for the release of Trolls World Tour.

These figurines are the fifth series of the Hasbro Small Figurines range. They're noted for being the biggest overhaul to the range, with many changes to how the figurines looked in general. This didn't just include the Troll Dolls themselves; the main new type of accessory in this series were those based on musical instruments; previously, despite Trolls being a musical franchise, no instruments had been released, though there were exceptions such as headsets and microphones. However, some of the changes made by Hasbro to the range resulted in negative consequences on the small range, and remains to date one of the most concerning issues with their handling of the Trolls World Tour release.

Appearances

The series focused on Trolls World Tour in 2020, with the first wave of toys being sold in March 2020 and the final one due for May 2021.

So far, models have been produced for Queen Poppy, Branch, Cooper, Queen Barb, Tiny Diamond, Satin & Chenille, King Trollex, Sheila Balloon, Biggie & Mr. Dinkles, Cloud Guy, Delta Dawn and Queen Essence.

Misc. models include a female Techno Troll mermaid, a Classical Troll, baby Cooper , a baby Techno Troll, a young Rock Troll, and the usual assortment of critters.

A large number of the movie's characters didn't receive figurines, including, but not restricted to Prince D, Legsly and Guy Diamond.

Sculptures

Most models have a sense of scale, such as King Trollex being taller than the Mermaid Techno Troll from the "Basic" set. However, similar to the previous model scale, size can be off. All "child" models are scaled taller than how they actually appear in the Trolls World Tour movie.

These figurines tend to be made in Vietnam, whereas past Trolls-era figurines were made in China. They also lack the Troll head stamp that was present on the left heel of the Trolls-era dolls.

New Figurines

Named Characters

• Queen Poppy - has several new body mould including her "basic", "Lonesome Flats", Rock and Grand Finale. She's the most common character in the series, having a release for every set. Her "basic" mould is the most common one for this series.
  • Her "Rock" outfit was unique and was not reprinted for any other release.
  • Her "Lonesome flats" mould was used 3 times, with one being re-coloured for he mini-figurines release. Her "basic" mould was used for all other releases.
• Branch - has two new body moulds, "basic" and "Lonesome Flats".
• Queen Barb - has two new character body moulds, "basic" and "Grand Finale". The "Basic" mould is used for the majority of the line up. The Grand Finale design is a unique mould and was not reprinted in any other part of the line up. Though Barb can turn her head, due to her pose her head movement is limited compared to other dolls.
  • A small number of changes were made between models. Though the head is the same for both models, Grand Finale Barb has multicolored hair and her body is of a different design with the same pose. Her left hand has been posed so she's capable of holding a mic (not included in any release with Barb's models). Her eye shadow is darker in her Grand Finale design and has been added using a halftone method, whereas her normal design has a slight grey shade around her eyes that is barely visible. Her skin and eyes are slightly bright. Her hairline is now darker; the stripes in her close-cut hair either side of her mohawk were drawn on originally in her original model, whereas in the Grand Finale version they're left unprinted, which is more accurate to Barb's design. Another minor difference is that on the original model the copyright details and production print codes were found on either side of her mohawk; they're now on the back of her head and her mohawk no longer extends so far down the back of her head. Overall, the Grand Finale doll has far less hair than the "basic" one had.
• Cooper - has a new "basic" mould that would used for all future releases, as well as a new character baby mould, which is a bobblehead. Similar to his past Trolls-era sculpture, the basic mould can't move its head.
  • Cooper's "baby" model was later remoulded for use in the Squad Minis series.
• Satin & Chenille - both have new "basic" character moulds with different poses to previous releases.
• King Trollex - is a new character mould used for all of his releases. This model is notable for having a very stiff neck that needs to be carefully loosened.
• Delta Dawn - is a new character mould, which is used for all her releases. The mould is a "fuzzy" type, and has fuzzy hair and light amounts of glitter on its body.
• Hickory - is a new character mould, based on his country disguise with Dickory. He has a plastic body, but his tail is fuzzy.
• Queen Essence - is a new character mould. She has metallic paint and "fuzzy" hair. Like Cooper, her mould lacks the ability to move its head.
• Tiny Diamond - is a new character mould.
• Cloud Guy - is a new character mould and the only non-Troll doll.

Unnamed Characters

• Techno Troll baby - a new character mould sold as a bobblehead.
• Young Rock Troll - a new character mould sold as a bobblehead.
• Mermaid - a new character mould of a non-descript Techno Troll.
• Classical Troll - a new character mould of a generic Classical Troll. It has a glittery body and fuzzy hair. This is also the only Troll model produced without peg holes; instead it rests on a cloud-like support base.

Other

Various accessories including all instruments were new to the series.

Re-releases

• Biggie - reuses his Trolls-era mould and is the only character to reuse a mould outside of "critters".

Asides from Biggie, some accessories such as critters were also re-released from older lines.

Trolls era versus Trolls World Tour era

Comparison of "basic" Trolls World Tour Branch (left) and "basic" Trolls Branch (right)

"Basic" Trolls Cooper (left) and "basic" Trolls World Tour Cooper (right). The caps were removed so that the full heads and hair can be seen.

"Basic" Trolls World Tour Chenille (left) and "basic" Trolls Chenille (right)

"Basic" Trolls World Tour Satin (left) and "basic" Trolls Satin (right)

"Basic" Trolls Poppy (left) and "basic" Trolls World Tour (right)

For Trolls World Tour, Hasbro continued their traditional Trolls lineup. However, new models were moulded for different sets, with only Biggie reusing his Trolls mould. The Trolls World Tour models vary from fluff to plastic hair, depending on the model version and character.

Main Changes

Differences between the newer moulds from Trolls World Tour compared to the older Trolls (2016-2019) era ones include:

• The bodies of Trolls-era dolls are propotionally longer, but their heads are smaller than the Trolls World Tour-era ones. Even though, the overall height is still the same.
• The Trolls World Tour models have bigger eyes, shorter but wider ears (also more rounded for dolls of Pop Trolls), and a smaller nose.
• The Trolls World Tour dolls have the same feet size, but their hands are smaller.
• Facial expressions are often more exaggerated, as are body poses.
• They're more detailed overall. This is exampled by models like "Rock Poppy", which is one of the most detailed dolls produced in this range with great attention given to her outfit.
• Eyebrows now have color, and aren't just black lines on all new models.
• Poppy's pink skin is paler and her plastic fringe-hair more vivid colored, overall she appears brighter in tone. Previous Trolls sets tended to go for darker shades of pink thought from 2017.
• Branch tends to be more blue overall in this series, with his hair having a purple-blue tone, and his nose being of a paler blue color. Previous Trolls sets tended to vary between green-blue while his hair ranged from dark grey to royal blue. The previous dolls also left his eyes black, whereas the Trolls World Tour models feature a blue eye color.
• Cooper is slightly larger overall, but stands about the same height as his Trolls models. His head is notably bigger.
• Duplication occurs even in this range. The previous Trolls-era dolls tended to have recolored assets, such as Poppy's dress. In the case of Trolls World Tour dolls, the same model usually has the same details regardless of its print.
  • Even details like expression are the same, whereas the Trolls-era dolls often changed at least where a Troll was looking by shifting their pupils, thus creating different expressions among dolls.
• Satin & Chinelle have the same skin and hair as in Trolls, but their clothing was recolored. Their earrings are no longer printed flat onto their ears, instead having an area moulded on the ears for the coloration of their earrings to be printed onto.

In regards to how hair is featured in the series, Trolls World Tour displays the most design variation in how Troll hair and body types are depicted with used of flocking, glitter, and transparent plastic either being used in new ways or to mash up in the range altogether. Trolls with a "full" head of hair have it fuzzy-moulded ("flocked"), such as Delta and the young Rock Troll from the "Rock City Bobble" set. Previously, this had only been used for a Troll's skin, and wasn't applied to hair. Techno Troll dolls are made from a different, transparent plastic to all other dolls, and have sculptured hair instead of cotton hair.

Packaging

The series is noted for its use of a mostly black theme with rainbow colorations. Speakers are present on non-basic sets and sets reflect the Troll Tribe their focused on.

Releases

Basic

Poppy

Mermaid

Branch

Barb

Tiny Diamond

Satin

Chenille

Cooper

Grand Finale Poppy

Cloud Guy

Grand Finale Barb

Hickory

King Trollex

Classical Troll

The traditional style of model from Trolls. Compared to the Trolls "Basic" set, these are sold with less overall content.

Each has a single prop based on an musical instrument, except for Satin & Chenille, who have an additional clip each.

Series notes:

• Poppy's hairband may not go back on her head so easily if removed, as it's simply a wire tie.
• The "Mermaid" and other dolls hold their microphones in their hands using a small clear elastic band. This may not go back onto her hand if removed.
• The clips for Satin & Chenille serve as a means to connect the two of them together and hide that they're actually separate figurines. Simply overlap their hair and use one of the clips to clip their dolls together.
• Due to poor package design, the dolls' hair is normally folded over, and care must be therefore applied when removing them. The hair is commonly trapped inside the package, and is prone to getting pulled out from the doll upon removal as a result. This was fixed in later releases.
• Figurines can also have some glue stuck on their hair when removed from packaging, which has to be carefully combed out.

So far, several waves have been released for this range. Wave 1 consisted of Branch, Poppy, Barb, Tiny Diamond and the Techno Mermaid.Wave 2 consisted of Poppy, Cooper, Branch, tiny Diamond, Satin, Chenille and the Techno Mermaid.Wave 3 consisted of Satin, Chenille, Grand Finale Poppy, Cloud Guy and Cooper. Poppy, Branch, Tiny Diamond and the Mermaid are the most common dolls in this series.

Hickory, Classical Troll, Grand Finale Barb and Trollex figurines are currently not widely available; were all advetised as sold by Target but were extremely difficult to find at times.

Mini-figurines

Poppy

Branch

Barb

Cooper

A set that uses the same models as the normal ones, but with plastic hair instead of fluffy hair. Due to this, they stand at a height of approximately 3 inches. These are slightly cheaper figurines with less paint details and no accessories.

Wave 1 had Branch, Poppy, Barb and Cooper. Wave 2 is a mixed release with Barb and Poppy being re-released, while Val and Tiny were released in Trolls: Trollstopia packaging, as part of that promotion.

Of both waves, Poppy is the most common doll, being not only in both waves but having more copies in each box. After her, Barb is the next most common.

Bobblehead

Techno Reef Bobble

Rock City Bobble

Vibe City Bobble

There are currently three bobblehead sets, both with an adult Troll and a baby. The baby model is designed to sit on a platform. Pushing a button causes the figurine to be rocked, making the baby Troll look like it's headbanging or rocking out. In 2020, two sets were released:

• King Trollex and Techno Troll baby - The baby is likely based on Tadd, as it matches his early design. The model of Trollex also matches his early render, with the pink eyes and the hoop on his neck.
• Queen Poppy and young Rock Troll with fuzzy hair - The Rock Troll is based on Amp's concept design. The critter in this set is based on Debbie.

The two sets have a number of problems:

• Their heads have smaller counterweights in them that allow them to rock but this causes the child Trolls to have experience difficulty stand unaided.
  • In fact, the "Rock child" Troll has a very heavy top part; the entire hair weighs far more than its body.
  • The baby Techno Troll may bend over time and droop, making him look down instead of straight ahead. This isn't something that the other Techno Troll dolls in the Trolls World Tour sets experience. It's because the other Techno Trolls have separate head, bodies and legs (fins), and for them their legs are made of a stronger plastic holding the weight of the head and body. The Techno baby, however, just has two pieces to his model: the head and body.
• Trollex's legs can come off (this is likely so he can be easily place on "stages", though he's too heavy to sit on this series' set, as it's designed for the "child" models).
• Poppy's headband and hairband cab also come off, but they may not be able to easily go back on afterwards.
• Trollex's headphones don't easily stay on his head, and will slip off with little difficulty.

A third set based on Queen Essence and Baby Cooper was later released in 2021. The set is difficult to come by, and isn't available in all territories. The set has improvements over the previous two sets both in general quality of the figurines inside and the way they're packaged. Other notes:

• Baby Cooper still has the same issue as the Rock Baby; his head is so heavy that he can have trouble standing if not on his base.
• Queen Essence comes with two accessories, a crown and a pair of shutter shades. She cannot easily wear both.
• Baby Cooper comes with a removable hat.

Lonesome Flats set

Lonesome Flats set

The Lonesome Flats set contains Poppy, Branch, Biggie and Delta Dawn, whose hair is fuzzy. This set recreates the Pop Medley scene from the film, as Poppy, Branch and Biggie are wearing the same costumes. Though Poppy, Branch and Delta Dawn are new moulds, Biggie still uses his Trolls "basic" mould in this collection.

Similarly to the "basic" doll range, one of the issues with this set is that Poppy or Branch can have dried glue from the packaging on their hair. Care must therefore be taken when removing Poppy and Branch from the packaging; if the hair of one or both end up with dried glue, it has to be carefully brushed out.

The set serves as a Trolls World Tour character boaster set due to the number of characters represented by within the package.

Find Your Beat

Poppy

Branch

These are small sets with a figurine, stage and accessory.

Poppy's figurine is the same as the Lonesome Flats mould, while Branch reuses the Trolls World Tour "basic" Branch mould.

These were sold exclusively at Hallmark stores in the United States, and Argos ones in the United Kingdom. Each store receives a couple of these only at a time, and it's uncertain which version they'll receive. The model must be selected at the checkout rather than when ordered, but it's unknown which models the store will have at the time.

Both play extracts from the song Trolls Wanna Have Good Times, with Poppy singing their respective main lines of the medley's "Trolls wanna have fun" part. While other sets are notorious for their music pieces not working, this pair had no major reported problems with getting their music to play. The background piece in both sets is double-sided, allowing to choose between two different images.

Sets

Poppy's stylin' Pod

Tour Balloon

Blooming Pod Stage

Caterbus Adventure set

• The Poppy's Stylin' Pod set is an updated version of the older set of the same name, this time with her Trolls World Tour model. Poppy's model mould is the same as the Trolls World Tour "basic" mould. A Target exclusive, this set includes instruments, outfits, critters and felts. The set's accessories are a mixture of reused assets from past sets, and new "rock-themed" assets made for the Trolls World Tour era. The pod is similar but not identical to the past version, and is for storing contents; the wig display piece isn't included as no wigs were added to the set. Maddy's image is replaced by an image of Branch. The set's Poppy figurine cannot wear any of the dresses or capes as her body isn't slim enough, and only previously-designed Poppy and Branch dolls for the first movie's sets can wear any of the dresses, including the new Rock cape. There are felt shape designs included with the set that has been present in past Trolls era designs; however, these are the most delicate of the felt-shape designs ever made for the entire range. Packaging once again can damage these shapes.
• Tour Balloon is a set released in Fall 2020. It features Poppy and Sheila Balloon. Sheila can be closed to act as a case and store accessories. The are parts of the balloon that can be used in connection to other sets, including the POD'ular Troll Tree. One issue with the set is that it doesn't fit particularly well, and both halves of the balloon may not clip and stay secure.
• The Trolls World Tour Blooming Pod Stage set has elements of all the Troll Tribes' living areas. It's intended for all "basic" dolls, and serves the same purpose as the prevous Trolls-era "POD'ular Troll Tree" set in that it is for both play and display purposes (Trolls can be placed in their related areas). It plays extracts from the 3 songs One More Time, Trolls Wanna Have Good Times and Rock You Like A Hurricane. The buttons have stage pegs on them and are intended to have Poppy, Barb or Trollex placed on them; by pushing the button or the model, it will make it seem like the 3 are singing.
  • Note: A common complaint for this set is that it has sound issues; buttons often don't work.
  • Another notable problem is that the area of the playset representing the Funk Trolls is too short and thus the only Funk Troll able to fit in the correct area released was the "Vibe City Bobble" sets "Baby Cooper" figurine.
  • The set only represents five of the six Tribes; Hasbro was noted to under represent the Classical Troll Dolls in all their coverage of the "Trolls World Tour" coverage. The other areas represent; Country (bottom left), Funk (bottom right and stairs), Rock (upper left), Techno (upper right) and Pop (elevator and pod).'
• Caterbus Adventure is a set based on the rainbow Caterbus seen in Don't Slack. It's designed for carry and play, and includes 7 figures: Queen Poppy (Grand Finale version, thouigh the crown and hair have slightly different colors), Queen Barb ("basic" recolor), Branch (Lonesome Flats version), Biggie (recolor of his Trolls basic figurine), Cooper (re-release of his Trolls World Tour "basic"), Cloud Guy (re-release of his Trolls World Tour "basic"), Tiny Diamond (re-release of his "basic", though the shades have been re-adjusted for better coloration). The caterbus itself is a re-release recolor of the previous Trolls miniature range playset, and even has the same seats. The set has a large number of issues. The result is that some figurines may not fit in the caterbus due to the size differences between the miniature and small Trolls ranges; the seat buckles are made of a stretchable plastic, but many figurines don't fit in them. In addition, many of the issues with earlier sets are found in this one, such as hair that has been bent out of shape and glue in hair. Cooper's hat is glued onto his head. In addition, this set's plastic that holds it in place inside its package is fragile and may break. The set is a Trolls World Tour "boaster" set and contains a number of dolls with the aim to boaster a collection.

Ultimate Remix Pack

A pack that mostly contains re-released dolls, but also has an unique, silver-textured Tiny Diamond in. This set was exclusively sold at Target stores, as well as Asda stores in the United Kingdom. Other notable variations of dolls in this set include Poppy and Trollex's figurines, which have glitter on the dress and heart & fins, respectively. As well as his body and glasses being silver, Tiny also has silver tinsel in his hair, as does Poppy and Barb. Delta appears identical to the "Lonesome Flats Set" version, and Cooper is the same as his "basic" doll.

Accessories include the Classical Troll's violin and bow, Tiny's microphone, Trollex's headset, Cooper's boombox, Poppy's ukulele and Barb's guitar, all of which are items included in the normal "basic" releases of the sets.

The set is a "boaster" set and contains a number of dolls with the aim to boaster a collection.

Reception

Dolls

One of the main issues with this series compared to the previous Trolls era models is overall, the quality of the entire range, that is both models and playset, is lower then previous sets.

• Standing issues; A number of dolls had issues just standing on their own, whereas this was not a issue in all previous releases.
  • Satin & Chenille's models are not able to stand on their own. The original Trolls-era dolls were capable of standing unaided. Detailing wasn't consistent, as details aren't often well defined; Cooper's fur details is an example of this, being less done than previously. Dolls can also be oversimplified, as exampled by Branch's vest and shorts which skip detail. Other issues include characters not looking accurate enough to the characters such as Delta Dawn and Queen Barb.
  • A particular example is that Grand Finale Barb's model is a altered version of her normal design, just with different clothing. The main issue with the design is that when it was changed the center of gravity altered due to the new weight distribution, and thus has issues with balance. However, the issue with her having too much hair is now corrected, except that the Grand Finale hair should be longer than her normal model. In all cotton-haired versions of Barb, Hasbro designed the doll for her hair to stand straight up like all other Trolls. This, despite the 3D model of her in the movie of her having her mohawk fanned. However, styling her dolls correctly to match her movie counterpart can lead to Barb never being able to stand balanced as the hair easily causes the dolls to have a differemt center of gravity.
• Late movie design changes by DreamWorks, while notable in other promotional models such as the Tiny Dancers, are only relevant in regards to the "Techno Reef Bobble" set, which features Trollex with the hoop around his neck that was removed in the final Trolls World Tour movie, plus Tadd has his original blue design.
• Hair issues: In regards to dolls with cotton-based hair, Trolls-era dolls have longer hair, which is glued to models via a "wig". The wig on the older models is fuller with dense threads and the hair tends to be overall shorter, the sole exception to this rule being Barb, who has long hair despite that it should be much shorter. In addition, the overall heads of Trolls World Tour models aren't as wide, so they don't have such a large area for hair to be glued on. The reduction in hair occurs most noticeably on Poppy, but can be quite severe on Branch as well.
• Poor design of playsets:
  • While "Poppy's Saloon" is quite well-designed, this was based on two previous sets from the Trolls era and adjustments had been made to it make it look like it belonged with the Trolls World Tour promotion, however, some changes were haphazardly made such as removing the wig holder for the pod but not the hole it slots into.
  • Other playsets were notorious for having electronic parts that didn't function correctly or fit together well. This was never the case in Trolls-era playsets.
• Another problem with Barb's Grand Finale doll is the hair;some of the rainbow colouration is missing, and it's just black, yellow, red and orange, missing out the green, purple and pink streaks (her mohawk alteration is supposed to reflect her accepting the music of all the Tribes)
• The movies retcon of baby Trolls now has lead to huge inconsistencies with the way Hasbro portrayed Troll babies. With size differences of older and newer dolls being notable and even small babies such as Tiny Diamond were scaled too big. This issue continues into Trolls:TrollsTopia dolls, though was somewhat fixed with the addition of the Blind Bag toyline Squad miniatures where more scaled versions of baby characters can be used with this range instead.

Later models such as Queen Essence, Cloud Guy and the Classical Troll are overall much more detalied, and are among the most elaborate of the Trolls World Tour series, as well as some of the best produced for the overall small figurines range.

Packaging

One side note about this series is that Hasbro hasn't been careful with the package or design of toys. A number of issues were reported over certain design choices in 2020. In the Caterbus Adventure, the plastic holding pieces together is notorious for being brittle and the result is the plastic holding pieces together often shatters.

But the most prombleatic issue with the packaging was the way Trolls were displayed, with almost all cotton hair ones having damages to the hair; this comes from the fact that they're of the traditional Troll Doll design. The worst case is the "Lonesome Flats" set and all "Basic" Wave 1 releases. However, by the "Grand Finale" models Hasbro had reverted back to the Trolls era method of holding the hair in place (having it angled and fed through a hole in the supporting back packaging) instead of folding it, though some damage can occurr still there is far less damage. Later "basic" waves also switched to this method, so later releases of Tiny Diamon have better packaged hair. A issue that still can occur is that the hair of partly long Trolls can be trapped in the packaging when it is glued down and packaging still needs to be open carefully to protect hair. This poblem was never resolved by Hasbro and was rare among Trolls era dolls.

The following are examples of how the package how damaged dolls:

Barb "basic" (left) and from the "Caterbus Adventure" set (right). Both figurines show typical damaged hair.

Barb Dolls

• The figurine on the left in the first image is after attempts to comb out the bend that's found in all "basic" Trolls World Tour dolls' hair, due to the fact the hair is folded over to fit in the packaging. In addition, an attempt was made to correctly style her mohawk; it'll most likely take use of chemicals to fully get the correct look.
• The figurine on the right is how it came out of the package without combing. In addition to a kink caused by the package, the hair of this doll is very matted and will take a great effort to fix. This doll will require a lot more combing and styling because of the matted hair before the damage by the moment the packaging is removed.
• Both dolls also have the issue of being styled to stick straight up like normal Troll hair instead of correctly being styled like Barb's mohawk is depicted as. In addition, they tend to have as the same size wig as a normal Troll, but it's stuffed into a narrower space, causing problems; Hasbro normally has length of hair in correct proportion to a Troll's design, but Barb's is actually too long. Most dolls in this series don't have enough hair, but Barb's the only example of having too much hair, which makes the damage to her hair also more problematic when it does occur.

Branch

Branch from the "Lonesome Flats" set, showing an extreme example of damaged hair.

• This image shows the notorious result of Hasbro choosing to package cotton hair dolls by bending the hair over to make it fit the package, rather then designing package that fit the Troll. No matter what, this method of packaging the doll resulted in hair that was difficult to impossible to get the kink out.
• Note that an attempt had been made to get the bend out of the hair. However, even after a great deal of brushing, the 90 degree bend in the hair of this Branch figurine hasn't come out and most likely will require use of styling chemcials to remove.
• The doll also had glue in its hair after it was removed from the package, but this was successfully removed via brushing. When present, the glue is very easy to remove from the hair of the doll, and it's another common occurence that has been found in multiple sets, mostly occurring in sets with several Trolls sold together.