TROLLZ WITH A 'Z' THE WILD-HAIRED DOLLS ARE MAKING A COMEBACK.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

The enormous mass of multicolored hair and the belly-button jewels are consistent. Otherwise, the creatures coming to a Web site, DVD player and clothing retailer near you in 2005 are not the Trolls of yesteryear.

Yes, fans of all things retro, the Trolls are back, sporting a new look, a new agenda, a new target audience and a Z.

The brand name has been tweaked in an effort to appeal to the coveted 8-to-13-year-old ``tween'' audience that DIC Entertainment and its formidable lineup of licensing partners are targeting. Where the Trolls of old were homely, naked and decidedly unglamorous, the new ``Trollz'' are cute, fashionable and plugged into every element of a tween's life, from malls to iPods, computers to cell phones. In the cartoon and online world of Trollzopolis, however, the Trollz use ``tPods'' and ``spell phones.''

Proclaiming the motto B.F.F.L. (``best friends for life''), the five Trollz of the cartoon Trollzopolis are bookish Sapphire; ditzy, fashion- savvy Topaz; spoiled group leader Ruby; goth-ish Onyx; and Troll-next-door Amethyst. There are boy Trollz, too, but it's the girls who possess the magic abilities. When a girl Troll reaches a certain age, her belly button jewel begins to glow, meaning she has access to her magic powers.

Despite the exposed midriffs and boy craziness, sexual suggestiveness is not intended to be part of the appeal or marketing plan. DIC president and CEO Andy Heyward views the relationship between the Trollz as a combination of ``Winnie the Pooh,'' ``Friends'' and ``Sex and the City.''

``What do these things have in common?'' says Heyward. ``They're basically about family - groups whose members have hopes, fears, insecurities, jealousies, aspirations and all the different gamuts of human experience and emotions. At the end of the day, they function as a group and as a family. And you know when the chips are down, they're there for each other.''

``We wanted to get right into a 13-year-old's lexicon. We wanted to be right into what they're all about,'' says Mike Maliani, DIC's chief creative officer and the man whose team is largely credited with the Trollz's new look. ``The way the tween market is, these girls are assaulted constantly with color, advertising, iPods, getting the pink ones or the green ones. We wanted to get that all in.''

To get a firsthand look at that lexicon, Maliani needed to look no further than his 13-year-old daughter and her friends, whose activities and interests were inspirational.

``Her thing is, how does she get to the mall with her friends as often as possible. They're like clotheshorses. It's phenomenal what they know,'' says Maliani. ``You ask her, 'Who won the Civil War?' and she'll ask, 'Who fought?' But if you ask her to program an iPod, she'll do it in 30 seconds. She can multitask doing 8 million things.''

DIC's Trollz barrage begins in March with the launch of the www.Trollz.com Web site, which will allow a participant to create and clothe her own individual Troll, buy and furnish an apartment, shop, interact with friends and send hexes via spell phone. Books (by Scholastic) and toys (Hasbro) will come out in July, followed by cartoon collection DVDs in September (in time for back to school). The cartoon series broadcasts internationally in October.

By that time, officials at the Burbank-based DIC are hopeful that the Trollz theme song (officials are negotiating with Ashlee Simpson to perform it) and its catch phrase, ``It's a hair thing,'' will have permeated every segment of the market.

Nathan Wright, the 27-year-old founder of the countercultural Web site MonkeyCube.com, views the strategy as an attempt to ``create a fad instead of letting a fad develop on its own and gain its own momentum.''

``Companies almost have the American consumer believing, even though it doesn't yet exist as a fad,'' says Wright, who gained international acclaim for his effort to sell his soul on eBay. ``I have no doubt that this will be wildly popular.''

The target audience, the theory goes, will take to the clothing, accessories and everyday tween-girl issues (boys, popularity, parties, zits) experienced by Amethyst, Ruby and the gang. Their nostalgia-embracing parents will break out their Troll dolls from the 1960s - the original Troll doll will also see a relaunch as a collector's item - and the locks of thousands of silky-haired Trolls on playthings and key chains will be fondled anew.

``People see it, they want to touch it. There's something primordial about it,'' says Heyward, a former writer for Hanna-Barbera. ``I don't know what it is. I can't explain it myself. It's a hair thing. That's all I can say.''

A woodcarver named Thomas Dam created his first wooden troll figure in the late 1950s as a present for his daughter. The Dammit Doll caught the attention of a Danish toy-store owner, and eventually the items were mass-marketed in rubber. The figures flooded the market in the early 1960s, becoming the second-biggest-selling doll (behind Barbie) through much of the decade. They experienced a rebirth in the 1990s.

The creatures' appeal, according to toy- and doll-industry experts, was their novelty status.

``What was fun about them was that they were like typical doll or action figures,'' says Jane Abrahams, director of marketing for the Alexander Doll Co. ``It was fun collecting all the different hair, seeing who could make the coolest hairstyle and collecting the birthstones. Sometimes kids gravitate toward things that aren't perfect-looking.''

DIC acquired the worldwide franchise rights from the Denmark-based DAM Things in 2003. At the end of the year, when DIC had assembled a presentation and began meeting with potential franchise partners, company officials began to realize just how beloved the creatures were.

Mattel offered to sign a deal the day the product was pitched. Other companies at various stages of DIC's Trollz ``road show'' were equally eager to secure the toy license and keep the product away from competitors. DIC met with similar enthusiasm when they did road shows for the publishing franchise.

``This doesn't happen a lot,'' says Nancy Fowler, DIC's senior vice president for worldwide consumer products. ``Usually it's, 'We like it. We'll do some testing. We have some questions. Can you come back with this?' (With Mattel) it was, 'Stop everything.' We thought, 'Oh my God. Maybe we have created something very unique.' '' (Eventually, however, DIC went with Hasbro.)

Or at least something uniquely recognizable. According to Fowler, buyers would show up at meetings with their own vintage Troll dolls and accompanying names and anecdotes.

Was it a ``hair thing''?

``I just think people remember happier, simpler times,'' says Fowler. ``People like being reminded of when they were playing with certain things, whether it was a good-luck charm or a good memory. Maybe your dad gave you one to say, 'Good luck on your exam.'

``The Trolls bring a smile to people's faces,'' she adds. ``Hopefully we can do that again.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Crazy dolls

Trollz revved up for a new generation

(2 -- color) The original Trolls, complete with wild hair, have been popular since the 1960s.

(3 -- color) no caption (Trollz)

(4 -- color) DIC Entertainment president and CEO Andy Heyward hopes to start a new toy trend with his Trollz line of dolls and other products.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer