Trolls With a Positive Message- Love Your Zelf

Remember when trolls were collectible, big haired toys, and not nasty online beings? Zelfs are spiky haired creatures of the troll tradition, with the positive tag line, 'Love your Zelf'.

This month in my Junior column I talked about gender stereotypes with toys, and Zelfs are a good example. They are certainly what you'd expect to be a 'girl's toy', with feminine colours, hairbrushes as accessories and charms that come with each figure. However my son loves Zelfs, and already owned a number of them from the original collection that came out last autumn. 

In fact when I mentioned to him some Zelfs would be arriving for him to help me review, he was more excited about them than any of the traditional 'boy toys'  we've featured.

We played with the Toadstool Twirl and Swing Playset, priced £14.99, which comes with an exclusive, very cute, green Zelf. No batteries are required and it holds three medium Zelfs.

We also had one of the series two Masquerade Zelf figures. As I expected, Michael loved both. I'll even admit I wouldn't mind owning a few Zelfs for my toy cabinet, and they've sent me on a 1990s' troll doll hunt on eBay.