Transform A Troll Doll's Hair Into A Glowing LED Headpiece [Maker How-to]

Remember Troll Dolls? Of course you do. No matter how hard you’ve tried to forget them after that unspeakable incident at the Epcot Center gift shop, you remember. Well, it’s time to reconcile your irrational fear of these swirly hair-do’d imps by not only embracing Troll Dolls, but giving them a facelift, so to speak. In this how-to, we’ll show you how to make your Trolls extra creepy by fitting them with LEDs that’ll make those awful iconic haircuts of theirs shine with eerie illumination. Call it reviving a past hobby, call it exposure therapy, call it a complete waste of your time. We’re calling it…

TROLL LIGHT 2012!

First, a little history. The origin of the Troll Doll is actually quite a heartwarming story. In the late 50s, a Danish lumberjack named Thomas Dam was struggling financially and couldn’t afford to buy his daughter a Kildre Mig Mikkel, a popular holiday toy for children that year that resembles the modern day Tickle Me Elmo, but with far less personality. Having studied her school report cards, Dam concluded that his daughter wasn’t nearly bright enough to tell the difference between an authentic Kildre Mig Mikkel and one that he carved himself out of some of his unsold wood. Indeed, he was correct, and despite his poor workmanship, his daughter’s enthusiasm for this slap-shod toy soon spread to other children in the area, and soon everyone wanted one of Dam’s dolls, which he called Dam dolls.

Before long, kids all over the world couldn’t get enough of these Dam dolls. The fad faded after its first upswing in the 60s, but decade after decade, the Dam dolls kept coming back, like locusts except without any discernable benefit to nature. Today they have reached a level of global ubiquity shared only by brimmed hats and the phrase “cut it out.” They’ve shed their Dam name and are now known as Troll Dolls.

So what we’re doing today is simply nudging the evolution of the Troll Doll in a new direction, one that incorporates simple technology to create a glowing orb in place of the fluorescent-colored hair that we all know.

Alright, let’s do it already.

For this project, you’ll need a hot glue gun, a ceramic mug, a metal spoon, some pennies, tap water, ShapeLock, and a 3" troll doll.

The first step is something you’ve always wanted to do, or something you actually did do as a child to torture a younger, troll-loving sibling—rip out it’s hair. You can then peer right down its head and into its body. This is not for the squeamish. Put four pennies inside the head of the Troll Doll—one for good luck, one for bad, one for no good reason, and the fourth as tip.

Stick the LED orb on top of the troll’s head. Make sure the button is toward the back of the head because, of course, it would look ridiculous if it was on the front. You’d think you’d be done now but you’re not.

Heat up four tablespoons of ShapeLock in a ceramic mug with water in it. Do not eat, taste, chew, touch, smell, feel, or hear the ShapeLock.

Shape it onto the Troll Doll’s head. The end result should look like a little like Marge Simpson and a lot like a caricature of a shaved man wearing a turban.

Now it’s time for a little surgery. For no apparent reason, you’re going to use hot glue to fasten a small magnet onto the Troll Doll’s chest. It’s best to ignore its little Troll screams throughout this process.

You’re done! Good lord, what ugly little faces! But as the Danish say, ‘Norwegian trolls are way, way uglier.’

[via: Maker]

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