After completing our 7 year, 50 state road trip with a month in Hawaii, we raced back across the country for a couple of reasons. One was to beat the winter storm that rolled in early January and the other was to catch one of Thomas Dambo’s troll collections back in Virginia Beach.
Before setting off on our road trip back on January 1, 2018, we’d lived in the Hampton Roads area, so the thought of finding more of Thomas Dambo’s trolls at “home” was something we didn’t want to miss.
The exhibition was called “Save The Humans” and was a traveling collection that had been in other locations in the US including Memphis, TN and, I think, Atlanta, GA. It was in Virginia Beach from September 13, 2024 to January 20, 2025. We made it back to Virginia just in time and found the trolls on January 19, so just a day to spare.
Save The Humans features half a dozen young trolls who want to help humans reconnect with nature in a variety of ways.
With some of Thomas Dambo’s troll collections that we’ve found, we’ve written guides explaining how to find them when they’ve been permanent exhibitions and harder to find. Seeing as this is a traveling exhibition that’s now left the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, that wouldn’t be particularly helpful. Besides, they were really easy to find as they were all along the walkway connecting the aquarium’s two main buildings.
Instead, here’s just a quick post sharing what the trolls look like; hopefully you get a chance to see them near you wherever they end up next! I don’t know if they’re positioned in the same order each time they’re exhibited, so here’s the order we saw them in.
Ronja Redeye
The first of the Save The Humans trolls we found was Ronja Redeye.
Here’s her story:
Ronja Redeye speaks from her heart, and is really good with words. Although she is the smallest of the group that wants to save the humans, she has a mighty voice and is a natural leader. Carrying the gift of communication with her, she even knows how to speak words that humans understand and she has translated the troll alphabet into the human ABC! When she thinks of a word to say, Ronja immediately senses echoes of rhymes and her mouth picks them like flowers from a field and shapes them into a poem, a song, a tale or a cheerful roaring through the forest. Although her words are always honest and straightforward, she speaks them with compassion, because she knows that words have the power to make you smile, but they can also create great sadness. And, if there is one thing that can make Ronja’s eyes turn red it is the use of hurtful words getting in the way of friendship.
Ibbi Pip
Next up was the funly-named Ibbi Pip.
In her hand she was holding a birdhouse. Thomas Dambo – the Danish sculptor who created these and many more trolls around the world – used to leave birdhouses around his home city of Copenhagen as a form of graffiti that would be welcomed. Many of his trolls since feature these birdhouses.
Here’s Ibbi Pip’s particular connection with them:
Ibbi Pip is a handy, optimistic troll and a friend of all animals. She tries to communicate with the humans through colorful birdhouses because she holds a strong belief that there is still hope for them. Ibbi has seen how humans build these to bring the birds closer to them and thinks that maybe this could awaken the humans’ compassion for their natural surroundings. So, Ibbi puts up little birdhouses everywhere in the hope that the humans will think more about whom they share the world with.
That wasn’t the only birdhouse Ibbi Pip has though. In addition to several birdhouses hanging in nearby trees, she was also carrying a large net sack of them.
Rosa Sunfinger
I think our favorite of the six Save The Humans trolls was Rosa Sunfinger. Shae and I have always been partial to a Smart car and we drove one for several years before our road trip.
Rosa Sunfinger uses one as a massive plant pot. Seeing as it was January though, Sunfinger’s green fingers weren’t on full display.
The trail between the two aquarium buildings takes you alongside Owl Creek, so it’s a nice place to explore.
Here’s Rosa’s story:
Rosa Sunfinger is a soft introverted troll who cares for plants and other green creatures with her life-giving fingers. Her face is as gentle as her personality and she always wears a soft sunny smile on her cheeks. Rosa may seem a bit introverted, but she is not afraid of speaking up, if needed. However, she chooses her words carefully and she finds that the best way of expressing herself is through plants. Rosa brings back life where humans have abandoned it. She spreads her wisdom by showing how plants can make even the most useless items come back to life, with the help of her sunny fingertips. Through her actions, she wants to bring back joy to what seems forsaken and watching the flowers grow always makes her smile.
Basse Buller
The fourth troll was Basse Buller who seemed to be resting when we saw him.
This is Basse’s story:
Basse Buller tends to be all over the place, spreading his message in mud paint on every available surface. He is a wild child at heart, but when he starts painting he finds his calm in an instant. He loves to express himself through symbols and shapes inspired by the nature he lives in and he makes his marks with stones, leaves, sticks or anything that he can find enough of. An explorer and rebel, he understands “no” as “maybe” and sees that boundaries are there to be pushed – with signs, words and often a beat to make the message even clearer. You are not in doubt, when this troll is around. He is funny, loud, and gets his muddy paint everywhere in an effort to lead the humans onto the right path.
Sofus Lotus
The penultimate troll we saw was one we initially spotted from behind.
The reason Sofus Lotus was in that position is because he had his ear to the ground, listening to nature.
Here’s Sofus Lotus’s tale:
Sofus is an introverted type who pays great attention to the little things. He uses his ears to hear every little crackle, thud and buzz. Time only exists as a source of light during the day, which changes the shadows of his surroundings. He was the first one to notice that something was wrong with the world, and that nature was changing its rhythm and ways for the worse. But he doesn’t make a fuss. He just listens, feels and is mindful of nature and all its beings.
Kamma Can
The final troll in the Save The Humans collection is Kamma Can. She was reminiscent of some other trolls we’ve seen like Reef the Chief in Singapore as she had a necklace made of plastic trash.
In fact, Kamma Can had two necklaces – one adorning her own neck and the other one being held in her hands.
This is the story behind Kamma Can’s life:
Kamma Can is a creator. Where humans see trash she sees potential. Over the last years of human existence, the amount of colorful eternity material has increased rapidly. Kamma finds this new material rather beautiful and she simply doesn’t understand why the humans just throw it away and leave it in the weirdest places. Kamma wants to teach the humans not to throw things away so fast. Being a creative spirit she can think of a million ways to make nice things with all those beautiful colors. To see for yourself, just take a look at the amazing necklaces she created for herself and for her best friend Ronja Redeye.
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