Quick Specs
- Type: Spirit fairy figurine with trading card
- Height: About 3 inches
- Finish: Painted
- Colors: Green skin and hair, yellow-ringed eyes, blue wings, red heart
- Holds: A red dripping heart
- Base: Round, dark green
- Includes: Trading card
A Scowling Green Fairy Holding a Red Heart
The first thing you see is the scowl. Dark brows slant down toward the nose above eyes ringed in bright yellow, and the grin below is wide, with a row of short tooth marks and a nose shaped like a skull’s. The yellow rings around the eyes stand out sharply against the green of the face. The skin has a pearly green sheen, and long, leaf-shaped ears flare out through the hair on both sides. The hair is glossy green, with long strands swept across the forehead and two round buns on top, each ribbed with sculpted lines. A red heart held in both green hands at the chest is glossy as well, with a drip running down the front of a dark green top whose hem is cut in layered leaf shapes, and a smaller drip gathers near the bottom point of the heart. Dark green boots with rounded toes stand on a round dark green base, painted in the same deep shade as the clothes. A pair of blue wings stands out behind the shoulders in a bright, shiny blue that looks cool against the green.
Gremlin carries a vivid triad of colors: green for the skin, hair, and clothes, yellow in the eyes, and red in the heart, with blue wings as a cool contrast. The scowl comes from the angled brows and the narrowed, yellow-ringed eyes, and the wide grin below gives the expression a playful edge. The red heart and the yellow eyes pull attention in a pair, so the face and the heart become the two focal points of the figure. The hair buns echo the round shape of the head and the heart, and the leaf-cut hem echoes the pointed ears. A skull-style nose gives the face a gothic edge, and the heart adds a touch of romance. The glossy paint on the hair, the heart, and the wings catches light from a lamp or a window. A trading card comes with the figure, which lets you display the two together. At about 3 inches tall it sits easily on a desk, a windowsill, or a small shelf, and a spot near a window brings out the shine on the hair and the heart.
Practical Display Applications
Gremlin’s green and yellow stand out against white, grey, or black, so a pale shelf and a dark bookcase both show the figure well. A desk is a natural home for a mischievous presence, perhaps beside a pen cup or a monitor, and a windowsill with houseplants lets the green blend with the leaves. A shelf of gothic curios, small skulls, or black candles in holders gives the figure company. Keep the candles a safe distance away. A mantel or a bookshelf corner works well too, where the green stands out against the books. As a gift, Gremlin suits a collector of quirky or gothic figures, or anyone who enjoys a mischievous face. For more small figures, browse my statues collection.
How to Display and Care for Gremlin
Three steps cover where to stand Gremlin, how to show the card, and how to dust.
- Stand Gremlin on a Stable Surface
Set the figure on a flat shelf or desk, a few inches back from the edge, with room on both sides for the wings and the ears. Light fades paint, and the Canadian Conservation Institute advises reducing light exposure, so a spot out of long direct sun keeps the green and yellow strong. The wings are thin parts, so a shelf out of reach of young children and pets suits the figure.
- Display the Trading Card
Put the trading card in a clear sleeve or a small card stand and place it beside the figure. A sleeve also keeps the card flat and clean when you store it, and a binder page or a small box protects the corners from bumps.
- Dust With a Soft Brush
Lift the figure by the base and dust about once a month with a very soft brush, such as a clean makeup brush, using light strokes over the buns, the heart, and the leaf-cut hem. A figurine maker's care guide calls thin or protruding parts especially fragile, so take extra care around the wings and the pointed ears.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock Gremlin as a character piece with plenty of attitude: a 3 inch painted fairy with green skin, a scowl, blue wings, and a red heart held in both hands, together with a trading card. The heart gives the mischief a soft center, which makes the figure a good fit for collectors of quirky gothic pieces. It sits easily beside Tarot decks, plants, and small skulls, and it brings a splash of green to a shelf. Browse my novelty and gift ideas collection for more small curiosities.
Frequently Asked Questions
A gremlin is a mischievous imaginary creature blamed for malfunctions, first in aircraft and later in other machinery. The word arose in Royal Air Force slang among British pilots in the 1920s, and the earliest printed record is a poem in the journal Aeroplane, published in Malta on 10 April 1929. Roald Dahl's 1943 children's book The Gremlins popularized the word, and its own origin is uncertain.
Puck is a fairy or demon of English folklore, also called Robin Goodfellow or Hobgoblin. He is a household sprite who did chores such as housework and butter-churning, and who could undo them with tricks if offerings of white bread and milk were neglected. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest Robin Goodfellow dates to 1531, and Shakespeare's version appears in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Elf-locks, or fairy-locks, are knots in hair that folklore blamed on fairies, who were said to tangle the hair of sleeping children and the manes of horses. In Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio says Queen Mab plaits horses' manes in the night, and in King Lear, Edgar says he will elf all his hair in knots. Folk belief held that untangling the knots was unlucky.
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