A Sussex company is relaunching jam company Robertson's after it dropped the controversial Golly figure from its jars after 91 years.

Instead e-block, in Hove, is hoping to capture the affections of a new generation of children with Golly's replacement, Roald Dahl characters including The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox and the Big Friendly Giant (BFG).

Golly, originally called Golliwog when he first appeared in 1910, has finally been shown the red card after accusations of being outdated and racist.

E-block has been selected to create the new Robertson's web site featuring walking, talking animated versions of the Dahl characters chosen to be the new face of the company.

They will appear on jars from September 1.

New media company e-block designed the hugely popular Roald Dahl web site which receives up 80,000 hits a month and counts John Cleese and Danny de Vito as loyal fans.

Managing director Aaron Lowe admitted Golly was a traditional symbol of jam and marmalade but it was time for a change.

He said: "There are issues Golly creates in certain members of the community and they need to be addressed. He represents something historical that makes people uncomfortable. Golly had become invisible and could no longer go out and sell his brand.

"With Roald Dahl we are dealing with a new audience, a new generation of children. But these characters are in no way safe and bland, I don't think children like that, they are very quirky."

E-block, which only has five permanent staff, has also designed interactive children's web sites for characters such as Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear.

"We all have our favourites," said Mr Lowe. "Mine is the BFG".

Golly was introduced after John Robertson, son of the company founder, returned from a trip to America in the last century.

In 1928, a collectors scheme was launched offering customers badges of Golly dressed up variously as an astronaut, footballer, nurse, doctor and fireman in return for coupons. More than 20 million badges were made.

The original enamel badges have sold for £100 and e-block is hoping new badges of the Roald Dahl characters will prove as popular. The seven characters have been drawn by the original illustrator of the books, Quentin Blake.

Campaigners have long complained Golly is a racist emblem and he was removed from television adverts in 1988.

However, Roberton's brand director Ginny Knox said he was being "retired" because research had revealed he was no longer well-known and denied he was offensive.

She said: "The decision was taken to remove Golly after research found children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations.

"We're confident that the likes of Fantastic Mr Fox and The Twits will capture the hearts and minds of all our consumers, much as Golly did in his day."

Golly will continue to feature on mincemeat jars until Christmas.