Thursday, November 18, 2010

Polly Pocket--Old Polly vs. New Polly


One of the most popular toys of the 90s has endured a radical transformation since its debut in 1989. 

The premise of Polly Pocket was that it was a little miniature dollhouse that fit in a necklace. Unfortunately, while Polly and her world and accessories were indeed tiny, there is only so tiny you can make an elaborate world, meaning the ‘pocket-sized’ plastic toy was actually fairly large and clunky (considering it was meant to be worn or, I guess, put into a pocket—yeah, perhaps a backpack pocket or something because there was no way that thing was fitting into the pocket of a pair of little girl jeans). 

Behold: Old Polly


But at least the original creators, Bluebird Toys, ATTEMPTED to keep Polly and her accessories tiny and pocket-sized. When Mattel bought out the company in 1998, they ‘supersized’ Polly (supersizing meaning that they doubled or tripled her size—Bluebird’s Pollys were under an inch tall, while Mattel’s ranged from two to three inches, depending on which Polly set you were buying.) In Mattel’s version, only Polly herself was pocket-sized, not her world. Basically, Mattel just tried to shrink down Barbie and call it ‘Polly Pocket.’ (Oh, Mattel, you just keep trying to strike gold again, dontcha?) 

Behold: New Polly and her Friggin' Jet



Most of us little girls who had a Polly Pocket had the old school Polly. Y’know, the one tiny enough that your parents were worried that you would accidently swallow her (although she was tiny enough that even if you had, you probably wouldn’t have choked!). She was made entirely of plastic and certainly didn’t have little removable clothing the way the new versions apparently do. She WASN’T a miniature Barbie—she was this tiny little plastic toy with a circle for feet that you could place in little circle cut-outs in her little world that fit around your neck, however large and clumsily. Here’s Polly in the kitchen! Here’s Polly in the bedroom! Here’s Polly at the park!

The original Polly Pocket playworld was a make-up compact that creator Chris Wiggs made into a miniature toy for his daughter. The models around in our time kept this sort of design. They did get larger than a compact, but they were still wonderfully portable, which was one of the best features of the toy (which makes it even more baffling to me that Mattel decided to make it so much larger than it originally was.)

This Polly was a simpler Polly, and yet we enjoyed hours of entertainment simply moving Polly to and fro—the way we enjoyed moving dolls around a dollhouse. This Polly also didn’t have movies and books dedicated to her and her friends (did original!Polly even have friends? I remember her being a more solitary kind of girl. She certainly didn’t have male friends the way she did now—come on, Mattel, you can make Kens and Polly-sized Kens all you want, BOYS STILL WON’T PLAY WITH THESE.)

I must say, I mourn the loss of the original Polly. Was it as cool as we thought? Personally, I think so. It was a neat idea, creating a world instead of a compact. Unfortunately, Mattel decided that they would rather just have another Barbie knock-off than continue to feature the portability of such a toy.

12 comments:

  1. I have no idea why, because it seems so silly now, but I friggin' LOVED Polly Pocket! I'd spend hours playing with my various sets, making little neighborhoods out of them. We had one big set that was supposed to be a mall - it was the size of a small makeup kit, but it had a handle and was still portable, if even less pocket-sized than the others. But what was really cool was that it came with like THREE dolls (gasp!) so we did have two friends for Polly. I don't know if they had names, but one was a brunette and the other was a redhead. You could do the Witches of Eastwick with them!

    ReplyDelete
  2. One of my favorite Polly Pocket sets was the Tree House set! I'll admit, it was awesome. It was like a club house. I would play with my Polly Pocket sets all day and never get tired of them. I do feel, however, that Polly Pocket is now taking on a similar image popularity as Barbie. And Barbie herself is somewhat fading. She's still popular, but Polly is coming into a close second.

    ReplyDelete
  3. my sister had dozens of these things. all i remember about them was i always stepped on the little figures accidentally when i was barefoot. wow did they hurt

    ReplyDelete
  4. I loved polly pocket. Mine was a pink heart and she had a little tan kitty that lived with her and had a circle for feet too so the kitty could stand next to her in every room. It was the coolest thing ever as a little girl! I wish I had kept it for nostalgia's sake

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wonderful stuff. Polly Pocket, for me, was an incredible miniature world of wonderment when I was a kid. Most of Polly's appeal was her tiny size and portability, and the fact that you could just lose yourself completely in this little compact of nooks and crannies. And whenever you'd go round your mates house, they'd have one you'd not seen before and it'd single-handedly be the most exciting moment of your life. Oh, and they had really tiny ones too didn't they? Ones on chains, and ones with the gem in the middle. I miss those days.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. yes these old pollypocket things are really nice... hmm yeah well i've got a lucy locket that i just like the old polly pockets where you coudnt remove their clothing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cool but old site was better !! better simple!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I like new polly cause u can change her cloths but i bet the old pollys ae pretty cool to

    ReplyDelete
  9. I never had one, and I want one... :( I wish I could have gotten one back then. The new ones are nowhere near good...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  10. I loved polly pockets in the 90's! I am writing a lens about the original ones, and was wondering if I could used your photo on it if I cite it to this page?

    ReplyDelete
  11. looking for wizard of oz polly pockets, need the wicked witch and dorethy and toto. please email if you have any I can purchase. cant find those two anywhere. thank email at artshade5@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete