The Weird History of Polly Pocket
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Sorry if this one is a bit boring. It's definitely more "history" than "commentary," but I had fun with it regardless. I find the concept of generations in toys very fascinating, and I hope you do as well! Enjoy!
This video is intended for adult, and young adult, collectors- NOT children!
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Toy makers: You know what our product needs? Tiny magnets!
Children: C O N S U M E
LOL too true
this is the best comment omg
I remember the magnets
Can’t believe your call me out like this for chewing on Polly Pocket rubber clothes. I couldn’t help it they were just such a good texture
I never understood the appeal🤧🤚
Pretty much everyone that had Fashion Polly was chewing her clothes i-
Yo, I did the same thing 😂😂
true LOL I forgot I did
Oh wow. I forgot I did that!
I actually swallowed a Polly pocket boot when I was like four
Can't believe you didn't mention how easy it was to break the rubber clothing espicially if they had small thin straps.
As someone who had hand me down dolls/clothes, can confirm that non of them survived as far as I know. They really couldn’t hold up very long, especially if you weren’t extremely careful
I had the rubber Polly pocket doll clothes. They did break a little bit.
Literally all the tank tops my dolls had became no sleeves and most of the clothes ripped very easily. I had the Fashion Polly styled Sabrina: The Animated Series doll and the clothes were such terrible quality.
HAHA LITERALLY ALL OF MINE BROKE but i kept using them
I usually asked my dad to put some of the clothes in my Polly Pocket dolls cause I was afraid of breaking them 😭
"fairly beloved choking hazard" had me WHEEZING. good vid!
This is how amazing my sense humor is: the name "Wee willy" made me laugh out loud
I'm not gonna lie and say I wasn't /this/ close to calling attention to it in the video 🤣
I heard "Weed Willy" and was really confused
"Beloved choking hazard" is the best way to describe the Fashion Polly era. I have dozens of them still and I loved them as a kid and still do but boy all those micro small parts.
At the same time the really cool 90s playsets were being sold I was only interested in these things called Starcastles, which were similarly scaled playsets but larger in number of rooms and I think came with little furniture and accessories. I guess I liked them better because even though Polly's playsets were becoming more elaborate, she still couldn't compete with a whole giant castle.
I hadn't heard of those before so I looked them up- and wow! They're really impressive. I'm immediately obsessed with all the mermaid-themed ones.
@@DarlingDollz I'm dying apparently a majority of them also poured tea for little tea parties and also came with Skydancers??? No wonder I loved them. How ridiculous.
I loved StarCastles! Omg! Those were my childhood encapsulated, pun intended.
@Darling Dollz did you ever play with _Betty Sphagetti?_ if so you should deff do a video on her (the original not the reboot)
I'm sure creatirs get tired of recommendations but I've seen literally NO ONE talk about that beaded Queen. There was even an album.
czcams.com/video/0A-I9Zrndck/video.html (thank me later)
She was deffinitley my favorite next to the _Bratz_ line.
And im also fairly sure I (and alot of other girls) were channeling her when going through our club kid/raver-hoe phase, as her aesthetic is quite....uhm...."reminiscent" of that whole scene lol
@@adriantucker5532 I did! I didn't have a lot because her peak was a little before I was old enough to pick out my own dolls, but I had a few that were handed down. I remember the texture of her hair so vividly.
I had both! I loved all of them.^^
The original Polly pocket was my accidental introduction to collecting. After loving the larger pollys from the 2000s, my mum started buying me second hand/still in package mini Polly pocket sets when I was about? 8?. I still have plenty of sets from the 1989-1997, any you’re right about how amazing it would feel to build a town out of these little playsets. As I’ve let go of some older toys from when I was young, I’ve never been able to sell my mini Polly pocket sets. I still love them, planning to display them soon. Loved this walk through of her history
That's awesome! I unfortunately don't have any of my Pollys from childhood leftover, but she was definitely where I developed the doll collector mentality I have today. Your collection for sure sounds amazing though!!
Kind of similar here except I had the gen 3 style rubber clothed ones, but specifically I had a lot of Disney princess ones. I think I might still have them somewhere, at least I hope I do, truly a staple of my childhood
I loved building towns with them, even with different districts. I had the grandfather clock set who were always my town elders, the fairy District and then my normal sets scattered about. They were my absolute favourite toys. They were great to take to friends houses as they packed up so neatly, so it was fun to build new towns by combining collections.
In my opinion: you can't beat the classics. The original compacts were THE best by far.
Dude… I lost my breath when I saw that Polly website. I was OBSESSED with that game and website. Did it really all run on flash? 😭😭
I also had the mutant pets! I had no clue what they were from, don’t remember getting them from a Polly set but I loved them so much. I miss the rubber clothed doll, I was always really bad at losing stuff and am so sad I lost all of mine.
Yes thank you I lost my toys so often 😩😭
There's a website that preserved all the old games! You just have to look for it
Personally i don’t really like the current Polly generation, i remember feeling really disappointed seeing those beautiful little compacts modernized and given kinda oversaturated colors on the shelves one day.
Give me over saturated neon over pastel any day.
Lol I miss gen 3 rubber and magnetic
@@CapitalLuke good that u like them though
also I wanna note quickly that I personally prefer the older color schemes and more pastel colors. nothing wrong if u like bolder and more saturated colors though
This makes me feel lucky to have been born at just the riiiight time to have been there for pretty much all the early 90s sets through the rubber clothes era - I had them all. But I do have the most fondness for the stackable house builder ones. I liked that they were slightly bigger than the originals, they had such cool detail, they were fun to set up, and the groovy art studio seemed specifically aimed at me and my future artist dreams.
i'm in the same boat with being born at the right time to experience everything. my fondness was always for everything with animals though. from the pandas and kittens of the compact era to the dog houses of the plastic cloths era, i had every one that i could find and afford. the pet store playset where you could make more animals with the clay(?) was one of my favorites. actually think i stole clay from the other sets in the line so i could make even more animals haha
@@63shirochan I think I remember what you're talking about with the clay! Like it came with little animal molds I think? I can't find anything that triggers that memory when I google it though. One of my favorite animal sets was a pink southwest ranch that came with a llama and some pigs, loved those (I think this was in the slightly larger polly Y2K era).
@@novembercrust i think i remember the set you're talking about. man, that was a cute one
@@novembercrust The clay animals are from the pet store of the designer mall collection. I had the mall which appears in this video and in that one you could make with the clay purses, food items and busts to display wigs. There was the accesory store, toy store and the pet store from that collection. That ranch you are talking is probably after the cutants era? There was just some farm horse playsets in the 2000's and there's no llama pet in the Sparklin' Pets series .
@@Cammie3267 Hmm, I looked at the designer mall and I am not sure if that's what I was remembering...maybe that clay mold memory wasn't polly pocket at all, that's totally possible. As for he llama ranch, did some searching and I think what I am referring to was officially called Polly Pocket Petland Hacienda Ranch House from 2000; in some of the pics of ones for sale there is a white llama-esque animal with a black tail (possibly an alpaca), and it for sure also had pigs, bunnies, dogs, cats, a parrot, and a horse. I am also convinced the artists on Encanto saw this house and based the one in the movie off it.
"A fairly beloved chocking hazard in family homes everywhere" ....y'all 😭
rubber clothing era was my JAM (although i was very inclined to chew on them unfortunately lmao) and seeing the ads you used in the video hit me d e e p, especially the mermaid one! i loved when they had the realistic hair and did the color change. one set you didn’t mention was the airplane/jet set, that one was definitely my favorite next to the mermaid one. i can’t go ham and collect all the dolls i want, but this video has definitely solidified me finding this specific era of Polly Pocket, unfortunately it can’t be one of the big toy sets but i am determined to find a smaller fashion pack
One of my friends had the plane I was sooo jealous. But we played with it together all the time.
Ugh, do you remember the polly's cruise ship also? that was my literal dream!
I had that exactly tour bus -> 3 story party bus you briefly featured!! it made me so nostalgic
G4 kid here! I literally named my first Polly Pocket 'Pockets,' (sooo creative lol), but my sibs started calling her 'Porkets' instead, and eventually that name stuck. My other two were named 'Golden-Haired' and 'Blue-Haired' (after the respective colors of their hair), so I guess I was just bad at naming things. Although, my sister's were named 'Purple-Haired' and 'Arnold' (but she was a girl). One of my sibs had a boy one named 'Prince Perfect' and he was the only boy so all the girls kept fighting over who got to date him. Polly Pocket was such a staple of my weird childhood.
Oh hey, it’s the one doll that my tomboy kid self ever owned! I was a rubber-clothes-era kid, but even then I was fascinated by having dollhouse staples in a miniature size. My grandparents later found an original Polly toy at a garage sale, and it occupied me for years as my mind filled in the blanks of her tiny home. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
As a mother who loved old Polly Pockets I am actually happy they brought back the compacts, despite how much I myself prefer the old compacts, because I feel like it's a way to connect with my daughter (when she is old enough to play with them) but without worrying too much about her playing with a collectible, haha. I think it, with the addition of the fashion dolls, kind of blends the 80s/90s and 00s dolls in a way that really, I think could probably only work now. There's just no going back completely to the old aesthetic because that's not what kids want nowadays - for the most part. Kids these days seem to like that loud glittery unicorn rainbow stuff.
I’ve never had a Polly Pocket play set, but now I WISH I DID-
Same
my condolences 😪💜
I never knew they existed- 😢
I'm so glad you hate the Quick Click line!! I actually loved the clothes (like I thought the Quick Click clothes were very cute) as a kid but overall they weren't nearly as satisfying as the rubber ones! That was very much the era of my childhood but I had a ton of hand-me-down classic teeny-tiny Pollies that I liked to slip into my pocket and take to the movies, for some reason haha. I feel lucky to have gotten the best Polly Pocket had to offer!
There's something so nice and pretty about how the original Polly Pocket sets and Mighty Max play sets look
It's so satisfying and creative
The water-park compact was my absolute favorite 😭 a real waterslide you could pump! So many hours ❤️ love original tiny Polly!
Yesss! I grew up with the rubber clothes ones and loved those, but my mom had saved a couple of the original compact ones and they were special.
That was my favorite one! Always had to put down towels before playing with it. I loved the little babies with the arm floats.
Born 2003 and grew up with both with generation 3 and 4. it's so interesting seeing how different they are. i remember highly preferring generation 3 to 4.
LOL I had the gen 3 rubber fashion Pollys and I definitely remember chomping on them a little 😂 no but I absolutely adored these Polly pockets as a kid and I have really fond memories of playing with Polly pockets at my grandmas house when I’d sleepover. Mine were gone by the time I was 7 though because my mom didn’t like letting me have toys that brought me joy 🙄 sounds dramatic but she also got rid of my barbies when I was 5 because “it’s all you want to do” like you’re supposed have responsibilities aside from playing at age 5
I was around for Gen 1; I still have a bunch of the old compacts/houses. I loved them so much! I was too “old” for subsequent generations, but now I’m back into vintage toys and it’s really cool to see how the brand has evolved over the years.
Fashion Polly was my childhood and I also have a small collection of Bluebird compacts I acquired later on. Those two generations are my favorite. I no longer actively collect them but if I'd come across a Bluebird compact while thrifting I'd definitely buy it. Such original and fascinating toys, I could stare at those little sets for hours!
The new ones definitely hit my nostalgia button, since I knew Polly Pocket in the early-mid nineties with the compacts. I remember having a light teal shell-shaped one with a mermaid theme and a heart-shaped princess-themed one. I didn't have a lot of spending money so I didn't have many of them. Then I grew out of Polly Pocket a bit and completely missed the transition into the rubbery clothes so was surprised when I saw them in the early 2000s. But my kid doesn't really need more toys, and I don't need more dolls to collect, so I won't be seeking them out.
the ones i remember most were the all-rubber tiny ones with magnets in the hands and feet. i had a playset that i spent soooo much time with and definitely chewed on them quite a bit
Oh good, I didn't imagine that! I mostly had the third gen Fashion Polly dolls, but i had one of those little rubber ones, too. If I remember correctly, I think mine came in some sort of a locker, like as a school theme?
Yes I had those too! I mostly had the rubber clothes ones but I had the magnet feet house and I think one other set…
Grew up with the first generation and I loved it. I had the story book mermaid set, the pink shell wedding set, and the pink square jungle set among others. Even had a knock off which was a turquoise heart with Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. Then I remember the third generation with the rubbery clothes, never owned them but the kid at my babysitter's house had them. It was really cool to me at the time, and the website gives me tons of nostalgia.
I had a ball with Polly Pockets as a kid. You can create so many stories with them and I definitely think it contributed to me like, developing a distinct personal style when I was younger
I was a generation 4 Polly Pocket kid. I only remember one playset. It was a waterpark with plastic pool floaties that you could strap the characters into, a Polly doll with hair that would turn pink in cold water, and a cute brown dog. I loved it and would race the two floaties down the slides.
Ngl, that pineapple compact bag looks fire.
I grew up with the rubber clothes chewtoy era of Polly Pocket, but my older cousin had several of the old compacts kicking around in her basement with all the other toys she outgrew over time. They were one of a handful of her (mostly discontinued at that point) toys that I was always very envious of, and I would play with them whenever I came to visit. I’ve still got a lot of nostalgia for them, even though I never had any of my own. I even have Polly Pocket purse in the shape of a heart compact now! I think a generation six focusing on improving the quality of the compacts would be great, and that they would do really well with both the primary and periphary audiences for the toy. Just as long as nobody gets the idea to turn the tiny compacts into blind bags or something. Literally my worst fear for the brand.
I love your Polly-sona! While I grew up with the 3rd gen (and remember seeing some 2nd gen remnants in catalogs), I absolutely love the amount of creativity and engineering that went into the original Polly Pocket sets. The stickers, foil details, hidden areas, colors, lighting, etc. really make the 1st generation sets stand the test of time. I do think Gen 5 is cute though - especially the purse compacts!
I grew up with the original bluebird compacts in the early 90s. I remember thinking the fashion Pollys were really strange, and I never had any, but I do have a few of the newer compacts. The really super little ones are okay, but there are some cute features in the bigger sets. And the sticky feet are amazing, because it prevents them from getting lost XD
Being a 90s kid, I remember the later versions of the mini 'folding' dolls and playsets. I think I had a mermaid one that was shaped like a shell? It's been so long. I VERY vividly remember the ones with the rubber clothes and the WEBSITE. I was on that thing constantly despite being a young teenager by that point. Though the later generations I was very meh on. Despite loving Polly Pocket, the new ones felt sort of... empty? Like they were lacking something that the older versions had. I'm excited to see what they'll do with all the new stuff.
Also. it's so weirdly comforting to know that EVERYONE chewed on those freakin rubber clothes. I honestly thought it was just me for so long.
i love how you gave your mascot a polly pocket makeover! :D
I still have the compact ones from the early 90 and they are amazing. Saw the new "return to form" in a supermarket and was excited but decided not to buy as they did not seem awesome.
My daughter (3years old) plays with the old ones and she loves them, I have to hide them when her friends come as they are a source of quarrel amongst them 🤣
I had so many of the fashion Polly sets. I absolutely loved them as a kid, and they were sized pretty well for things like Littlest Petshop and pokemon figures. I have really good memories of playing with those with my friends. The classic Bluebird Polly Pockets are absolutely my favorite though, I think they're a big reason that I like miniatures. The new Polly Pockets are cute, but they're just missing those small details that I loved in the old ones.
My love for small playsets and miniatures definitely came from playing with the bluebird Polly Pocket compacts, haha. My experience with Polly is pretty interesting in that despite growing up in the Fashion Polly and the flash website era, I still mostly played with the bluebird compacts. I think my family must've gotten them second-hand or something (or maybe i was born at the right time?), bc I didn't find out til much later that I wound up playing with a really exclusive playset that was the mini church. I loved that lil church to bits. Sadly I no longer have any of my compacts or the church anymore, since they were left behind at my parents' place when i moved out. I can only hope that they've found a new home somewhere, and didn't get lost to the sands of time.
I'll always treasure those moments, however, and Polly will forever be a strong staple of my childhood.
Similar experience here! I grew up in the same gen as you, but my mom had saved some of the the original compacts, including the wedding one! The groom was missing, but I loved it, as well as the water slide ones.
I adored the fashion polly pocket dolls with the rubber clothes. I still have mine and a lot of the outfits are still iconic haha
The outfits are awesome! I forgot how detailed some of them were
I was used to the little sets as a little kid, so when I was an older kid and my friend had the rubber clothes version, I wasn't used to it at all and ripped the clothes! I am still embarrassed 😂
I loved the Polly World movie as a kid! I never got to play with Polly pockets but my mom bought younger me that movie and I watched it all the time
Ahh I remember when the magnet stuff was recalled and while we were sad to have to give up one of our beloved toys, we got sent a bunch of stuff to replace it and it was like having a second Christmas 😂
I also have vivid memories of the terrible sound design in Pollyworld which for some reason was one of my favourite films at the time?
I still have some of my polly pocket dolls from about 10 years ago along with their rubber clothes and a sports car. Surprisingly I managed to keep about 5 of their shoes too.
Oh my gosh, my grandmother had a HUGE collection of G1 compact sets!! I spent hours and hours playing with the whole collection. My favorite was definitely the treehouse set - so many little details!!
The "newer" Polly dolls sold a lot here in Brazil, I saw them at every toy store, and while I preferred bigger dolls, I do own a few. Didn't realize they were discontinued!
Wait, watched the whole video. I had no idea these tiny Pollys came back, nice, I guess.
The specific set you showed at 11:33 was literally the one I had! I didn't realize they all came packaged together, they definitely look like they should've come from a couple different themed sets. I adored them all. The boy with the shiny hair's style came off very easily, and he was the only one, so sometimes he was bald. I adored him a little less than the others.
I got introduced to Polly through the Fashion Polly. I remember loving the rubber clothes because it was easy to put on and really fun to just touch 😅
What a trip down memory lane! I collected the second generation playsets that made up a tiny town. I had the pet store, the burger restaurant, grandma's house & more. I even had the mansion where Polly had horse-drawn carriage haha. I ended up giving them to my niece who is 17 now so they're either in a box somewhere or sold off lol
I miss them but oh well, they were very happily played with for many years
This video reminded me of my favorite Polly Pocket toys. I got a whole bunch of the dolls and rubber clothes at a flea market. I also had a couple of the compacts, I looked up my favorite after remembering it and found out it was called Mermaid Adventure. I think I still have it somewhere? I’ll have to check. Either way, thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I loved the polly racers sets. They had updated stylized tiny pollys with funky metal and plastic cars. Basically, hotwheels with chrome and fashion forward drivers. Loved it, and totally wish they’d bring it back
Loved this video! I grew up with the Fashion Polly Pockets, and in the era that I played with them (late 2000s) I even remember they started giving them part fabric clothing and rooted hair! One of my friends back then had the Jumbo Jet playset, and I was OBSESSED! I would visit that friend just to play with it hehe. Also my older sister (whos almost double my age lol) was so shocked when she asked me what those little dolls were and I said they are Polly Pockets, because she grew up playing with the little 90s sets. It's crazy how much they changed over the years. xoxo Alissa
I had a friend with the Jumbo Jet too! I was sooo jealous, but we always played with it when I came over. So many memories!
Oh man. My grandparents actually have some of the classic, tiny play sets from back when Polly was about as big as the nail of my pinkie finger. There was the square compact with the savanna environment that you showed in the video, the multi tiered wedding chapel (also shown during one of the ad clips), a large flower shaped play set, the starbright diner (though I’ll admit I thought it was just a fancy house for the longest time), the sparkling mermaid adventure set, and the majestic Wizard of Oz set, complete with various parts that can be opened and closed, with the best part being the emerald city. Though, that one was unfortunately extremely difficult to open. Basically all the tiny dolls have also been lost to time, but thankfully the playsets themselves have been very well maintained last I recall.
I myself grew up with the rub dressed fashion dolls. Specifically, mostly the ones modeled after the Disney princess and Tinkerbell. And I too used to chew on the dresses on occasion, haha.
You showed almost all of the sets I owned! The yellow square with the baby in it was my first set. I also had the beach house, the mansion (I think that's what it was called- loved the lights that could turn on!), and the school. I also had a water park one. I kept them (and almost all of the dolls!) for my kids, and they were very loved... until one time that the water one was played with, then put away in an air-tight container without being properly dried out, and all of the sticker parts of the houses got moldy... Ugh so sad...
I actually got one the swimming pool set from a friend while trading it with her for a plastic jewelry box I had (why I remember this and can sometimes forget what I ate for breakfast in the morning, I don’t know). I had a blast with these. I think I later got the magnet set for Christmas or something, but with how hard it was to make them actually adhere to the character I didn’t play with those often 😅
i used to have disney princess ones, vaguely remember a cinderella and ariel with rubber clothes :) loved them to death because i would put on and take off the clothes to feel the texture of the rubber, it was really satisfying to me as a kid
Did anyone else watch that movie about Polly Pocket and her friends going to the theme park? And she had a manipulative stepmother who wanted to send her to boarding school? I loved that so much as a kid 😭💀
Ngl the g4 Polly pocket’s art style is very adorable
I think so too. I really like the designs of some of the characters too- particularly Shani in the earlier years of the gen
I hear everyone talk about chewing on polly pocket clothes but in my heart it's just not a polly pocket if you can't accidentally swallow her (which I did as a kid, I was like three so like... 1995? My parents just let me have choking hazards for some reason)
Also this video makes me pine for my Polly Pocket collection, my mother sold them without asking me :(
I had COMPLETELY forgotten the aquarium play set with the dolphin until you showed it here and all the memories of playing with it came back to me in an instant
I grew up with Fashion Polly, too! By far my favorite as a kid, they got played with far more than the full-sized fashion dolls I had. I think the playsets really appealed to me, I recognized so many I had in this video. I had one compact-style set I think belonged to my older sister since they were before my time- it was larger than the traditional compacts, star-shaped, and had a ballroom inside if I remember correctly? I also remember having a few of the tiny playsets that weren't compacts. A house, a full set of theme park rides that all went together, and a set of three shops that I think were produced later on as a sort of anniversary thing?
I should still have all of it, packed away in the attic somewhere. I wouldn't let my parents get rid of it because I loved it all so much, haha.
Ohh, awesome! I don't actually know what became of most of my Polly stuff, unfortunately 😔 But I bet you have some amazing stuff in there 👀🔎
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh the nostalgia ! I mostly played (a LOT) with the rubber-clothed ones, because they were the ideal size to give them big, elaborate settings and decors AND change their clothes, so they were the perfect size for me, but I also had a sizeable collection of Gen 1 compacts I found in garage sales ! And I did love to lay them all out and make a town out of them x) I always thought they were two different lines, it didn't occur to me that there were no compacts in the stores and that they were older than me, lol
You're making me almost kinda sad I sold them, but when I moved out of my parent's I didn't have the space to lug them around, and I didn't play with them anymore so I felt bad letting them take space x)
I loved the rubber clothes ones. And those are the ones I wish were still here, even if they made “compacts” for them.
I actually had both a g1 playset and g3! And I honestly agree that the most frustrating part between g3 and the magnet clothes was that they couldn't share clothes, but as a kid I couldn't understand why it didn't quite fit
8:15 THIS IN SPECIFIC was my Polly Pocket wave. THIS one with THIS specific logo (I mean, the logo in Crissy's packaging). I can't believe you forgot to mention those beautiful stackable rooms and the mall playset that if you connected to all the rooms it could light them up! I did a quick google research and found out they were called "Designables"! Oh god they were my childhood! Also I must confess that I too tended to chew on those plastic clothes but I never ate them, but for this reason my mom thought it was best to hide all the Polly's shoes😂
absolutely LOVED those mall stackables!! the small details in them like the candy shop were too adorable
My cats LOVED chewing on Polly Pocket clothes, that rubber texture was irresistible to everyone. Definitely taught me to clean up because any dropped clothes would be utterly destroyed lol
I love that they have at least tried to bring it back to her roots, almost taking the best parts of each generation! Mattel seems to be defining what Polly pocket is. hopefully we’ll get more detailed and collectible ones soon . id buy one I kinda like how you can change her clothes now, it’s a great time for toys
Never had Polly's but seriously considering @ least one now just to see. Excellent video. Thank you for the history lesson. Love it! 😍
Honestly if there weren't already so many dolls I want already... I'd definitely be on ebay right now faving all the Fashion Polly lots
i really admire the quality of your videos and commentary. the little jokes are perfectly timed and offer tidbits of information. to me, it is a sign of someone who has a knack for presenting.
I’m a 23 year old adult, and I think I was 20 when I learned about the original Polly Pocket. I was HEARTBROKEN. As a kid, I looooved 3rd gen Polly Pocket and the rubber clothes with my whole heart (and that website took up a lot of my time as well LMAO) but apart from that, I have always been a person with an affinity for tiny things and replicates and stuff. I can not believe I was born (in 1998) past the prime of the miniature Polly Pocket toys bc it’s the way I would have been a STAN IMMEDIATELY 😭😭 though I guess it’s also a blessing in disguise bc holy shit the choking HAZARDS man… maybe I should seek after these despite being grown now lmao…
I actually think the new polly pocket is pretty cute! But the new show is annoying as they constantly say “tiny power.”
You did a brilliant job explaining what made the early 90s Polly Pockets so special. It really was the set design as well as the incredibly clever interactive features. I had Polly Pockets in 94 and 95 and they were some of my favorite dolls. The set design really was brilliant at capturing the feeling of a whole small world without being too "busy." My PP had a space for a photo of you in it. I remember always wanting to put one in but never having one small enough 🤣
I mainly grew up with the 2010 rebrand but I love the 2000s short films and the online games
Those commercials from the fashion Polly's are just burned into my mind and you brought them back. We had only a couple in my home but I really enjoyed those toys.
My friend collected the Polly with rubber clothes and had sooo many sets and dolls! I loved playing with them, and was an avid user of the website and its games. Kinda miss those simpler days :')
So much of my childhood died along with Flash 😔
@@DarlingDollz tell me about it 😔 so much of online history died along with it.
Omg, one of my first memories of being alive is getting the Mermaid Stars playset, and similarly to you, I remember it as being one of my most favorite toys - total flashbacks! The day I got it I threw a tantrum inside of my mom's favorite diner because I couldn't open it until I ate my broccoli, which is kinda embarrassing 😭
I was a big fan of fashion dolls as a kid and played with them throughout the duration of my interests in toys. I loved Bratz & Barbie as well but for some reason, Polly always resonated with me the most
I had a few Barbies and other dolls growing up, but Polly Pocket (G3) was most of me & my sister's collection!! I think, despite not being as intentionally designed as the Bluebird ones, the idea of building a little world for them carried on. Because the playsets were smaller and less expensive than ones for larger dolls, were were able to own several, and would construct little cities to create elaborate stories with our pollys. This video made me so nostalgic 🥹 Especially the web games!! As soon as you showed that room design game, the music for it came back to my head 😆
I played with the original polly pockets when I was a kid-- I was born in 91, so I was in the throes of the clamshell playsets and let me tell you they were my FAVORITE. Sure, I could lose thumbtack-sized polly at any moment and the glitter was scratchy but that was the beauty of it. I'm really happy to have found this because I'm so incredibly nostalgic for the toys I had like thirty years ago and seeing how they evolved. I just love your channel!
I’m so surprised Polly pocket is still around and an ongoing toy to this very day ever since the beginning of the 90s!!!
While over the years they’ve discontinued and banned many other miniature tiny toys due to children choking on them!! I guess we will never understand how Polly pocket was able to surpass many other forgotten unfortunate tiny miniature toys from children choking.
I remember getting my first polly pocket for my 6th birthday back in 1997. I wasn't allowed one before cause it was a choaking hazzard for my brother xD
I still have a full box of them, my mom did the ebay thing in the early 2000s and got me an entire town of the claim shell style ones. Friggin loved those toys 😍
I also played with the rubber clothing ones with my brothers best friend's lil sister. But they don't hold as quite the place in my heart as the tiny pollys do.
The portability of even the third generation play sets made them THE toy for play dates. Barbie’s tour bus was cool, but way too big to take to a sleepover. Polly’s Splashin Fashion play set though? PERFECTION. The dolls, clothes, and even some of the dollhouse items were the ideal size for sneaking to school and trading on the playground, too. I think I may be able to blame Polly for my continuing love of miniatures, and the Fashion Polly line in particular for the way I rank dolls and doll accessories now on scale, detail, and number of moving parts. If there are no choking hazards, is it worth collecting? 😂 Thanks for this trip down memory lane. It was fun!
You're right that the bluebird houses were like mini cities! My favorite was a Bluebird Mansion, I'd always put that at 'the top of the road/hill' as I linked the path outside that house, plus all the smaller BB houses together. It looked like such a cool street to live in. I could literally put a snow/winter house next to a summer beach house, and a public pool with giant palm trees next to that - and a row of shops (a pet shop, a clothes shop and a cafe) next to that. There were just so many fun houses to link together.
Fortunately I still have those sets - I actually *mostly* played with my sister's 'hand-me-downs' when it came to Polly Pocket. And, she wanted to keep all the ones she originally owned (even though she certainly isn't giving them to her young daughter any time soon). There were only a few I owned alone (a purple camping van with horses my gran got me, a slightly later BB fairy playset, and a very late magnetic pool playset. I remember that pool set was the latest one I owned - and I remember finding it so weird that Polly still had her signature curls, but there was a sticker/picture of her playing in the pool on that playset. She had long hair and a pony tail on that. It's so weird to see how the set seemed to be hinting towards that transition away from her traditional style - when even though she still had her curls in the actual magnetic figure included. Makes me wonder whether Mattel were pushing this new ponytail design, but BB just said 'no' when it came to that set? Something very odd was going on, there).
Anyway...I foolishly sold those few sets I technically owned. I also had a few of the Disney collaborations (I had a Mickey Mouse House, and a 101 Dalmatians playset). They did not fit in with the Polly city I built - so I never included them and just played with those sets separately (although I did bring the dalmatian figures into the PP Mansion, and pretended they were all her pets). All of my sister's compacts, cars and house sets are thankfully in our parents loft. My sister will probably possibly never let her daughter play with them (or if she does, she'll probably be 8+ by the time she is allowed). It's just nice to know they're still there.
Great video! I am a little bummed it seems like you missed one collection of the Pollys that had super rubbery bodies with magnets in their hands and feet. I want to say they were around in 2002. No clothes to change on them and the playsets were smaller than the rubber clothes ones but not as small as the OG. The playsets for those were super cool back in the day.
Loved this video! I was born in 1984 so I remember the old compact days fondly. You even showed the compact I had- the one with the little roller coaster car and the track that folded down. I had no idea there were so many different generations of Polly after that! Thank you for your well executed content!
I’m that age group that overlaps both the tiny compact toys and the rubber clothed dolls and the rubber fashion ones are my absolute favorite. The original are very cute and hold a special place in my heart but I remember being an absolute fiend for the fashion doll line and collecting as much clothing as a human we could and desperately trying to create clothing for her out of Elmers glue all the time
I loved Polly Pocket as a kid and got the best of both worlds: I'm old enough to remember the compact dollhouses but also got to play with the next generation that had the rubber clothing, because I have siblings your age who had them, and now I have a niece who plays with the newest generation. What a cool concept for a doll!
when i watch these videos i always appreciate how much work went into making the toys you discuss
I had no idea about the compact/ OG Polly Pockets until Gen 5 and everyone brought up how they look like the original Polly. I was OBSESSED with the early 2000’s Pollys. Those are the ones I grew up with and have the most nostalgia for (and I had no idea about the recall but had a bunch of magnetic Polly stuff. Oops. 😅🤣🤷🏻♀️🤣)
Funny story: Little me had no idea about Mattel or that Barbie, My Scene, or Polly Picket being owned by the same company. So whenever I went on the Barbie website to play games I would see the Polly Pocket web page and be like “What is Polly doing here on the Barbie website?” I would still go on and play all the Polly games, but I was so confused as to why I would see Polly’s face in Barbie’s domain 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The tiny pieces of Polly pocket were intimidating to me as a child because I knew they could get lost, and I don't recall ever actually owning any of them - possibly because I wasn't super into dolls, possibly because we had a family dog who absolutely could have eaten the small parts. But I think I played with them at my cousin's house? But the rubber clothes thing actually reminded me of Betty spaghetty, which I also played with at my cousin's house and LOVED. I think it was because the doll had really interesting hair, lol
You are far too underrated😡😡 your videos are so well made and interesting you need 1 mill IMMEDIATELY
I loved my polly pocket compacts, especially the fairy sets - they were stunning and so fun to play with. The bigger pollys were after I got older but they just lost so much of the wonder for me. It's really interesting to hear the perspective of someone who was the opposite way around time wise in experiencing them!
I cannot express how obsessed I was with the Polly Pocket movies. The soundtracks were AWESOME.
2:13 I had this toy ! i just watched this video out of curiosity but you made me remember how I would spend HOURS just unraveling that plastic thing
I loved the g4 ones from the early 2010's
I grew up with gen 3 polly as well! They were my favorite dolls to play with. Seeing some of those old commercials made me so excited to see some of the playsets I had growing up! I was SO PISSED with the snap and click clothes. I only had one doll from that line and both her lack of poseability as well as inability to share clothes with my other dolls made her my least favorite one to play with!
the feeling of nostalgia for a time i didn't exist within is such a weird but pleasant one
Thank goodness, I though I was experiencing a Mandela Effect cause I was remembering the compacts, but saw someone reviewing one of the bigger Polly Pockets.
Ahhh!! I remember that Polly backpack!! 😍 I spent so many hours on the website when I was a kid. Lolol. Great video. I love your coverage on toy history!
My main interest in Polly pocket as a kid was during 2010 version, had a couple of those dolls and I enjoyed and the little web series too. But after a that year or two I just went back to other dolls to pay attention to
Classic Polly was the best toy I've ever had. As a child I've used to use my imagination to create my own Polly's story. Later generetions didn't have this charm.
After 30 years I've bought a classic Polly and I'm so excited!