Renee Rosenow“Pa-la-la-la-Polly!”
The catchy tune from the commercials for the hard, plastic cased toy and its emblazoned gold-colored name on the front fascinated my five-year-old mind. When I opened the case I entered the world of Polly Pocket. Polly was a tiny, plastic, blonde doll who could be a fairy, a rock star and many other characters.
Polly had all sorts of places to hang out. A favorite of my own was a fairy world complete with a plastic bridge over a waterfall and river, all painted in a coat of glitter.
Junior Megan Behl has fond memories of the miniature doll and her portable homes.
“I only had two or three of them, but I wanted a whole village . a whole bunch of colors and cool houses so they could all be friends,” she said.
Many Polly dolls stood on a circular platform to be inserted into hollowed out circles in various locations throughout her many dwellings. This way, you could have Polly and her friends firmly stand anywhere you wanted them to, or at least wherever said circles were located in the toy.
Junior Kailey Mezera remembers this aspect of the toy quite well – and how it allowed Polly to dance the night away in what Mezera called her mansion.
“That (the toy) had a hole to stick her in, in the ‘ballroom’ and you would twist something and it would spin her around on the ballroom floor,” Mezera said.
But where’s Polly Pocket these days? I haven’t seen too many little girls carrying around the infamous plastic case that could hardly, if at all, actually fit into a pocket.
Made by the toy company Mattel, the Polly Pocket toy has moved on to bigger and better things. Polly has gone through an evolution beyond my generation’s wildest dreams.
Today, Toys R’ Us advertises a variety of Polly Pocket toys that you’d have an even harder time fitting in your pocket than the original. One I found was called the “Polly Pocket Cruise Ship So Hip Playset” complete with a pool, sundeck, lifeguard stand, palm trees and a very large room where Polly kept all her luggage. Polly is now much bigger than she used to be and even has hair that looks real. The saddest thing, though, is that the So Hip Playset is $52.99! I’m not sure who would pay this price for Polly, but for a beefed up version of the original, it doesn’t seem worth it.
Upon visiting the Polly Pocket Web site, I found the blonde-bombshell and all her friends in cartoon form. The site has loads of interactive games – you can dress Polly up and she can be in a rock band, ride in a limo, go on a rollercoaster and more.
So Polly is still around, she’s just a little more sophisticated. Behl will never forget the original Polly Pocket.
“They were fun to just stick in your bag and you could take them anywhere,” she said. “I felt so cool busting out these teal and lavender houses.”
Wabrowetz is a sophomore print journalism major and Chief copy editor for The Spectator.
