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Polly Pocket

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Polly Pocket is a toy line of dolls and accessories first founded and designed by Chris Wiggs in 1983 and licensed by Bluebird Toys from 1989 until both entities/properties were acquired by Mattel in 1998.

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19-512: Polly Pocket was designed by Chris Wiggs in 1983 for his daughter Kate. Using a makeup powder compact , he fashioned a small house for the tiny doll. Bluebird Toys of Swindon , England , licensed the concept, and the first Polly Pocket toys appeared in stores in 1989. Mattel held a distribution arrangement with Bluebird Toys for Polly Pocket items in the early 1990s. In 1998, while production lulled/slowed, Bluebird Toys endured multiple hostile takeover attempts until Mattel finally purchased both

38-435: A chair. In addition to the reboot in 2018, Hot Topic and Unique Vintage clothing brands have created merchandise inspired by the vintage Polly Pocket brand including handbags, makeup, and clothing items for adults. Mattel revived Polly Pocket in 2010 with two-season web serial programming, which is currently only available on YouTube . The first season of the first webseries was made using flash animation technology with

57-531: A metal or silk cord that contained a compact plus space for a few other small items. Many were inlaid with jewels or personalised. By the 1930s, compacts were regularly updated to match the season's fashion trends and gimmicks such as watches and even miniature windscreen wipers were included in designs. Later, compacts became popular souvenir items. Souvenir powder cases were sold at both the 1933–1934 Chicago and 1939–1940 New York World's Fairs . Although compacts continued to be in widespread production up to

76-597: A silver-plated case with mirror and powder puff (price 19 cents) and described it as small enough to fit in a handbag . In the US, manufacturers such as Evans and Elgin American produced metal compacts with either finger chains or longer tango chains. Designed to be displayed rather than fitted in a handbag, they required more ornate designs and many from this era are examples of sleek Art Deco styling. As make-up became more mainstream and women were increasingly active outside

95-670: A similar scale and style to the Polly Pocket toys. Bluebird Toys produced miniature playsets of the DC & Marvel universe, Dr Who, The Muppets, and Wallace & Grommit in their “Micro Superstars” line of toys, as well as “Forever Friends” micro bear playsets. lastly, Bluebird released Disney Polly Pocket style playsets from 1995 to 1999. These were called the Disney “Tiny Collection” or “Mini collection”. Compact (cosmetics) A compact (also powder box , powder case and flapjack )

114-870: A young girl named Polly who has a magical locket that allows her and her friends to shrink down to a tiny size. The series is currently available for streaming on YouTube, Netflix , Hulu and Paramount+ . Polly Pocket: Adventures in Rio was released on Prime Video in the UK and the United States in September 2024. Below is the list of recurring characters who appeared several early Polly Pocket playsets. This list does not include characters who only appear in one nor two playsets. Some similar toylines to Polly Pocket include Mimi & The Goo Goo’s, and Mighty Max by BlueBird. A few other small scale sets that came out around

133-594: Is a cosmetic product. It is usually a small round metal case and contains two or more of the following: a mirror, pressed or loose face powder with a gauze sifter and a powder puff . Compacts date from the early 1900s, a time when make-up had not gained widespread social acceptance and the first powder cases were often concealed within accessories such as walking sticks, jewellery or hatpins. From 1896, American handbag manufacturer Whiting & Davis created lidded compartments in its bags where powder rouge and combs could be stowed. In 1908, Sears ' catalogue advertised

152-502: The Barbie and Bratz brands, Polly Pocket has also expanded into a media franchise, consisting of DVD-exclusive animated films , books and a website, with the latter currently a section of/under the larger Mattel website. In 2002, Mattel stopped producing the smaller Polly Pocket playset range but continued to produce the larger fashion doll. In 2004, Mattel introduced the Polly Pocket "Quik Clik" line. Instead of having rubbery clothes,

171-477: The 1960s it was exporting to agents worldwide. Compacts were heavily influenced by prevailing fashions – for instance, the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun 's tomb spawned Egypt-inspired obelisks, sphinxes and pyramids, while the growing popularity of the car meant compacts were incorporated into visors, steering wheels and gears. Jewellers such as Van Cleef & Arpels , Tiffany and Cartier began producing minaudières , metal evening bags/vanity cases carried on

190-472: The 1960s, their popularity diminished as the cosmetics industry created plastic containers that were designed to be discarded once the powder ran out. These began to be heavily advertised from the 1950s. Writing in Americana , Deirdre Clemente suggested that changing make-up trends, notably for natural rather than pale and powdered complexions from the late 1950s on, contributed to the declining popularity of

209-436: The brand and Bluebird Toys later that year. The sets made by Bluebird Toys are now valuable collectables. The original Polly Pocket toys were plastic cases that opened to form a dollhouse or other playset with Polly Pocket figurines less than an inch tall. The dolls folded in the middle, like the case, and had circular bases which slotted into holes in the case interior, allowing them to stand securely at particular points in

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228-431: The dolls had plastic clothes that would click together by magnets. On November 22, 2006, 4.4 million Polly Pocket playsets were recalled by Mattel after children in the United States swallowed loose magnetic parts. Affected toys had been sold around the world for three years prior. Mattel relaunched Polly Pocket in 2010 by making further changes to the dolls, including increasing feet size, head size, and leg size, although

247-606: The height remains approximately the same. However, fan reactions were mixed. It also introduced the Cutants, which are non-articulated figures of hybrid animals. In 2012, Polly Pocket toys were discontinued in the US but remained available in Europe and South America. The brand dwindled, eventually being sold only in Brazil. The dolls would continue to be sold exclusively in Brazil until the brand's 2018 reboot. On February 12, 2018, it

266-420: The home, compacts became more popular. British manufacturer Stratton began importing part-finished powder boxes from the US for assembly at its Birmingham plant in 1923 and by the 1930s it was creating them from scratch and producing half the compacts used by the UK cosmetics industry. The company developed self-opening inner lids in 1948, designed to protect the powder and prevent damage to fingernails, and by

285-483: The house. This was particularly useful for moving points in the case. Because the dolls were so small, sometimes they came enclosed in pendants or large rings instead of the more typical playset cases. In 1998, Mattel redesigned Polly Pocket. The new doll was larger, with a more lifelike appearance than the original dolls. She had a straight ponytail, rather than the curly bob hairstyle used previously. The following year, Mattel also introduced "Fashion Polly!," which used

304-443: The rest of the series using CGI . The web series maintained a pattern until it got a soft revival starting in 2013 having some characters removed and many other changes until the last season in 2017. Mattel relaunched the brand for a second time in 2018 by collaborating with DHX Media (now WildBrain ) on a new animated TV series which initially aired on Canadian television on Family Channel on July 8, 2018. The series featured

323-450: The same characters from the new Polly Pocket (Polly, Lea, Shani, Lila, etc.), but they came in the form of 3 + 3 ⁄ 4 inches (9.5 cm) plastic jointed dolls. They gave a new spin on fashion dolls; instead of traditional cloth clothing, Polly Pockets used unique "Polly Stretch" garments, created by Genie Toys, rubbery plastic clothes that could be put on the dolls and removed. There are also some boy dolls (Rick, Steven, etc.). Like

342-649: The time of the original BlueBird compact Polly Pocket sets include Dollhouse and Fairytale Castle by Bluebox toys, Starcastle Kingdom by Trendmasters/Giochi Preziosi in 1995 and Fairy Winkles were produced by Kenner in 1993–1995. Small compact toys featuring Pokémon characters were created by Tomy and Nintendo in 1997. First released in Japan and China, these pastel colored playsets were called "Chibi Poké House" which were later released in North America with different color variations and were called “Pokemon Mate”. They are

361-433: Was announced that Polly Pocket would be making a comeback, with a relaunch of the dolls. The new toys are miniature dolls in playsets, like the original 1990s Polly Pocket, rather than the larger Fashion Polly. However, they are slightly larger than the original 1990s version. Rather than slotting into holes in the case, the new Polly is made of a flexible plastic that sticks to certain surfaces, but also bends so she can sit in

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