The STRANGE Evolution of Polly Pocket

first created in 1989 Polly Pocket was designed to be a doll that you can carry around in a makeup powder compact the inventor made it for his daughter but eventually realized that it was a good idea and brought the idea to Bluebird toys in England Mattel swooped in and grabbed the right to distribute the toys in the U.S which became one of the best-selling toys of the 90s throughout the 90s there were 350 distinct poly pocket sets but 1997 came and bluebird was stressing hard because sales were waning and Mattel didn't want to lose a money maker so they bought out Bluebird it's no wonder why Polly Pocket was such a massive hit it's everything you want from a doll wrapped up in a portable package and there's dozens of different houses and sets that you can get you wouldn't need to buy a 200 dollhouse you can just get Polly Pocket if if she's Polly Pocket is everything she says out of pocket now they did have playsets because of course they did it wasn't all just compacts but nonetheless it was still a novel and unique idea and with how many different sets there are it also instilled the buzz of collectibility in a lot of people during the 2000s Polly Pocket was completely redesigned abandoning the makeup compact idea and fully embracing the typical playsets not only that but they also made her slightly larger and gave her the now iconic blonde ponytail rather than her initial blonde curls this created a sort of divide amongst Polly Pocket fans the fans weren't necessarily so upset that they were abandoning Polly Pocket but they were disappointed in how it no longer touched the roots of the toy line that goes against everything I understand as being Polly Pocket and I think I don't like her during the 2000s era of Paulie they heavily focus on plastic clothes that would make for quick outfit changes since stitching tiny fabric is already difficult and then making that fabric even smaller that they wanted to experiment with other material to make outfit changes easier to manufacturer but it came with issues where the stretchy plastic would break very easily though with the quick fit outfits where they used magnets to click together that was recalled since the magnets kept falling out and kids would eat them so those are now rare a decade passed and it was time to revitalize poly pocket again and it was a pretty radical change from the previous iterations Polly was made to be much more Dynamic and in your face coupled with unattractive 3D animations they seemed like they were trying to make her more colorful hip relevant like a pop star icon they wanted to make Polly Pocket the it girl and then started doing the normal diversifying of playsets that would generally appeal to everyone she went from being the super cool girl to just being the every girl again even though I don't like the CGI I love the key art they made this I don't know this still appeals to me probably because it's a blend of anime in there I know I think it's a great design in 2015 the dolls pretty much disappeared their attempt to make Polly Pocket relevant again wasn't working as competition was sweeping them under the rug for a lot of people they assumed that this was the end of Polly Pocket but creating an entirely new toy line from scratch is really hard so it's very common for these companies to just shelf an intellectual property and just wait in order to revamp it and then re-release it they just kind of need to wait long enough for it to feel new again unless you're Transformers in that case they just keep rebooting it over and over and over and over again and they just never stop rebooting it because who cares at this point it's expected now and it works it works now we hit the most recent iteration of Polly Pocket where they returned to their roots of making compact playsets though fans will say that they aren't jam-packed with detail like the original Bluebird toys were Polly Pocket feels like a lot of the passion behind it is largely gone and this generation feels like it's really trying to Target a younger demographic now you're all caught up with the dolls but what about the cartoons in 2004 the first Polly Pocket animated special released they really focused on fashion with this special lots of references to clothes and used a lot of modern lingo to sound cool to the youngins she was also loaded I mean she was rich pardon my freak fast no Big D don't don't make the joke it's right there but don't say it we are we're keeping this PG Polly just casually has a private island and private jet because back during the early 2000s the dream of being rich what didn't feel like a ludicrous concept so basically everyone was rich we had a massive style change immediately after the first animated special I mean this is fine too I prefer the first movie style and now Paulie lives in some futuristic Society this era of Pali was fine you know Paulie didn't really feel like she had a solid concept behind her character they made her popular but also relatable or as relatable as possible they're solid quality and it's clear they did a good job given what they had but it definitely lacks Direction but they are fun to watch then we had a massive downgrade with the 2010 web series where they really just decided to make it as cheaply as possible I mean sure it's higher quality in terms of it being HD but it's ugly it's animated ugly too and they also introduced weird animal food hybrid things that of which didn't last long even though I honestly think they're a good idea Mattel was very familiar with making animated series for the internet but that I just don't know why this one drops the ball so hard oh but don't worry we just randomly switched 3D CGI for the rest of the 2010 series now we have it animated well but it still looks ugly there's not really anything wrong with the show per se that I can that I can point out with a critical eye it's just it's just it's a web series maybe you can just hearken back to when you watched Jimmy Neutron and just not care about how gross the CGI looks regardless this version of poly feels more fun than the original she's more sporty and outgoing her personality is more than being rich and popular this was definitely a step up for the previous iteration if you ask me but we jump forward basically a decade and we arrive at the Modern iteration of Polly Pocket the 2018 series animated by dhx the same company who worked on My Little Pony you can say what you want about the toys of this generation but this is really the first time Polly Pocket was like a fully formed show no not that she was ever like bad but all the elements seem to be missing that is they are feeling present in this iteration though I would be lying if I said I still prefer the before style Polly's personality takes a major split from previous polys now she's smarter more brainy and also has a magic locket that shrinks her down to the size of her iconic toys oh I get the idea now okay yeah not a bad idea pocket time [Music] I would argue the dynamic of the friends doesn't really make a lot of sense you have Polly who's the smart one and also a smart friend that's like more of a conspiracy theorist and then you have the Airhead that just like isn't entirely smart alien shrink rate Polly or raging leprechauns have replaced Paulie with a tiny poly look-alike and you have a weird bad guy who wants to shrink everyone therefore she needs the locket which she want she wants to rule people and it's easier when they're small what are you doing hanging out in the closet it's okay we love you for who you are you can come out whenever you feel comfortable I spent a lot of time in the closet too even though the show is technically more fleshed out it doesn't have a the same charm as the previous iterations it feels very watered down all the parts are there but it doesn't really feel like there's anything that makes it unique it feels fine it's just okay it's not bad but it's not very good now I want to take a look at Polly Pocket today what sort of toys do they have available so I went to the store for a quick shopping trip of course we had to grab some food before we actually got to Target so I picked up Isabella and we headed on our way and uh this is the car that of which I uh drove I wish now this is just a car I saw at Target and looked really good I thought you I thought you liked the ring why are you cool it's not cold it's 46 degrees outside I'm wearing a sundress obviously we had to stop at the pride section because it was pride month when we recorded this and I wanted to see what was going on during that time that's good this that's that's actually good I love this it's not very subtle but it's good I love this that's not subtle on the other side no this it sort of is because if you don't know like the flag it's just like us Colors oh cute cute colors it's Sylveon I don't want to get hate crimed you know the history of Polly Pocket I know it's chewy and scrumdiddly I'm chips I mean you're not wrong I also said she don't stand as a kid though so oh you're the one that eats salt straight out of the Shaker yeah because of my medication because I have a salt deficiency you know when it gets in your mouth sometimes and you're just like okay it's in my mouth I'd rather not spit until he gets out I'll just swallow until he gets out okay that's not the same I imagine you just scooped up some sand no there's a difference between eating something and something just accidentally ending up in your mouth and then you just so happen to swallow it stop this conversation in the kids section hey 90s kids you want a blast from the past tamagotchi's back I my sister had like two three Tamagotchis she was super into it they all died when you're a gamer girl but also Xbox and Opie collaborating is kind of neat are you a gamer girl are you a real gamer girl gamer girl we are gonna get his elbow pads and knee pads you know why because I I convinced two Schmucks to join us in learning how to skateboard those Schmucks are my friends plan number one I'm going to let them borrow my skateboard so that it's very non-committal and they don't feel pressured to keep going and then I'm going to later on if they decide to come back seeing as I have extra skate decks from the skate deck drop that I did months ago I'm going to offer them that you should have ordered that you should have ordered it's too late now but I'll give them those and that way they'll be like oh I have this cool thing maybe I should actually like invest in skateboarding and then they'll feel more obligated to keep coming back and learning how to skateboard with us manipulation no um there's actually you know Polly Pocket takes up a much bigger area than I thought it would oh my gosh they are small yeah yeah like I knew it was supposed to be in your pocket but dang I think they have shrunk for sure they got bigger they were small they got bigger and they shrunk again look at the size compared to my eyeball she's still bigger than the one I have though what how okay so like so it's just it's just like a bunch of clothes but like with the playsets it's gonna be fussing shoot no no I thought you just wanted that Romper so the playsets are still made for the itty bitty teeny tiny ones that much is obvious I don't understand why there's the big versions I want this these little bad boys but it's like this isn't really a compact it's a like a purse and obviously if I get any of them it's gonna be the Unicorn because I got that for being a resident advisor that's a disgrace I gave you a hat yeah working there wow what purse that's that's two and a half years of my life working there and all I got was a stinking hat and a lot of perks actually and this opens up into a little play place too okay so these are cool I don't think I can actually get one not because they're expensive I have nephews and a niece coming along the way and um these are small yeah none no one none of my none of my nephews is four and up if I hit anything it'd be this and this just isn't Polly Pocket also their faces are creepy I mean honestly hers seems fine hers looks a little demented I don't know what it is about it oh they connect together oh that's cool it's a bracelet it becomes a bracelet that's awesome I don't like I know for certain if I get one of these I'm either gonna have to like give it to Goodwill or throw it away don't get it yeah I Pro I don't think I can get it I'll just wait in like guys remind me in four years four years probably I mean four years and I'll get Polly Pocket I love it I love it so this is this is the best product I I want this is whimsical also I want I want a gumball machine I do too oh that's here we go here's more of the makeup compact sort of deal this is what I was looking for oh that's cute and it actually has like plush for oh that's really cool that's gonna get gross that's gonna get nasty a little bit there's like there it doesn't have the same Pizzazz as the original ones wow I'm having so much fun I'm having so much fun did I just find a diamond or is this just how they look no wait it's Pirate's chaos this may just not be a diamond that's just his face Maybe usually on usually you would say that they're a diamond it may not be a diamond usually this would be the part of the video where I display the toy that of which I have just purchased and open it up but because I said I can't because I'm too scared of an accident with small children do not take that out of context I decided to go against buying it honestly now that I think about it that probably explains why Polly Pocket is a little bit a bit of an issue I mean besides the fact that there was a bunch of kids already eating the magnets I'm sure if you're maybe like Elementary School age Middle School age Polly pocket's a great gift I'm not taking that risk it they they ain't even my kids I'm sorry to disappoint all of you I know a lot of you like the review section of my my videos but sadly that's everything I have for this video I hope you enjoy this video leave in the comments below how did you start getting into Polly Pocket what era of Polly Pocket is your favorite what what would you recommend for new Polly Pocket fans thank you for watching this video stay beautiful and keep playing

Channel: Negative Legend

Views: 7,028

Keywords: negative legend, polly pocket, what happened to polly pocket, history of polly pocket, polly pocket toys, polly pocket movie, polly pocket negative legend, polly pocket theme song, polly pocket song, polly pocket episodes, polly pocket review, polly pocket retrospective, polly pocket video essay, polly pocket cartoon, polly pocket tiny power, polly pocket full episodes, cartoons for girls kids cartoons

Id: NOp5g95VVrA

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023