Polly Pocket Collector on Why She Has Greater than 130 of the ’90s Toys (Unique)

Krystyna Roman is the type of devoted Polly Pocket collector who can sift by means of a bag of plastic childhood flotsam — unfastened doll combs, orphaned Barbie sneakers, discarded motion determine weaponry — and establish uncommon dolls and tiny equipment at a look.

The 31-year-old Lake Stevens, Washington-based human assets skilled has been gathering Polly Pocket playsets since round 2018, when an Instagram put up unlocked her childhood love of the toys.

“Somebody had posted their Polly Pocket Mulan set, and I used to be like, ‘What is that this? I’ve by no means seen this earlier than!’ ” she recollects. “Mulan is my favourite film of all time. I used to be like, ‘I’ve to have this! I must go discover this!’ ”

She tracked the set down on-line, purchased it from a vendor in Singapore, and rapidly turned hooked, scouring eBay and social media for others promoting and buying and selling the toys, in addition to native thrift and vintage shops. In the present day Roman’s assortment has grown to greater than 130 units, and in a current interview with PEOPLE her enthusiasm is infectious.

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“These are, in and of themselves, they’re a novel toy. There’s all these intricate particulars inside of every set that — nothing seems like that anymore,” she says. “It’s the colours for me; the pinks and teals and purples. And the truth that there’s a lot inside one little set. There are such a lot of little particulars. They put bathrooms in a few of these units! I imply, with somewhat lid! That is so cool that they made one thing so intricate and carved out all these little particulars. Petals on the flowers and opening-and-closing little drawers and cupboards.”

Polly Pocket is the brainchild of Chris Wiggs, a father who, in Nineteen Eighties England, first customary a miniature dollhouse for his daughter out of a make-up compact. English toy producer Bluebird Toys ultimately licensed the idea from Wiggs, producing the primary wave of compact-like playsets that ’80s and ’90s children will bear in mind. Since 1998, Mattel has owned each Bluebird and Polly Pocket, and the toys have gotten more and more detailed and elaborate over the many years.

On the identical time, a world group of collectors has shaped on-line, with some uncommon units promoting for upwards of $1,900.

Roman is much less concerned within the Polly Pocket collector group now than she was when it was centered on Fb teams. “Now all the pieces’s on TikTok,” she says. “I’m such a Millennial, I’m not on TikTok.” She does have an Instagram account the place she often shares photographs of current finds. However, she explains, she’s much less considering exhibiting off her assortment, which she retains in a cupboard behind UV-protected glass, than she is in “connecting to why I take pleasure in these toys within the first place, which is for my very own nostalgia and delight and appreciation.”

Gathering Polly Pocket units has additionally been a supply of therapeutic for Roman. “There was plenty of instability for me rising up,” she explains. “I used to be an solely baby, so I believe for me toys had been my sense of creativity, creativeness. As play remedy goes, I actually related to my sense of self by means of play. And Polly Pockets had been the toys that I always went again to my complete childhood.”

“Having the ability to afford these items alone now, the place we didn’t have some huge cash [growing up], and having the ability to discover these items that I join with as an grownup now and add them to my assortment” has given her a renewed sense of independence and company, she provides.

She nonetheless owns the very first playset she ever obtained as a present when she was 5 years previous, the Polly Pocket Pop-Up Clubhouse.

“I believe I discovered that a part of myself in my 20s as I rediscovered them and remembered the entire good elements of my childhood that possibly kinda of stored me going by means of more durable occasions, that had been a way of that stability that I didn’t have,” Roman says.

After all, any dialog about Polly Pocket has to the touch on the upcoming live-action movie. First introduced in 2021 with Women creator Lena Dunham hooked up to write down and direct and Emily in Paris star Lily Collins set to play the long-lasting miniature doll, anticipation of Polly Pocket’s debut on the silver display has solely elevated because the astronomic success of director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie final summer season.

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However Roman is hesitant concerning the movie. She’s not within the potential creation of Polly Pocket lore or official cannon by Dunham and co. She feels the character, comparable in some ways to Barbie — however with out the cultural baggage — ought to stay one thing of a clean slate.

“We as kids who had been enjoying with these toys had been the storytellers,” she explains. “We made our personal little characters and tales and interactions with these toys ourselves. So, in the event that they’re going to deliver their very own story of how they performed with Polly Pocket and what she means to them, then that’s going to really feel genuine, and I’ll be considering seeing that. If it’s one thing that feels imposed … That’s not the precise approach to go.”