Meet Polly Pocket, Bigger and Better Than Before!

When my oldest daughters were younger, one of their very favorite things to play with was their collection of Polly Pocket dolls and play sets.  I can’t tell you how many hours were spent playing quietly (both together and independently) with Polly and her friends and if you’re a parent then you know how insanely difficult it is to get kids to play with anything for more than five minutes without fighting.  For me, Polly Pocket was a Godsend, the best possible answer to the age-old question, “Hey kids, what do you want to play with today?”, but for my girls Polly was a friend, someone they could turn to when their day wasn’t the greatest and it’s for that reason that I’m so happy that my youngest daughter can also experience Polly Pocket, the new and improved Polly Pocket that is.

When I found out that I was part of the Mattel Polly Pocket Blog Tour from Mom Central I was so excited because Lil Diva has finally reached the age where I feel completely comfortable letting her play with small toys and pieces and because I hoped that Lil Diva would be able to experience some of the magic that Polly Pocket brought her sisters before her.  We received a Polly Pocket Hangout House Playset and Polly Pocket Stick N Play Room Assortment from Mom Central to check out and it didn’t take long before Lil Diva had Polly Pocket and her accessories out of the boxes playing with them.

I think this is a good a time as any to mention some of the modifications that Mattel has made to the Polly Pocket brand of toys.  One of the only complaints I’ve ever had about the Polly Pocket toys was how incredibly small they were, it wasn’t an issue of my children being too small to play with them, it was that the toys themselves were too small and thus very hard for my children to manipulate and play with. Almost immediately upon seeing the Polly Pocket toys that we received, I realized that they were bigger than the Polly Pocket toys my oldest daughter’s had played with years ago—the larger size not only makes it easier for Lil Diva to pick up, the bigger dolls and accessories mean that younger children can dress and undress the dolls by themselves and I look at that as an excellent opportunity for Lil Diva to work on her fine motor skills.  Another modification that Mattel made to the Polly Pocket line is the addition of suction cups on the bottoms of all of the accessories—seriously, from the suction cup on the bottom of the dog to the suction cups on each individual shoe, as a mom (you know, aka the housekeeper) that’s a huge thing, that means I can spend less time picking up tiny toys and more time playing with my kiddos.  One of the biggest complaints from my oldest daughters when they played with Polly Pocket way back in the day, was how hard it was to get all of the accessories in the houses to stay where they were supposed to stay, with the suction cups on the bottoms of the newest Polly Pocket toys, that problem is no more.  Check out Lil Diva and her cousin B in action below!

As I mentioned above, our Polly Pocket delivery just so happened to come on a day that Lil Diva was having a play date with her cousin B, and the girls wasted no time getting things in order so they could play.  Both B and Lil Diva loved that  they could change some of the clothing on their Polly Pocket dolls without help and I was relieved that though some of the clothing (the skirt and shoes) on  the dolls could be taken off and changed, the rest of the clothing was part of the doll, it just made it a little easier for the girls to do it themselves (something that they enjoyed doing) and kept me from having to change doll clothing every 5 seconds.  Another features of the Polly Pocket Hangout House that I also really liked is that you can buy the Stick N Play Room addition and attach them to the Hangout House for even more fun, this is something that’s already on Lil Diva’s Christmas list!  Lil Diva is not known for her calm, even-tempered personality, she’s usually going a mile a minute and that usually means that she grows bored with the toys that she plays with rather quickly; I am blown away by how engaged she is with the Polly Pocket toys, she plays with the dolls and playhouse daily and they are her go-to toys when she has friends over…I love that!

To be honest, I can’t think of anything that I don’t like about the new and improved Polly Pocket dolls and play sets, the small issues that I did have with the toys in the past are no longer relevant making the toys that much better.  I know that my oldest girls will probably never play with “little kids toys” again, but at least I can relive some of the magic that they found during playtime with Lil Diva… and I think Polly Pocket is an excellent place to start!

Disclosure:  “I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Mattel Polly Pocket. I received a product samples and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.”