I wasn’t exactly a Polly Pockets customer growing up. My sisters owned plenty of those tiny little dollhouse toys, but I had no interest in them. Nor did I even really get their appeal. But after all these years I finally do, because some of the most famous locales from pop culture—including The Simpsons, Friends, Stranger Things, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Lord of the Rings, and The Shining—have been re-imagined as Polly Pockets. And I would very much like to own all of them.
The team at TheToyZone partnered with CGI artist Jan Koudela for some very special grown-up Polly Pockets. These delightful, one-of-a-kind versions celebrate iconic homes and locations from film and television. The collection includes Polly Pockets for:
- The Byers residence & the Upside Down from Stranger Things
- Monica’s apartment & Central Perk from Friends
- The Simpsons residence from The Simpsons
- The Tenenbaum residence from The Royal Tenenbaums
- Hobbit house from The Lord of the Rings
- The Overlook Hotel from The Shining
Working from a compilation of images and videos from the properties, Koudela chose the features that make each place so memorable. Sketches were then turned into 3D models with Cinema4D software. TheToyZone said in a statement that the “key challenge was to find a virtual texture that looks like plastic and to work on a tiny scale without losing the detail of the source material.” They then made sure the colors in their pop culture toys matched the ones viewers know so well from the screen.
But they also wanted their pieces to look like authentic Polly Pockets, so they used the “language” of the popular toy when making them. That includes the use of stickers as background, trap doors, plexiglass windows, and more.
The process obviously worked. These look incredible, both as homages to the shows and movies and to the toy that inspired them. Cleary TheToyZone is right when it says Mattel, who owns Polly Pockets, is “missing a trick.” I would buy all of these right now, all while demanding they release more. I finally understand why these tiny little homes can be so much fun.
Featured Image: TheToyZone
