Advent Calendar #4: Polly Pocket by Mattel

I hope everybody is enjoying the advent calendar series so far!  I'm not producing reviews quite as quickly as I'd hoped, or at least not quickly enough to open all of the calendars before the 25th, but as someone who's always saying she wants to write shorter, more frequent reviews, this is excellent practice.

There's no real rhyme or reason to the order that I'm opening these calendars, but I noticed that I'd featured two MGA products in a row (L.O.L. Surprise and Mini Bratz) so it's probably time to give Mattel a chance.

I actually have two Mattel calendars in mind for this series, and the first one I'll be looking at is the 2024 Polly Pocket advent calendar, which includes the super-tiny 1.25 inch version of Polly:

Polly Pocket from the 2024 advent calendar by Mattel. 

The only review I've ever done for the smaller Polly Pocket figures was over on Patreon.  There, I took a quick look at this little redhead and her unicorn bike:

And I compared her in size to the larger Polly Pocket dolls, which I reviewed in 2015.

That's a pretty big size difference.

I really love that little redheaded Polly, and so I was excited to find her some friends and accessories in the advent calendar.

The Polly Pocket calendar sells for about $22.99, which is squarely in the middle of the range of prices I encountered throughout this series.

The L.O.L. Surprise, Bratz, and Mini Brands advent calendars are all similar in size, but the Polly calendar is smaller in every dimension:

L.O.L. Surprise and Polly Pocket advent calendars.

The box is very inviting and seasonal, though, with several photographs of the actual calendar:

The back of the box shows how the calendar itself will turn into a dollhouse at the end, which I think is brilliant:

What a great idea!

There's also a small photo showing what all of the surprises are.  That's not a great idea.  I mean, I guess it's good for parents to know what they're spending their money on, but it completely ruins all of the suspense.

If I were giving this to a child, I'd take the calendar out of the main box first, or at least cover up that spoiler section with permanent marker.

The calendar looks pretty great on its own and would make a nice gift even without the original packaging:

I like that there's a busy Christmas scene on the front, and it definitely draws me in, but there's been no effort to camouflage the flap numbers within that scene, which is too bad.  It would have been very fun to go number-hunting in this scene!

The back side of the house is nice to look at, too.  There's a lot of molded detail, and the cut-out windows are all decorated with bright indoor scenes made of cardboard:

I'm not sure how the cardboard parts will hold up over time, but I love that there's been an effort to make the body of the advent calendar a useful and enduring part of the experience.

At this point, I was very impressed and was eager to see what was behind door number one!

Right away, we got a doll!  That's perfect:

Start things out with a face plant.

It's a cute little Polly with purple streaks in her hair and a Christmas tree on her shirt:

She has big blue eyes and red dots on her cheeks.  I think the dots are meant to be freckles, but from a distance it looks like her cheeks are flushed or she has scarlet fever.

Polly has five points of articulation, which is very impressive for a 1.25 inch doll.  She can spin her arms, waist, and legs:

There's no neck articulation, but the torso joint plays a similar role.

For anyone not familiar with these little dolls, they're small enough to fit into the palm of Lena's hand:

And they're about half the size of a Mini Bratz doll:

Mini Bratz doll (left) and Polly Pocket (right).

Polly is also shorter than the Barbieland minis that Lena reviewed:

But she can use their house pretty well!

Zzzzz.

Whee!

Polly's articulation makes her more fun to play with than the Barbie minis, too.

I was still very impressed with this calendar and having a good time at this stage.  Let's find door number two:

What could this be?

Oh, cool!  It's a cash register:

Cha-ching!

Better yet, it's a purple cash register with a silver counter and working parts.  

When I push down on the gold button, a little gold receipt pops up out of the top of the register:

That's fun.

The register is a little tall for Polly, but she's only a kid, after all:

So I'm guessing that there will be a store theme to this calendar, which is a neat idea.

Here's door number three:

There's another purple item in this compartment:

It's a shopping cart:

Not like the shopping carts at Wegmans.

There's not a lot of detail to this cart, and there aren't any moving parts, but it fits Polly pretty well:

The shopping theme seems pretty likely at this stage.

Maybe door number four will have something for Polly to buy:

Yep!  It's some mini teddy bears, one of which launched itself out of the compartment when I opened the door:

Both bears have exactly the same mold, but one is teal and the other is neon pink:

They're really big for Polly, but luckily she can fit one of them in her cart:

The bears are certainly cute, but they're not an amazing surprise on their own.

Door number five was at the very bottom of the calendar:

And there's a 2023 copyright printed there, too, which is odd.  I'm pretty sure this is the 2024 calendar.

Anyway, this door was hiding something pink and flat:

Is it a balloon bouquet?

It's all the same color, with indistinct molded details.  And it's about the same height as Polly:

What is that?

Okay, so this was the first disappointment.  I guess that a monochromatic balloon display might be a nice decoration for the store, but it's not something that would be super fun to play with on its own.

Let's hope door number six is better:

It's yet another purple object:

Oh.  It's another cash register:

This is more like a little shop stall, complete with a hollow awning with a blank sign on one side:

There's also a little peg on the front that looks like it could hold something.

So now we have two cash registers:

Do we need two cash registers?

This surprise wasn't very exciting, either, mostly because the first cash register, with its moving parts, is much more interesting.

With two underwhelming prizes in a row, I was hoping for something really good behind door number seven:

It's not purple, at any rate...

It's a little shelf unit:

That's pretty cute.  It looks like it has greeting cards and birthday cake on display.

It's hollow on one side, though:

Or you could think of those as empty shelves.

This will make a really cute prop for the store:

Okay! We're back on a roll and ready for door number eight:

This compartment had two small items inside:

It's a blue wrapped candy and two bright pink candy canes:

These have holes on the back and fit over small pegs like the one on the shop stand:

The shop stand would have been a more entertaining surprise if those decorations had come inside the same compartment.  On their own, both the decorations and the shop stand are a little underwhelming.

Moving on:

This looks like a huge present!  I hope it opens:

Indeed, it's a large purple box with a molded bow on top:

And it opens!  Not only that, but the teddy bears that we got earlier fit inside nicely:

That's every kid's dream.

We're at number ten already, if you can believe it:

It's another doll!  That's a fantastic surprise:

Oh, my gosh.  She's really cute:

I like this one even better than Polly.  I especially like that she doesn't have those weird red freckles.  And the snowman on her shirt is great.

Unlike in Barbie's world, where a lot of the female characters are called Barbie, in the Polly Pocket universe, I believe it's only the blonde character who's actually named Polly.  Polly has a ton of friends, though, and I couldn't really figure out which one this is.  Shani or Gilda, maybe?

At the risk of picking the wrong friend name, I decided to give her the arbitrary name of Esther.

Here are Polly and Esther:

Do you see what she did there?

It'll be hard to beat Esther (she should have been the last surprise!), but let's see what number eleven can offer:

It's a new car!

This feels like the Price is Right.

It's a simplistic (futuristic?) car with no steering wheel or other controls, but it has moving wheels, which sets it apart from the purple shopping cart:

If Polly lifts her arms, she can fit nicely into this car:

How she steers is anybody's guess.

Now Polly has a way to get to the store and back home again, but she can't buy anything because there's no trunk or back seat to store things.

Number twelve marks the halfway point: 

Is it a bowling pin?

Nope!  It's a snowman:

Does this shop sell snowmen?

He's cute, with red printed features on his head and a bright red scarf.  He's a bit shorter than Esther:

The snowman is a good surprise, and would be a fun accessory for games, but when I compare the quality of this figure to the snowy bear that we got in the L.O.L. Surprise calendar, well...

That's a better surprise.

The bear is a much more interesting miniature, with the mix of colors in his features and the molded detail throughout.

Number thirteen is printed right over the picture of Polly herself, so it'd better be good!

Is it an animal?

A gingerbread dog, maybe?  It's flat, purple, and roughly dog-shaped, with markings that look like icing:

A lavenderbread dog?

Esther has always wanted a dog, so she was happy to meet this fellow:

I was trying to think of names for a flat, purple cookie dog and wasn't paying much attention to door number fourteen:

But look what's inside!

It's a reindeer!

Now it feels like Christmas.

Finally!  One of the calendars delivered a reindeer.  I hope this isn't the last time it happens.

This is a very short reindeer, though, especially for having his full rack of antlers:

One tiny reindeer down, seven to go.

It'll be hard for the next surprise to be better than a tiny reindeer, especially since I don't think there are any more dolls in the mix, but let's see:

It's another animal!

It's a little yellow dog that looks like a corgi:

Good dog!

She's a big corgi when compared to Polly, but that's okay:

I will call you Maximus.

I was feeling pretty happy after getting both a tiny reindeer and a giant corgi, so there wasn't much pressure going into door number sixteen:

It looks like a chair?

I couldn't really tell this right away, but in the up-close images I can see that it's a dog bed.  There's even a molded dog face on the back:

But at first I thought it was a chair for the dolls:

Which kind-of works?

But of course it's a bed for the corgi...and maybe the gingerbread dog, too:

I'm not sharing with a cookie.

I wasn't feeling like I had a lot of furniture for the house at this point.  I mean, it's a big house, and so far all I have is two cash registers and a dog bed.  How are we going to fill this house?

I was hoping that door number seventeen would be hiding some more furniture:

Is that furniture?

Nope.  It's two gold rope barriers:

I guess these are for the store?  They feel more red carpet to me:

That didn't alleviate my concern that we're nearing the end and I might not be able to fill the house in a satisfying way.

Please help me, number eighteen!

At first, I couldn't see anything inside this compartment:

It's three small things at the very bottom.

They're button-sized shapes: a red heart, a blue pentagon, and a gold star:

Magically delicious.

These have holes on the back so that they can fit over pegs, but there's still nothing to decorate except for that one cash register.

Okay, number nineteen, you have to be furniture.  You have to:

*sending furniture vibes*

Oh!  Oh!  It's chairs!

Thank goodness.

It's two throne-like chairs--one in silver and one in gold:

Polly and Esther fit in the chairs well if their arms are elevated, but I discovered that Esther's left arm doesn't move at all, so she struggles to sit upright:

Hard to get comfy.

I'm not sure if these are chairs for a living space in the house, or something for the shop?  Like maybe this is where Santa comes to sit?  They look a bit like Santa chairs.  We'll have to wait and see.  Santa would be a pretty epic surprise for the 24th day!

Only four more doors to open!  Here's number twenty:

This looks like another present:

Yep.  This one is pink and rectangular:

And it's very big!

Surprise!

Okay, at this point, if I'm not going to get a lot of furniture, I'd at least like more stuff for the girls to buy and put inside the presents.

What have you got for me, number twenty one?

This looks promising...

It's a purple balloon dog!

It's about the same size as the gingerbread dog:

So now we have a corgi dog, a gingerbread dog, and a balloon dog!  What else could a person want?

Maybe what's behind door number twenty two:

This looks like furniture:

It's a very small green banquet table with a peg in the middle:

The only things I have to fit on the peg are the giant candies (way too big) and the gem-like shapes:

That doesn't feel right.

I guess door number twenty three had better have something else for us to put on the table:

That might work!

It's a seafoam green gingerbread man and a tiered display of something pink that could be food:

The pink thing looks perfect for the table, but that gingerbread man is disconcertingly large:

Run, run, ginger boy. That cake is mine.

Okay, this is it.  It's the last door, and I'm really hoping for something special--or, honestly, just something useful:

This doesn't look like any of those things:

It's a large hollow pink bear:

Like a gummy bear, but less yummy.

This bear is even bigger than Polly:

In fact, she can fit all of the way inside the back of the bear!

That's a good hiding place.

I have to say, this is a funny assortment of items:

Without seeing how everything fits together with the house, it's hard to say which items are the best and worst at this point, but I feel like the rope barriers, the decorative items, the balloon bundle, the second cash register, and the large bear were the things that I was least excited to get.

But let's see if the house changes any of that.

Once all of the doors were opened, I cut a few pieces of clear tape around the outside of the house, and pulled the advent calendar section away.  This is what I found behind it:

There's a colorful scene inside the house, some bright pink walls and floors, an instruction booklet, and a surprise bag!

So, not only is the house itself a nice treat for Christmas day, but there's a 25th surprise, too!

It's a Christmas tree with pegs on it, and two purple nutcrackers:

These items slot into the edges of the walls:

The decorations inside the house help explain the items a bit better.

The top floor is the only home-like space for Polly and Esther, and it's basically just a living room:

Like a break room for shop employees?

The third floor is clearly a shop, which seems to sell mostly animal-themed toys.  That tracks.  But then the first and second floors are both outdoor scenes, one of which looks like an amusement park with a train, and the other looks like a city block:

That's all pretty confusing.

I did my best to set up the house in a way that made sense, with the chairs, dog bed, and banquet table up on the top floor, a few scant outdoor items on the bottom floor, and the shop stuff distributed between the other two floors, since the second floor's outdoor scene makes no sense to me:

The house looks cute, but I found it difficult to use.  There are little pegs everywhere to help secure the dolls and items, but not everything fits on the pegs well.  For example, I couldn't get either rope barrier to sit flat against the floor.  Also, when I was trying to push one item into place, another one would inevitably tip over or pop off.  It's also very hard to balance the dolls inside such a narrow space.  Maybe small kid hands would have an easier time?

In any case, we finally have somewhere to put all of the random peg-and-hole decorations, and they make the Christmas tree look very festive!

That's a nice finale.

I turned to the promotional photos to see how the house was supposed to be arranged.  In particular, I wanted to know what should be done with that second floor:

I'm sorry, but that makes even less sense than what I arranged.  The chairs and the car are both on the second floor??  Also, the scenes are slightly different from what I have in my house, which is interesting.  For example, there's no train on the second floor and the ferris wheel is on the left.  And, just as an aside, you shouldn't leave balloon animals out in the cold.  They tend to shrivel.

While I was looking at promotional photos, I decided to check out some of the Polly Pocket advent calendars from previous years.

Here's the one from 2023:

Now, see, that makes sense!  It's a house with a bunch of different rooms, and then an outdoor scene at the bottom.  I mean, okay, the outdoor scene at the bottom still doesn't make sense within the structure of the house, but it's nice for play.

And look at all of the cool stuff that comes with this set:

There's an oven and a fridge that open (covet!), in addition to a cute fireplace and a working see-saw.  Also the Christmas tree looks fascinating...and is that a cake ring?  There are a few repeats, too, like the gingerbread dog, gingerbread man, snowman, present, banquet table, and a few of the decorations.

This is the calendar from 2022:

Polly is sitting on the couch with her dog. That's my life in a nutshell.

Again, it's a proper doll house with different rooms.

There are a bunch of repeats between 2022 and 2023, though, so maybe it wouldn't be so fun to do this calendar every single year.

Still 2022 is my favorite, from what I can see here, because it has both the oven and the fridge, in addition to a cute dog, the fascinating Christmas tree, a swinging hammock, and some outdoor camping-themed items:

Also, the dolls look really cute and there's this fascinating yellow and green object that looks like a video game?

Does it do something?  I want to play.

I guess it was a good idea to put a photograph of all the surprises on the front of the box!  I should have looked more carefully.

Maybe I'll get the 2022 calendar for next year.

In the meantime, I'll show you a few close-up shots of the calendar I have.  Here's Esther hanging around outside with some teddy bears:

Better than hanging around inside the teddy bear.

And here's Polly driving down a snowy street:

Look Mom! No steering wheel.

Esther's shopping for gingerbread men, but there's nobody at the cash register:

The customer service was much better last year.

And Polly is searching for something to buy in a shop with a lot of cash registers and barriers but not a lot of merchandise:

I guess I should've done my shopping before Christmas Eve.

Bottom line?  The idea behind this calendar is excellent.  The calendar section has a busy, inviting Christmas scene that's fun to look at, there are several neat little toys to be found behind the doors (the best of which are the detailed and articulated dolls), and then the back of the calendar transforms into a durable, attractive, multi-floor dollhouse that accommodates the dolls and accessories.  That all sounds practically perfect to me.

The devil is in the details, though.  This calendar had the fewest number of really good surprises of any of the ones I've looked at so far.  It was really only the dolls, the moving cash register, and some of the cute animal accessories (like the reindeer!) that I found exciting.  In addition to feeling underwhelmed by a lot of the small plastic items, I wasn't really sure what to do with them, even when I had the dollhouse assembled.  That said, the finished dollhouse, while confusing in its design and difficult to play with, offers a nice reward for the 25th day.

Here are the basics:

Best toy: the dolls, but mostly Esther

Worst toy: the rope barrier, especially because it doesn't fit onto the pegs very well

Number of good surprises: 18

Number of really good surprises: 7 (the dolls, the assembled house, and a few of the accessories)

Excitement rating, out of 10: 6

Aesthetic rating, out of 10: 8

I don't regret buying this calendar, mostly because I like the mini dolls and really appreciate the originality of the concept.  But in hindsight, I wish I'd opted for a different year, like 2022, where the design of the house is more conventional, and the accessories look better suited to display and more conducive to play.

It took me five minutes to arrange this simple scene.