Travel: Pocket-sized gets scaled up with Polly Pocket Airbnb experience
A handful of guests at an Airbnb property in Littleton, Mass. will get the chance to experience a weekend stay at a life-sized model of the classic Polly Pocket Playhouse toy from the 1990s.
The 42-foot-tall, two-story compact brings a toy that a child could carry in their pocket to a much larger scale, modeled after the “Slumber Party Fun” version of the toy. Guests who booked a stay will sleep in the Action Park Tent at the end of a pink stone walkway leading from the main structure.
The structure sits in a clear field surrounded by trees, against which it distinctly contrasts with the same bright pastel colors found in the pocket-sized version. Guests will find life-sized versions of the accessories found in the actual toy, including Polly Pocket clothes that they can actually try on.
“This stay is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for 3 groups of four guests to step into the super-sized doll life as Polly Pocket’s friends in her vintage-inspired compact, and have the home exclusively to themselves,” an Airbnb spokesperson said by email. “Because the compact has never been open to the public, the host was limited in the number of stays she was able to offer.”
The location of the scaled-up toy is intentional. In the universe of Polly Pocket, the character lives in the fictional and aptly named town of Littleton, making it fit right in with the slightly larger Massachusetts town of the same name.
Though only a few groups were able to register for one of three overnight stays from Sept. 12-14 at $89 per person, they also offered registrations for 21 groups of up to 12 guests each to rent the compact for the day between Sept. 16 and Oct 6. The registration period for both experiences closed Wednesday night.
The Polly Pocket toy was first produced in 1989 by Bluebird Toys, making this the 35th year of the franchise, which has been owned by Mattel since 1998. The property in Littleton is being offered on Airbnb in partnership with Mattel as part of the short-term rental company’s Icon Series featuring exclusive stays in places like a model of the floating house from “Up” in Abiquiu, New Mexico, to a recreation of the X-Mansion from Marvel’s X-Men in Westchester, New York.