Polly Pocket Fanatic, 31, Has 130 Sets of the Tiny Toys — See Her Vintage Collection! (Exclusive)

Krystyna Roman has found "healing" in the beloved toy sets, she tells PEOPLE

Krystyna Roman is the kind of dedicated Polly Pocket collector who can sift through a bag of plastic childhood flotsam — loose doll combs, orphaned Barbie shoes, discarded action figure weaponry — and identify rare dolls and tiny accessories at a glance.

The 31-year-old Lake Stevens, Washington-based human resources professional has been collecting Polly Pocket playsets since around 2018, when an Instagram post unlocked her childhood love of the toys.

“Someone had posted their Polly Pocket Mulan set, and I was like, ‘What is this? I’ve never seen this before!’ ” she recalls. “Mulan is my favorite movie of all time. I was like, ‘I have to have this! I need to go find this!’ ”

She tracked the set down online, bought it from a seller in Singapore, and quickly became hooked, scouring eBay and social media for others selling and trading the toys, as well as local thrift and antique stores. Today Roman’s collection has grown to more than 130 sets, and in a recent interview with PEOPLE her enthusiasm is infectious.

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“These are, in and of themselves, they’re a unique toy. There’s all these intricate details inside of each set that — nothing looks like that anymore,” she says. “It’s the colors for me; the pinks and teals and purples. And the fact that there’s so much inside one little set. There are so many little details. They put toilets in some of these sets! I mean, with a little lid! This is so cool that they made something so intricate and carved out all these little details. Petals on the flowers and opening-and-closing little drawers and cabinets.”

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Polly Pocket is the brainchild of Chris Wiggs, a father who, in 1980s England, first fashioned a miniature dollhouse for his daughter out of a make-up compact. English toy manufacturer Bluebird Toys eventually licensed the concept from Wiggs, producing the first wave of compact-like playsets that '80s and '90s kids will remember. Since 1998, Mattel has owned both Bluebird and Polly Pocket, and the toys have gotten increasingly detailed and elaborate over the decades.

At the same time, an international community of collectors has formed online, with some rare sets selling for upwards of $1,900.

Roman is less involved in the Polly Pocket collector community now than she was when it was centered on Facebook groups. “Now everything’s on TikTok,” she says. “I’m such a Millennial, I’m not on TikTok.” She does have an Instagram account where she occasionally shares photos of recent finds. But, she explains, she’s less interested in showing off her collection, which she keeps in a cabinet behind UV-protected glass, than she is in “connecting to why I enjoy these toys in the first place, which is for my own nostalgia and enjoyment and appreciation.”

Collecting Polly Pocket sets has also been a source of healing for Roman. “There was a lot of instability for me growing up,” she explains. “I was an only child, so I think for me toys were my sense of creativity, imagination. As play therapy goes, I really connected to my sense of self through play. And Polly Pockets were the toys that I constantly went back to my whole childhood.”

“Being able to afford these pieces on my own now, where we didn’t have a lot of money [growing up], and being able to find these pieces that I connect with as an adult now and add them to my collection" has given her a renewed sense of independence and agency, she adds.

She still owns the very first playset she ever received as a gift when she was 5 years old, the Polly Pocket Pop-Up Clubhouse.

“I think I found that part of myself in my 20s as I rediscovered them and remembered all of the good parts of my childhood that maybe kinda of kept me going through tougher times, that were a sense of that stability that I didn’t have,” Roman says.

Of course, any conversation about Polly Pocket has to touch on the upcoming live-action film. First announced in 2021 with Girls creator Lena Dunham attached to write and direct and Emily in Paris star Lily Collins set to play the iconic miniature doll, anticipation of Polly Pocket’s debut on the silver screen has only increased since the astronomic success of director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie last summer.

Related: Everything to Know About the Polly Pocket Movie

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But Roman is hesitant about the film. She’s not interested in the potential creation of Polly Pocket lore or official cannon by Dunham and co. She feels the character, similar in many ways to Barbie — but without the cultural baggage — should remain something of a blank slate.

“We as children who were playing with these toys were the storytellers,” she explains. “We made our own little characters and stories and interactions with these toys ourselves. So, if they’re going to bring their own story of how they played with Polly Pocket and what she means to them, then that’s going to feel authentic, and I’ll be interested in seeing that. If it’s something that feels imposed ... That’s not the right way to go.”

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