“I was so scared she would put me back in that case. But you saved me. You are perfect. Too perfect to lose. I'm sorry. I can't let you leave. I've never met anyone like you. *laughs* *music starts playing* D'you know how long I've been stuck in that case? Well, too long... I had so much time to think and reflect. Time to figure out exactly what I would do when free. We'll set things right. Terrible things have happened, but I know that whatever I need you to do, you're capable.”— Poppy in Chapter 2: Fly in a Web

Poppy Playtime is the first toy produced by Playtime Co., who debuted in Chapter 1: A Tight Squeeze. She is the namesake of the game, first appearing in the end of Chapter 1: A Tight Squeeze as a minor character and later re-appearing in Chapter 2: Fly in a Web as its major deuteragonist.

Appearance

Poppy is a petite doll with chalk-white skin, freckles and rosy cheeks. She has red, curly hair tied into double pigtails, held up with a pair of powder blue ribbons. The way light reflects off her face suggests she is made from porcelain and glazed. She wears a large, flouncy powder blue gown with long frilly sleeves adorned with numerous bows, frills, and bustles, and a pair of black Mary Janes. She also wears deep red lipstick. She has a pair of thin, black eyebrows, and a pair of uncannily realistic-looking blue eyes framed by long lashes.

Personality

In her commercial, Poppy is seen to be a social, outgoing, dainty and elegant individual. She also cares a lot about her appearance since she always wants to look her best, as seen within the Vintage Poppy Commercial. She is also very courteous, politely asking her owner if they could polish her shoes and brush her hair.

As a living doll organism, although she still retains her general personality, Poppy acts somewhat different. At the start of Chapter 2: Fly in a Web, Poppy is first introduced with a bubbly, caring personality, thanking The Player for freeing her, patiently waiting for The Player as we climb up the vents in the Backrooms, and offering to help us escape the factory. She continues this personality throughout the start of the game. Although during the end of Chapter 2: Fly in a Web, this personality seems to have turned into a dark, blank personality with her asking creepy questions like, "Did you kill her?" Once we confirm Mommy's death, Poppy boards the Train. Upon The Player entering the Train Code and starting the Train, Poppy decided not to let us leave yet, explaining how she knows we are capable of doing whatever she wants us to do. Its unknown why her personality made this questionable switch, although it is presumed that Poppy has been taken over by this 'darkness'.

In previously teased versions of old scenes Poppy was seen in, she indeed had this blank personality, but was still willing to help you as you helped her. Her unused train ending also has her offer to help us, even though most employees disappeared.

Story

Backstory

In 1950 at the start of the korean war Poppy was created by Playtime Co. with the intent of behaving and interacting in the way that humans do, such as talking and conversing, and she was introduced inside the Vintage Poppy Commercial. The VHS tape simply introduces her as a toy with the ability to converse with a child, a revolutionary technology of her era. As such, Poppy gained mass attention and became popular. Her final words in the commercial being, "I'm a real girl... just like you." This lead to speculation that Poppy is a human inside of the doll or is just a reference to Pinocchio.

Chapter 1: A Tight Squeeze

At the end of the chapter, Poppy is seen contained within a glass case. Once The Player opens the case, the lights start to flicker rapidly and her eyes open as she says to The Player, "You opened my case." It is unclear who or what put her inside the case and why she was in the case, though it was later revealed she was forced to be trapped in the case.

Chapter 2: Fly in a Web

We first meet Poppy at the very start of the game, which is the Mommy Long Legs Commercial. If we listen closely, before her appearance, she whispers 'wake up' softly. After the glitching of said commercial, her face jumps out of the darkness, while she says 'WAKE UP' more forcefully. The commercial then cuts to black, and we don't meet Poppy again until going into the Backrooms. Poppy seems to be free from her case, and we are initially startled by her accidentally pushing over a crate. She states that she was 'just trying to get the power back on', but allows The Player to do it on their own with their GrabPack. Once turning on the power, she tells The Player about how she has been 'stuck in that case for so long'. She then offers to help us, as we 'saved' her when blindly opening her case. This assistance she offers is to escape the factory through the Game Station, by taking the Train which leads out of the factory, of which Poppy has the Train Code. Although The Player entered the factory to find the missing employees, we accept. Poppy then helps us navigate this Train Station throughout the vents, following and guiding us as we move. We then meet with Poppy in a room with a large hole, surrounded by locked doors. Poppy tells us to trust her, but before she can continue, she gets snatched away by Mommy Long Legs.

We then view Poppy in the clutches of Mommy Long Legs, in the Game Station Hallway. Mommy mocks Poppy whose mouth she'd covered with spiderwebs, explaining how it wouldn't be fun if Poppy were to just give the player the Train Code to the Train. Mommy, instead, whisks Poppy away and makes us play three deadly games with their own antagonists in order to get the Train Code and rescue Poppy. Upon completing all three mini-games, we must kill Mommy. After witnessing The Prototype dragging Mommy's top half away, we then navigate through Bay 09 to find Poppy.

After you've guided yourself through Bay 09, you find Poppy in the Game Station Control room, trapped in spiderwebs, and alongside her is the final piece of Train Code. Upon using the GrabPack to free Poppy, she seems different. Her bubbly, fun personality has given way to a dark, sadistic one, as she coldly asks us if we killed Mommy. We confirm this, and she congratulates us, then boards the Train, telling us that we need to leave. Once navigating to the front of the Train, we enter the Train Code and the Train starts. However, instead of escaping, Poppy suddenly decided to not let us leave yet and sends us deeper into the factory. She explains how she had so much time to reflect inside the case, and how she wants to 'set things right' as 'I know that whatever I need you to do, you're capable.' She also says that 'terrible things have happened' here. Before Poppy can finish her monologue, she is caught off guard by the sound of an alarm clock, only having enough time to exclaim her surprise before the audio goes silent completely. The Train then speeds up alarmingly, and the Player and Poppy derail and crash, witnessing the sign for Playcare before blacking out. It is currently unknown where Poppy is (if she's still on the Train or kidnapped again), and who or what cut her off.

Poppy Playtime Maintenance

The Poppy Playtime Maintenance tape is a tape that is not intended to be seen by the public eye, it is only accessible through the Poppy Playtime steam page and the official MOB Games YouTube channel. For a tape that simply demonstrates to the viewer how to take care of one's Poppy Playtime doll, it contains more secrets than one would expect.

As the VHS tape plays, it grows increasingly bizarre and twisted. The footage skips the third and fourth steps, and then the camera aims at Poppy laying face-down, eyes closed, apparently unconscious. The screen then cuts to a claw or tweezer pulling out Poppy's voice box, though it comes out eerily soaked in blood, some even dried around the edges. Poppy then screams a roiling torrent of 'LET ME GO' at the viewers, hinting that she has become sentient and is desperate to escape this torture.

This further supports that like Huggy Wuggy and other toy experiments, Poppy is organic.

Abilities and Anatomy

Poppy, with her tiny stature, can navigate her way through the vents effortlessly to get around the factory. This allows her to follow the Player with relative ease, or even get ahead of them. She also seems to be able to have a mind for working machines, as she changed the direction of the train that the Player and she are on at the last second with ease.

Trivia

• Porcelain dolls were very popular as pretend-and-make-believe toys for young girls in the 90s. Coincidentally, if Poppy was indeed made from porcelain, it would likely make her one of the most popular toys of Playtime Co..
• The Poppy doll seen in the case, and later assisting The Player, is seemingly the original prototype of its toy type.
• Both Stella Greyber and Poppy Playtime share the same voice actress.
  • Whether or not this is intentional as per the developer's decision, or simply due to shortage of voice providers, it is still worth noting.

• Extracts of poppies in real life are known as opium. The species of flower itself is also sometimes referred to as the Opium Poppy. Interestingly, opium is a drug used to induce death-like sleep and lull, while the flower itself was later worshiped widely as it was believed to have inhuman healing properties.
  • It was most probably why Experiment 814 was carried out: to learn and achieve immortality.

• Although Poppy is revealed to be The Player's ally in Chapter 2, it is partially theorized that she has many ulterior motives which could lead to her becoming an anti-hero; however, she might need the Player's help to defeat the Prototype and end its reign of terror.

 

Deleted, longer audio of Poppy.

 

• A deleted audio of Poppy features a longer line from Poppy if she hadn't been interrupted from talking to the Player by Mommy Long Legs kidnapping her by dragging her into the large hole. The deleted audio features Poppy instructing The Player on where to go.

 

Deleted animation of Poppy by animator Alice Smith.

 

• A deleted animation from a MOB Games animator reveals that Poppy used to have a more monotone voice and stoic personality from the start of Chapter 2; she lacks the energetic and joyful persona she ultimately has in the final game. In the animation, Poppy's monologue is longer and consists of information pertaining to the game's plot like foreshadowing Mommy Long Legs potentially being a threat.

• A deleted, fully recorded audio of Poppy showed an alternate ending that Poppy was supposed to have. In the audio, Poppy's voice is a lot more monotone and her monologue was longer, revealing various information pertaining to the plot that was ultimately removed from the final game. The full, unedited audio can be found below.