I loved my beanie babies. I was a kid when they were popular and I actually played with them. My sister and I used to line them all up in the living room and have movie afternoons with them.
I loved Space Dust, the granular stuff that, when you put a pinch in your mouth, burst into funny little explosions. A newspaper vendor in DC got a supply and gave free samples to anybody who wanted to try it, and you could stand there and watch all these button-down guys in suits taking Space Dust and giggling like kiddies.
I said pogs because I think I spent the longest doing things with them.
I did have a beanie baby collection. The only one that was ever worth anything I used to play with in the sand before any of em were worth anything. That is to say they were all worthless.
I had one Tamagotchi, I think I liked it. I remember a friend of mine in high school ate one. He now has a PhD in computer vision.
In my career as a motion control engineer, I worked on a lot of cool/crazy things. Chicken pluckers, car chewer-uppers, super high speed cookie makers, and pig manure slingers to name a few. But the one that stands out in my mind as a lost opportunity I regret not taking advantage of was a project to increase speed & quality of manufacturing silicon breast enlargement inserts. During the course of testing several 50 gallon drums of unusable breast inserts accumulated, destined to be scrapped. Now these inserts sold for something like $1,500 a pop and there had to be several thousand of them in the barrels. One thing was obvious - they felt really good in the hand. Comforting and soothing in some way just to palpate, or, well - fondle. The pet rocks at this time were well known and it occurred to me that having a “Pet Hooter” would be even more fun. Just pop one of these intriguing silicon sacks in a box and you’ve got the next craze on your hands. The squeezable, soothing sack could sit on your desk and no one would take notice. Even the large ones were still just a handful. You could name it Shirley or whatever gal floated you boat. Feeling tense? Just give ‘er a squeeze! All kinds of cool packaging and advertising ideas came to mind. I asked the project manager if I could buy the test rejects and he came up with a price based upon the scrap value of silicon, around $250 for the lot. At the time, back in the late 80’s, that was a good chunk of beer money so I passed. I admit to being a bit intimidated by getting the retail package and marketing together too. Nonetheless, I will always regret not being the creator of the Pet Hooter! ™ All rights reserved. MEH, if you Market this I demand a fair piece of the action!
@JoseBandito damn…i actually really thought for a second this story was going to end with you creating the water snake, a toy i loved as a kid but now see it for the inappropriate-ness that it was:
(i recommend watching this video on mute, but ymmv.)
While I have never owned a Troll doll (that looks like it would rhyme, but it doesn’t ), but it might be my favorite due to its incredible resistance to dying out. I can remember 3 distinct periods that they were extremely popular (early 70’s, mid 80’s, early 90’s). I wasn’t even around for their biggest period (mid 60’s) but its hard to imagine them being more omnipresent then that stint in the 90’s when every dang store in the mall sold them, regardless of what their core business was.
@sgrazi I don’t remember the Jingle Jump, but there was a clone that came along a little later called the “Lemon Twist”, with the only difference being the ball on the end was yellow and lemon-shaped.
In the 80’s, it was reincarnated as “Skip-it” (which may still be in production)
@guylee i loved snap bracelets! we had a ‘school store’ that sold all kinds of garbage like snap bracelets and scented erasers. i also liked them long enough to remember when they banned them and replaced them with the crappy plastic ones. bring back the metal slap bracelets that slit your wrists and the stick jolly ranchers that would razor the inside of your mouth!
(i know, you can still get them, but they had way more flavors back then and you could get them anywhere.)
@djslack Had a few of those too. My favorite was the totally clear model. I used to put my cheat sheets in the band facing me so when I sat at my desk I could read them.
@moonhat the story goes that the game originated there when people would use the little cardboardish rounds that came under the milk bottle tops to play a game, so…close. i’m not sure what person decided that kids in the 90s would like this game and would spend tons of money on things that likely cost fractions of a cent to produce but…it happened.
a larger, heavier piece known as a ‘slammer’ was used to hit a stack of pogs and…i forget. i think whichever ones landed face down, you won, or something? idk. mostly we just wanted to collect and trade them.
let’s break it down:
(tl;dr i was obsessed with all this stuff pretty much.)
Pogs - yes. had special plastic tubes for slammers & trapper keepers full of pogs, a tshirt, and participated in a pog tournament at the mall. pogs were life. Tamagotchi - yes. every day i called toys r us to ask if they got them in yet and if any were green, my favorite color. thankfully the day they said yes my grandmother happened to be watching me and drove me straight there. first time out i got the cat thing one that is a result of perfect care. (even though i thought the lesser ones were cuter. ah, the curse of being a neurotic child.) still had it up until a few years ago and wanted to resurrect it but it needed a new battery and the screws were rusted shut. Silly Bandz - these were past my time but i still have a couple that i’m not sure how i acquired. Furbies - nope. Cabbage Patch Kids - definitely. apparently when i was born my great aunt went to great pains to get me one but when my mom saw it she thought it was hideous and threw it out. but when i was old enough i started collecting them so the joke was on her. i remember bee-lining to their aisle in toys r us each time. i had easily a dozen and treated them like real babies. my aunt also collected them and sewed me clothes for them like fur coats. Pet Rocks - these weren’t around when i was a kid, but i did make a frog and turtle out of rocks, paint, felt strips and googly eyes which i still have. Beanie Babies - still have them in ziploc bags with tag protectors on in my parents’ attic. i was obsessed. also one time i noticed a kid i babysat for had a couple super rare ones. her mom gave them to me. i took them to this doll house shop near me and rode home on my bike one afternoon with $700 in cash. not a typo. Mood Rings - definitely. Trolls - i had trolls, but only a few and i never really liked them. they were huge when i was growing up tho. Razor Scooters - nope, too old, we had skip-it! my sister was all about the razor scooters tho.
if you took really crappy care of it (i.e. had a life) i think you got the one that was like a sperm with a beak. mine was similar to the one on the left, but i really liked the little guy on the right.
i thought by now there must be some kind of 90s tamagotchi evolution chart on google, but i came up empty.
WAIT! i did fine one, thank glob i didn’t dream the whole damn thing.
@jerk_nugget Haha I remember that chart now- it came on the package, didn’t it? The goop one I remember well, but I guess that’s because it’s what it started as. I think I got all of the ending ones besides the one you had.
Anybody remember clackers? (70s) My mom wouldn’t let me have any because of the urban legend (even though we didn’t call them “urban legends” back then) about kids being blinded by shattered clacker balls impaling their eyeballs.
In the 90’s, they sort of made a comeback, but instead being of on a string, they were on a fixed handle with arms, which made them a lot easier to master.
In my Retail experiences, I have seen fights over the original Hot Wheels sets.
The most entertaining fights were the ones over the Cabbage Patch Dolls. At the height of the Cabbage Patch craze I was involved in a store opening where we had under 50 dolls to sell.
So to try to avoid fights and a mass of shoppers in one area, we scattered the dolls through out the store. We told the lined up crowd waiting for the grand opening that the dolls were everywhere.
Nothing like seeing shoppers running down the aisle looking for the dolls and then not getting one steal it from another person’s shopping cart.
/giphy crazed shoppers
I’m too old for most of those fads listed… clackers. And the bruised elbows and forearms that came with them. And not those icky plastic ones came out later on. The glass ones.
Cabbage patch kids? Blah. How about Garbage Pail Kids!
https://imgur.com/a/mSJ4x
Beatlemania!
If I had made money selling any of them, then those. Since I didn’t they’re all pretty much meh…
How come noone ever mentions bettan, why always with the pogs?
@thismyusername Liked for Lupin.
I loved my beanie babies. I was a kid when they were popular and I actually played with them. My sister and I used to line them all up in the living room and have movie afternoons with them.
I loved Space Dust, the granular stuff that, when you put a pinch in your mouth, burst into funny little explosions. A newspaper vendor in DC got a supply and gave free samples to anybody who wanted to try it, and you could stand there and watch all these button-down guys in suits taking Space Dust and giggling like kiddies.
@gertiestn Pop Rocks?
@therealjrn Zotz too.
I said pogs because I think I spent the longest doing things with them.
I did have a beanie baby collection. The only one that was ever worth anything I used to play with in the sand before any of em were worth anything. That is to say they were all worthless.
I had one Tamagotchi, I think I liked it. I remember a friend of mine in high school ate one. He now has a PhD in computer vision.
In my career as a motion control engineer, I worked on a lot of cool/crazy things. Chicken pluckers, car chewer-uppers, super high speed cookie makers, and pig manure slingers to name a few. But the one that stands out in my mind as a lost opportunity I regret not taking advantage of was a project to increase speed & quality of manufacturing silicon breast enlargement inserts. During the course of testing several 50 gallon drums of unusable breast inserts accumulated, destined to be scrapped. Now these inserts sold for something like $1,500 a pop and there had to be several thousand of them in the barrels. One thing was obvious - they felt really good in the hand. Comforting and soothing in some way just to palpate, or, well - fondle. The pet rocks at this time were well known and it occurred to me that having a “Pet Hooter” would be even more fun. Just pop one of these intriguing silicon sacks in a box and you’ve got the next craze on your hands. The squeezable, soothing sack could sit on your desk and no one would take notice. Even the large ones were still just a handful. You could name it Shirley or whatever gal floated you boat. Feeling tense? Just give ‘er a squeeze! All kinds of cool packaging and advertising ideas came to mind. I asked the project manager if I could buy the test rejects and he came up with a price based upon the scrap value of silicon, around $250 for the lot. At the time, back in the late 80’s, that was a good chunk of beer money so I passed. I admit to being a bit intimidated by getting the retail package and marketing together too. Nonetheless, I will always regret not being the creator of the Pet Hooter! ™ All rights reserved. MEH, if you Market this I demand a fair piece of the action!
@JoseBandito damn…i actually really thought for a second this story was going to end with you creating the water snake, a toy i loved as a kid but now see it for the inappropriate-ness that it was:
(i recommend watching this video on mute, but ymmv.)
who else had these?
@jerk_nugget I loved water snakes! Completely forgot about them until I scrolled past this picture.
While I have never owned a Troll doll (that looks like it would rhyme, but it doesn’t ), but it might be my favorite due to its incredible resistance to dying out. I can remember 3 distinct periods that they were extremely popular (early 70’s, mid 80’s, early 90’s). I wasn’t even around for their biggest period (mid 60’s) but its hard to imagine them being more omnipresent then that stint in the 90’s when every dang store in the mall sold them, regardless of what their core business was.
@DrWorm IIRC the first wave was in the 60’s. Yes, I’m that old. Other than them my favorite was the Jingle Jump
https://www.google.com/search?q=jingle+jump&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiU8sfqq__WAhVTfiYKHcwxA-8QsAQIJQ
@DrWorm My mom still plays with them. She has one she makes clothing for pipe cleaners out of that’s always in a weird new place when I visit.
@sgrazi I don’t remember the Jingle Jump, but there was a clone that came along a little later called the “Lemon Twist”, with the only difference being the ball on the end was yellow and lemon-shaped.
In the 80’s, it was reincarnated as “Skip-it” (which may still be in production)
Yeah this was the last fad I really liked…
@droopus For some reason that reminded me of this evil horrible terrifying fad from the '70s.
Hula Hoops
/youtube My Ding-A-ling
Snap bracelets took my school by storm. The same year that Desert Shield launched.
Also the yo-yo fad was pretty badass. You weren’t cool* unless you had a scar around the last joint of your middle finger.
*disclaimer: I am not, nor have I ever been cool.
@guylee i loved snap bracelets! we had a ‘school store’ that sold all kinds of garbage like snap bracelets and scented erasers. i also liked them long enough to remember when they banned them and replaced them with the crappy plastic ones. bring back the metal slap bracelets that slit your wrists and the stick jolly ranchers that would razor the inside of your mouth!
(i know, you can still get them, but they had way more flavors back then and you could get them anywhere.)
Pogo balls!
@edguyver14 # 2 here! I played for Keeps I still have them too LOL
@ragingredd That’s a different kind of Pogo Ball than I remember, or you played rougher than we did.
/youtube Pogo Ball is what you call it
Especially when the outer layer peeled away to reveal a recycled piece of a tape measure!
#1 Pog fan
3 words: Wacky Wall Walkers
Remember Alf? He’s back! In Pog form.
What? No, I don’t want to see your Pog collection!
Member’s Only jackets. Yeah, I was a member.
@cinoclav Pretty sure my dad is the last remaining member. Still wears his.
How about Swatch watches?
@djslack Had a few of those too. My favorite was the totally clear model. I used to put my cheat sheets in the band facing me so when I sat at my desk I could read them.
@cinoclav I still have the clear one, though it’s non-functional. Was gift from my mom (when I was in my early teens) and has great sentimental value.
Earth Shoes
@therealjrn
What the heck is a pog? I thought it was some sort of juice or cocktail from Hawaii?
@moonhat
/image pogs
@moonhat
/image slammer
@moonhat the story goes that the game originated there when people would use the little cardboardish rounds that came under the milk bottle tops to play a game, so…close. i’m not sure what person decided that kids in the 90s would like this game and would spend tons of money on things that likely cost fractions of a cent to produce but…it happened.
a larger, heavier piece known as a ‘slammer’ was used to hit a stack of pogs and…i forget. i think whichever ones landed face down, you won, or something? idk. mostly we just wanted to collect and trade them.
@jerk_nugget @narfcake @pantheist Huh. I think I’d rather have the Hawaiian cocktail.
/image delicious pog cocktail
@moonhat these days i’d have to agree with you.
/giphy razor scooter
@wmbarr Hoverboard! The scooter’s more dangerous, burny cousin.
/giphy flaming hoverboard
Rat Finks (or should that be Rats Fink?)
I wish this was a multiple, rather than a single answer poll.
let’s break it down:
(tl;dr i was obsessed with all this stuff pretty much.)
Pogs - yes. had special plastic tubes for slammers & trapper keepers full of pogs, a tshirt, and participated in a pog tournament at the mall. pogs were life.
Tamagotchi - yes. every day i called toys r us to ask if they got them in yet and if any were green, my favorite color. thankfully the day they said yes my grandmother happened to be watching me and drove me straight there. first time out i got the cat thing one that is a result of perfect care. (even though i thought the lesser ones were cuter. ah, the curse of being a neurotic child.) still had it up until a few years ago and wanted to resurrect it but it needed a new battery and the screws were rusted shut.
Silly Bandz - these were past my time but i still have a couple that i’m not sure how i acquired.
Furbies - nope.
Cabbage Patch Kids - definitely. apparently when i was born my great aunt went to great pains to get me one but when my mom saw it she thought it was hideous and threw it out. but when i was old enough i started collecting them so the joke was on her. i remember bee-lining to their aisle in toys r us each time. i had easily a dozen and treated them like real babies. my aunt also collected them and sewed me clothes for them like fur coats.
Pet Rocks - these weren’t around when i was a kid, but i did make a frog and turtle out of rocks, paint, felt strips and googly eyes which i still have.
Beanie Babies - still have them in ziploc bags with tag protectors on in my parents’ attic. i was obsessed. also one time i noticed a kid i babysat for had a couple super rare ones. her mom gave them to me. i took them to this doll house shop near me and rode home on my bike one afternoon with $700 in cash. not a typo.
Mood Rings - definitely.
Trolls - i had trolls, but only a few and i never really liked them. they were huge when i was growing up tho.
Razor Scooters - nope, too old, we had skip-it! my sister was all about the razor scooters tho.
@jerk_nugget You got a cat? I didn’t know that was possible. I think mine was a ball of goop.
@Pantheist well…relatively speaking.
they all started out as a ball of goop
and then it grew legs
if you took really crappy care of it (i.e. had a life) i think you got the one that was like a sperm with a beak. mine was similar to the one on the left, but i really liked the little guy on the right.
i thought by now there must be some kind of 90s tamagotchi evolution chart on google, but i came up empty.
WAIT! i did fine one, thank glob i didn’t dream the whole damn thing.
@jerk_nugget Haha I remember that chart now- it came on the package, didn’t it? The goop one I remember well, but I guess that’s because it’s what it started as. I think I got all of the ending ones besides the one you had.
I confess to getting a couple of beanies. A turkey (I have a November birthday) and a Mandrill (incorrectly called a babboon).
Deely Bobbers were awesome! Mine were gold glitter hearts and I wore them while roller skating.
You missed slap bracelets! About the only one I ever got into at all. I had like 2 or 3, but hey, at least I had some.
Anybody remember clackers? (70s) My mom wouldn’t let me have any because of the urban legend (even though we didn’t call them “urban legends” back then) about kids being blinded by shattered clacker balls impaling their eyeballs.
In the 90’s, they sort of made a comeback, but instead being of on a string, they were on a fixed handle with arms, which made them a lot easier to master.
@DrWorm Ker-Bangers!
@DrWorm That was the ones I liked… the first glass ones. Not the plastic ones that came out later. They had to leave bruises!
In my Retail experiences, I have seen fights over the original Hot Wheels sets.
The most entertaining fights were the ones over the Cabbage Patch Dolls. At the height of the Cabbage Patch craze I was involved in a store opening where we had under 50 dolls to sell.
So to try to avoid fights and a mass of shoppers in one area, we scattered the dolls through out the store. We told the lined up crowd waiting for the grand opening that the dolls were everywhere.
Nothing like seeing shoppers running down the aisle looking for the dolls and then not getting one steal it from another person’s shopping cart.
/giphy crazed shoppers
/image wackypackages
@ilovereality those look fun
I’m too old for most of those fads listed… clackers. And the bruised elbows and forearms that came with them. And not those icky plastic ones came out later on. The glass ones.
I still have an original furby. It still works. It still creeps people out.
@RiotDemon i do to its a cow print they’re annoying as fuck… idk how my parents put up with five children with their Annoying fucking toys
It’s funny Tamagotchi was brought up I just showed my 11 year old son the kind of toys that I played with when I was a little younger than him
I also have my Polly pockets to!
What about the balls that you would smack together and they would make a snapping sound kind of like pop it’s smelled like sulfer