Thursday, August 19, 2010

8 Toys from the 90's That I Really Miss (and 1 Toy I Don't)

I was a kid in the late 80's/early 90's; a bit young for New Kids on the Block, but way too old for Barney the Dinosaur. We did spends loads of time playing with Barbie, Legos, and these following toys that seemed to have been over in a time span shorter than Vanilla Ice's career. Hey, universe, plaid and ripped jeans have made a comeback; bring back my Super Soaker!

Tamagotchi's! Mine never lived that long, but wait! Sometimes the buttons would malfunction, making it impossible for you to remove their, ahem, waste droppings. I swear! (above)


POGs. Remember? You flipped them or threw them or something? The ying-yang POGs up there might be the most 90's thing ever.


Hungry Hungry Hippos was clearly the best game ever, although looking back, it might have secretly been an astute metaphor for capitalist greed...


Troll dolls. How did we ever sleep with these creepy things staring at us from the nightstand?? I loved them though, must say!


Gak. Did anyone else have the pizza-scented Gak? That stuff was nasty. Looking back, Nickelodeon was basically the cultural embodiment of the 90's.


Super Soakers! I'm sure they still make these in some super high-tech version that comes with a clutch and a gear-shift, but I remember pumping that air-pressure gizmo until I was blue in the face.


Skip-It. What other toy could you play with while simultaneously trying to trip your sister?



Beanie Babies. We all talked our parents into buying us fuzzy platypus after fuzzy platypus by saying that eventually we could sell them all as collectors' items and thus finance our college education. Well, that didn't turn out so well. UPDATE: I just did some Googling and found out Ty is still in business and cranking out the Beanies (and also something called "Ty Girlz"), but judging from their slightly ghetto website they're not pulling in a huge bankroll from pawning off Inch the Worm.

BONUS TOY I DO NOT MISS:


Stretch Armstrong. Remember how cool those commercials were of kids yanking poor Stretch's corn-syrup-filled rubbery limbs clear across the room? Where did you go, Stretch? Come back.... No wait please don't. I don't need to deal with that mess again.

What toys do you miss from your childhood?