10 Fads That Haunted Our Childhoods

Growing up in a consumer driven America led to a strange fad phenomenon. These things came and went faster than your first significant other, but my god were they amazing while they lasted. If you didn’t know about the latest fad, you were sentenced to the lunch table with the snotty kids. If you discovered a new fad, you were hailed as a hero and almost mythical creature. These things made or broke people.

Tamagotchi – Push a button and feed it. This thing could even poop! I have a vivid memory of some girl crying after her’s died after a week. There were many knock-offs of this, but the gold standard was tamagachi. I hope nothing like this ever appears again.

Pogs – Nothing spells fun like cardboard and aluminum milk caps. The problem with this fad was that after it was done you were stuck with about 4 tons of round smiley faces and slammers that said “super cool” on them. The sick bastard who made these popular needs to be institutionalized. What ever happened to the billions of pogs?

Skip-it – Kids seemed to get a kick out of voluntarily putting a ball and chain on their legs. While at least promoting a semi-healthy activity these things were still around for a bit too long. All the cool kids had reset the counter. That’s over 1000 skips and probably a days worth of time where you could’ve been doing something much more entertaining.

source: http://i.pbase.com/g6/73/717773/2/69766797.QvXxfhmT.jpg

Cats-Cradle – A loop of string… that is all. What marketing genius convinced us that this was so great? I can still do that damn Jacobs Ladder.

Yo-yo’s – Ok, I admit. Yo-yo’s are pretty cool, but the time and skill people put into these things was amazing. Most of the time people would get too frustrated and end up using this as a makeshift lassoo and try to catch a helpless bird.

Furby – I honestly think the devils hand was at work here. There is no other explanation. This thing is a fury ball of evil. Not to mention it’s annoying as shit. If I ever entered a dark room and saw one of these things staring at me, I would probably poo myself.

Virtual-Boy – While I never had one, these things were sweet and in every video shop for about 6 months until they realized no one was buying them except for that one kid who was cool for 6 months. I think this only came with one game. Boxing. And my god was it fun, but so damn expensive.

Pokemon – I’ll admit. I liked them. I played the video game. It was fun. The names! The cards! The adventure!…. I must stop or I’ll be forced to start playing pokemon games again.

Magic – Yes, I’m flashing my dork sign here, but this was (and still is) a sweet game. The true fans stopped collecting after the 5th generation. It all got a bit too complicated after that.

Beanie Babies – There was a time when people justified paying 50$ for a bean bag shaped like a starfish. For the good of humanity, this time has come to pass.

Know of any others?