Wonderful World of the 90s

My childhood growing up in the 1990s

The 90s was a time of pure AWESOMENESS! I dont know if it was because I was kid, but the world seemed to have a lot less drama. Today you have the pressure of terrorists, war, global warming, bad economy, swine flu, etc. Back then the only problem seemed to be our president scoring some dome in the White House. I miss the carefree days I had in the 90s. Growing up in South Florida, I experienced a ton of things. Lets see if I can spark some of your memories with this article.
P.S. This is my first article so bear with me.

Velcro Wall

I have always seen these growing up and never got a chance to do it. Where the heck did they go??? I never see the Velcro Walls anymore.

Human Gyroscope

The human Gyroscope was one of the most interesting things I saw as a child at all of the carnivals, beaches, and fairs. I never go to ride one of these but always have wanted to. The Human Gyroscope also seemed to disappear with the Velcro walls.

SQUEEZIT!

The best juice ever created! Kool-aid bursts was just a knock off to this! Check out the commercial!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5POEy24AD4

Treasure Trolls

Rub the jewel to make a wish. These were collected by everyone and they came in different colors and outfits.

Easy Bake oven for boys. Instead of tasting or creations, we were supposed to scare people with these bugs. Too bad people know the difference between a real spider and a lime green spider with pink legs.

Talkboy and Talkgirl

What is the difference between these 2 devices other than the name? No idea. Thanks to Kevin in Home Alone, we were able to come up with our own wacky recordings and test them out on friends and family.

Yak Bak

Talking about recording devices, the YaK bAk was the toy to have. It only recorded maybe 10 seconds of audio. Some yak baks like the one above had sound fx. AMAZING!!!

Board Games

Games like Crossfire, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Ker Plunk, Mouse Trap, Splat, etc. kept us entertained. Rolling dice didnt cut it for us. We needed more action to keep us playing!

HAD TO HAVE EM! (Fads)

Back in the 90s there were a ton of fads and toys kids HAD TO HAVE. They always sold out and were always sold everywhere. If you didnt have it, you werent considered cool!

Laser Pointers

These were one of the coolest things to come out in the 90s. Laser pointers were fun and never got old. Shine them in windows, at the board in class, and even at the movie screen. Everyone had their pets chasing the laser through the house, up walls, and even into walls. They had different caps with different designs. The designs were typically a skull, happy face, hand throwing up a peace sign. All the boys loved to shine the naked lady. I still have my laser today and use it from time to time.

The Razor

First razor I ever owned was a scooter. These were everyones obsession. I didnt know the Sharper Image was a store until the Razor became popular. I think everyone got injured once or twice because of these bad boys.

Crocodile Mile

Hey Mate, what do you do when you see a crocodile? You run, you slide, you hit the bump and take a dive! Crocodile Mile was the best Slip N Slide made in the 90s. I think it was the best one ever made, but thats just my opinion. We spent hours on this doing tricks and flips. Who would have guessed a piece of plastic and water could keep you entertained for so long.

Skip It

Skip It was pretty cool until it hit you other foot and you busted your face on the sidewalk.

Bop It

Bop It was a more advanced Simon. It was always about who can go the longest. Bop It was the toy to have for a while.

SURGE

Who doesnt remember the commercial for Surge. This was the drink of the 90s for me. The commercial were intense and now they are extinct.

Tiger Handheld Games

These sucked but they wont be forgotten. If you couldnt afford a GameBoy than you were stuck with one of these. They kept me entertained for 2 minutes.

Nickelodeon Gak

Gak was the silly putty of the 90s. I made too many messes with this. I remember they had a pizza flavored gak, but it smelled so raunchy. I wonder why they stopped making this.

Legos

Little plastic building blocks. I could build for hours nonstop. Legos were the best. Other companies tried to compete (MegaBlocks). But everyone knew you cant replace legos.

KNex

I never had KNex but my friends did. They built some cool things but never anything as cool as the picture posted above.

Moon Shoes

These did not work. I did not get any air with these shoes. They weighed me down a lot, but they were a pretty cool concept and I had to have them.

Fish Tail Skateboards

The first skate board I ever owned was a fish tail skateboard. They may not be as popular as they were back in the 90s, but they did go a hell of a lot faster than skateboards today.

BMX

Back in the 90s there were 4 types of BMX bikes that were extremely popular when I grew up in the 90s. The top 2 was the Dyno and the GT. The next 2 were the mongoose and Schwinn.

Tech Decks

Tech Decks were the best for keeping yourself occupied during class. There were hundreds of different designs and kids always loved trading them. If you sucked at skateboarding than you still had a chance to be pro with a Tech Deck. Tech Deck also had some wicked skate parks you could buy and tear up at home with friends. The good thing about tech decks was that they never caused you any injury.

Goosebumps and Animorphs
Before Harry Potter and Twilight, Goosebumps and Animorphs ruled the shelves. They were extremely popular and were always the top seller at the school book fair. Television shows were made for both series and was also a popular thing to watch.

Kid Cuisine

If you had parents that like to be lazy every now and then, then you most likely enjoyed a Kid Cuisine. Growing up I enjoyed them. When I ate them there was a different mascot. BJ and the Chef! Now they have some little punk penguin that tries to fit in with every trend.

Taco Bell Dog

Who doesnt remember this fucker? This dog has been in numerous commercials. He even tried to catch Godzilla in a box. Bold little guy.

Wonder Ball

I used to love this candy. It was a ball of chocolate with a toy inside. One of the greatest combinations ever!

Super Soaker

What an invention! The super soaker is the king of all water guns. The gun in the picture above is what I remember being my first super soaker and possibly the first model. I looked this model up on eBay about a year ago and they were going for about 100 dollars. It was brought back recently for an anniversary special. I saw it at Toys R Us about a week ago.

Yo-Yo

Yo-yos have been around forever, but they got big back in the 90s when I was growing up. Everyone had one and everyone knew how to pull of some pretty cool tricks. I still have mine.

Vortex Football

Vortex Footballs were the coolest footballs growing up. They went so freaking far. The whistle Vortex was probably the best one I owned.

Space Jam

Who didnt love this movie? Second best combination next to the wonder ball. Looney Tunes, Michael Jordan, Bill Murray, and the fat guy from Jurassic Park. What not to love?

WWJD

What would Jesus Do? Or if backwards... Devil Just Wont Win. These were very popular in school when I was growing up.

Rubber Poppers

Another piece of plastic that would entertain us in class. I heard the man that invented these is a millionaire. Lucky SOB.

Nerf

Nerf was the kid version of Smith and Wesson. Shooting your friends with foam bullets or shooting a foam basketball in your room, Nerf was there for your childhood needs.

Well thats all I got for you this time. If you guys like what you read than I will post more because this is just a fraction of my childhood and what I remember. Thanks for reading and hopefully you had a good time running down Memory Lane with me.

To be continued?

Comments

god i miss the 90s everything sucks now days!!

Im sorry the Nomad but the majority of this stuff is the 90s & besides what diffreance does it make anyway? the early 00s felt no diffreant from the 90s 2000-2003 exsept 04 well anyway this is a awesome article really takes me back to a time of PURE-AWESOMENESS the 90s was the best time period to be growing up in although i missed out on 90-92 i still had a great 7 years in the decade & thats almost the whole decade so i am a combo hybrid kid 90s early 00s kid but mostley 90s thank you so much for this article man you are legend.

PS. Im gonna go look for another Vortex Football those where awesome i miss having one good memories brings a happy tear to my eye.

Love the WWJD bracelets! Wish they were still popular, but more importantly wish what they stood for was. God bless.

A majority of this stuff isn't from the 90's.

Thank you so much for this article, ahh the hot summer days I spent in the back yard with my super soaker.

holy shiz! i remember some of this stuff. sqeeze its came out with a version where you added a tablet/capsule and the drink would change colours. god. i swear this just makes me feel so old. XD

Did you add the String Racer? I used to have one of those!

I associate BMX more with the 1980's than the 1990's.

This stuff is still availible in Norway. It' sold under a different name though "Urge". There is an urban legend in norway that the original name in the US was Urge aswell but they changed it to surge because parents in the US thought it was too sexual.

In fact I do believe that norway is the only country in the world currently still selling the urge bottles. For a while you could only get the 0.5L bottles but some norwegian arranged a facebook group rally and made coca-cola norway start selling the larger 1.5L bottles. In fact we also have a different type of Urge product that recently came out (Urge intense) with added guarana or something. Tastes like crap but still..

Here are some images you should take a look at:

Regular norwegian urge bottle:
http://www.coca-cola.no/contentstore/no_NO/media_assets/urge_no_NO.jpg

Heres the guy that brought the 1.5L urge bottle back(posing with a bunch of 1.5L bottles):
http://g.api.no/obscura/www.ba.no/m/02089/1218922628000_Urge-510_2089710m.jpg

Urge intense : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Urge_intense_energy.jpg

Dude... Yes! So many memories! Some of my favorite childhood toys...

My fiance still loves Animorph books. I never read them as a kid, but he's having me read them all now.

SURGE!! That stuff was so good. It's like Mountain Dew of Vault. my mom didn't want me to drink that stuff. I remember they had it at chucky cheeze.

I had a tomogochie, a yak back, CROSSFIRE, A BOP IT, lazerpin, and I always wanted a talkboy. I also had this cool supersoaker that could spray in 3 different directions.

Ive still got my TalkBoy lol.

I miss squeezits

Great article, brought back a lot of memories. I too am 21 and had a great childhood in the 90's. I had a lot of these things. I had a lot more of the Battle Trolls, but I had a Treasure Troll too, because I had heard they granted wishes.

Super Soakers were so popular, I remember seeing them all the time. Anybody remember the really huge ones? I had the second one down: http://www.freewebs.com/supersoakit/cps.htm I still have it, but haven't pulled the trigger in about six years.

Didn't get into many of the fads, though. Aside from pogs, I guess I didn't really like being into something that everybody else was, too.

I still remember the Super Soakers. Me my bro and my buddy next door were buying them getting ready for a water gun battle with some kids down the street which never happened.

Oh my goodness. You touched on so many things that I held dear back then it's ridiculous. You have to do a part two. I demand you do a part two. Excellent first article.

Thumbs up!

Pogs, yes! I remember pogs, i was so into those. My mom had a connection with a company that was making pogs at the time, and she was able to get me entire boxes at a time of pogs. it was so awesome. they should definitely bring those back.

Awww you gotta make another one of these. It actually made me smile remembering all this stuff.

the 90s really were good times. Im glad I got to have my childhood in that decade, because seeing how it is with kids these days.....you get the idea.
They were simpler times, or at least to the kids they were.

I remember all of these!^_^ Geez, I've always wanted to try the Velcro Wall though. I'm guessing their not around anymore because they don't fit safety regulations or whatever.

where's the "it from the pit" boardgame?

Dude, you forgot about those slap braclettes and trapper keepers!

Don't forget about bungie jumping. I remember this was what everyone was talking about doing, planning or daring someone to do.

Also, I remember the "Wonderball" originally having a rubber ball inside the chocolate, which would open up with the prize inside. I'm assuming the company quickly nixed the rubber ball 'cause it probably made the candy taste like crap. Thumbs up.

Awesome article my friend thanks for the memories.

I remember all of those things. Nice work.

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! Some buddies and I were just making fun of the old crossfire commercials! This article brought back many memories! Keep them comming!

Those Tiger Handhelds used to rock man! I still have the sonic one. And I forgot all about those plastic poppers. Great one dude!

Terrific Article!! Thumbs way up! Had me hooked from beginning to end, Its cool to see all of this stuff again. Write another please.

Heh, I remember those robot dog things and Furby. And I used to have all 150 original Pokemon cards, but my dad sold them....

Thanks for helping me remember Yak Bak and Wonder Balls. Seriously love all of these things, but had forgotten those 2. Cool article =)

I'm 21

I grew up in the 70s-80s, so I don't connect with most of this. But, judging from the responses, you must have hit the nail on the head.

What is the average age of folks here?

I looooved Gak. I remember once I got it in my sister's hair, and I got in so much trouble. I still have a Bop It Extreme in my room. The batteries are dead though. D:

Anyway, this article is superb!

Could have been more detailed, but still enjoyable.

That was a great article that you did,It also brot back a lot of good memories and i also rememeber when i was a kid during the 90s that Diseney Channle use to cost a arm and a leg to to have but if you where a kid at that time you were the king in the class room.

Great pictures, great products to remember, great times we all had, great article broheem.

(Thank you for not mentioning the Power Rangers...such a Voltron knockoff)

Oh man, good times. Two things I would like to add to this already great list are Pogs and the "Disney renaissance" movies (The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Mulan, etc). And what about Dunkaroos, Gushers, and Oreo-Os? Okay, I'll stop now. =)

This article just rocks! Thumbs up!

Great article dude, thx for bringin back them memories

Yep, this pretty much sums up my 90's experience. Awesome times.

funguy10, I don't know which 90's YOU lived in, but it was far from perfect. We had a recession back then too, in case you don't remember. (Of course you don't. You were a child.)

Sorry, I couldn't let something that ignorant pass...

Man, the super soaker brought me back. It took like 1000 pumps to shoot a stream and it was awesome.

back when i was in middle school some of the other kids in my sex ed. class made fun of the BOP IT toy in a rather odd way...

BOP IT!

TWIST IT!

PULL IT!

JERK IT!

SQUIRT IT!

with that said, this is a fantastic article and a great read! thumbs up!

YES!!!

I used to love SQUEEZIT!

I also had pongs, Toy Story Action Figures, Pokemon Cards, Goosebumps books, Ker Plunk, SKIP IT and BOP IT, Tiger Handheld Games, Nickalodian GAK, LEGOS, i had a Digimon Tech Deck, I always got a wonderball, every summer i had a diffrent super soaker, and I had Space Jam on VHS!!!

Remeber the 90s back before society was "screwed up" like it is today? The econonmy in America wasn't in shambles and under the control of a guy who doesn't know how to fix it? Also, I got a BMX Mongoose for my birthday last year. Ride it around the block every day. In part 2 you should talk about 90s TV shows like Lamb Chop, Barney, Family Matters, etc.

I think i had every single one of those things. we couldve had a sweet party. i never velcro'ed or Groscoped either and troll dolls were kinda girly. also never had a talkboy but i think my sister had a talk girl

I almost always hate "list" articles. I loved this one.

But you knew I wouldn't pan an article with my beloved Velcro Wall, right?

I would love to try one of those again. They were fun.

Also, where did Surge go? That was one of my favorite soft drinks.

As for laser pointers, I seem to remember that only douchebags had those. At least where I was.

Thumbs way up.

I had a Talkboy and took that thing everywhere, and recorded everything I could. I believe those 'fishtail' skateboards were actually from the 80s, the 90's was the birth of the typical popsicle stick shape. I actually ride a modernized version of a 1970's inspired shape to cruise around...much faster than today's trick boards.

The super soakers...is it me or can you not get these anymore? The past 3 summers now, I've only seen the cheapo guns that do a small stream...looking to replace my super soaker that broke last summer.

And lastly, I was totally hooked on the yo-yo, still have some of my originals, and bouht a newer ball bearing yo-yo to relive my childhood.

lol, I can relate to space jam and laser pointers..hell, I recently bought a new laser pointer because it's so fun to point it at unsuspecting civilians on the street, they'll think it's a sniper and swear at you, it's funny every time..as for space jam..my favorite looney toons movie ever. I bought the collectors edition 2-disc dvd a few weeks ago, ahh good times, I think that's the movie that made me appreciate and know Michael Jordan for the best basketball of all time that he was.

This definitely needs a part 2. Very well researched and written. To be continued...

Dude! This article like totally defined the 90's!

Thanks for the positive feedback guys, I already have a part 2 written and waiting to post it.

Ahh the furbies. My parents gave my sister a furby for christmas when she was six. She loved it, but when the batteries died it began to scream like it was dying. That freaked her out so that she had nightmares for a few weeks afterwords. She still remembers it. So remember kids, always keep your batteries refreshed.

I begged my parents for a Crocodile Mile slip n' slide, but they never budged. They also wouldn't let me drink Squeez-its because they claimed (probably correctly) that they were pure sugar.

What a great article! I recognized everything except for the Velcro Wall (why I don't remember it, I don't know). I always wanted Moon Shoes, but never had the chance to try them out. I remember my dad getting a laser pointer for Christmas one year in the late '90s.

Great article, looking forward to a possible Part 2!

Space Jam rules awesome article

[align][/align center] = easier to read.

SQUEEZE-ITS!!!! I remember drinking those. I always loved the faces on the bottles.

This was more like a list than an article but who cares because I loved it anyway. It was a perfect description of any true 90's childhood, including mine. More please!

This COMPLETELY describes my life in the 90s...you covered the stuff that a lot of people forget! The whole neighborhood would end up in my backyard doing Crocodile Mile. And I lived on Kid Cuisines and Squeez-its! I had that exact model of YakBak..ahhh I miss being a kid!

You covered a lot of ground here. I have to say you got me with the whistling Vortex football memory. I wasn't into sports but the one football I owned was neon orange/green Vortex that whistled. Just for the record, I mention laser pointers, Creepy Crawlers, Talkboy, and Yak Bak type devices in some upcoming articles I submitted last week. Sorry for the overload folks, this was an unintentional piggyback of topics.

very cool. lots of stuff i remember, and stuff i dont.

Great Article, I Haven't Talked To You In A While

But This Article Brought Back So Many Memories For Me. Now I Have To Go Look Some Of This Stuff Up On Ebay. But Any Way You Should Most Def Write Another One, Great Stuff Man

Yeah we're really going back now. Got a Talkboy for my birthday, loved Squeeze-Its, collected the Goosebump books, saw Space Jam in theaters, never had Surge, there are some stuff here I either owned or never had. Good job.