Toymakers in the 1990s really were all about the portable toy. From the Tamagotchi and portable CD players to handheld electronics like the Game Boy Color, if you couldn’t take it with you, what good was it to a nineties kid? Aimed at a somewhat younger audience than the previously mentioned gadgets, Polly Pocket fit an entire miniature world – or at least part of one – into the palm of a child’s hand. Teeny-tiny Polly and her pals could travel with you anywhere and with a click and a snap, you basically had a miniature dollhouse ready to go. In fact, the original idea for the shape of Polly Pocket’s house was based on a makeup powder compact, which the toy creator Chris Wiggs outfitted as a house for a doll less than an inch tall.
Constructed from brightly colored plastic in a variety of appealing shapes and sizes, Polly Pocket environments were always on the deluxe side. She often had a pool for swimming, which enterprising youngsters could fill with a little bit of water to make it even more realistic. Small removable accessories like pool floats, chairs, and tables would rattle around in the case like beans inside a maraca but they made Polly’s world even more realistic and entertaining, especially as you watched your parents hunt for them in between the car seats when they got lost! Her petite character lived on for years through a web series and in 2018 a Polly Pocket cartoon was released on Family Channel.
Before Furbies or Nano Kitties came the electronic pet that kicked off one of the biggest trends of the late 1990s. Tamagotchi was the first pocket-sized digital companion: a computerized alien pet that you could raise and care for through birth,...
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With a sticky hand toy, you can master the art of grabbing things from a slightly longer distance than you can reach! As many '90s kids know, they are also a pretty useful tool for annoying siblings.
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Sleeping, walking the dog, and rocking the cradle may sound like a boring list of chores. Still, if you were raised in the nineties, you’d immediately recognize these as tricks you could perform with your Yomega Brain yo-yo. While yo-yo toys have...
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Playing a game of Let’s Go Fishing was a popular way to pass the time at grandma’s house in the ‘90s. It was all fun and games until she whooped your ass for the third time in a row. Now is the time for you to grab your very own copy and show the world how much better you have gotten.
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With our galaxy under threat from the Evil Emperor Zerg, we must rely on the greatest Space Ranger to ever patrol our toy boxes: Buzz Lightyear! Relive those epic childhood Toy Story moments with your very own Buzz Lightyear doll. To infinity... and beyond!
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Although the design is not the same as that old tube TV shape, Lite-Brites are still available for purchase. Grab one today and express your inner '90s kid through light and tiny little plastic pegs.
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You may remember these as “Sock’em Boppers” before they were rebranded to the current “Socker Boppers.” But, the fact remains the same – punching friends and siblings with airbag gloves is still “more fun than a pillow fight!”
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Another example of nineties toymakers going HAM on miniatures. Tech Deck fingerboards are small skateboards that can be manipulated and “ridden” using your fingers. Fingerboards were initially produced as keychains for skate shops but evolved...
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This iconic toy still maintains a wrestler’s grip on the American imagination more than 44 years after it was first released to the public. Originally developed and produced by the toy company Kenner Products in 1976, Stretch Armstrong was the...
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Christmas 1996: a holiday toy season that will live in infamy. The N64 video game system and Tickle Me Elmo were the two hottest toys to hit the market and nineties parents were freaking out. The crazed rush to buy up all of the Tickle Me Elmo’s...
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