[Note: Since the FT staff will be in a meeting all day and our blogging will continue to be light (it'll pick up again next week), I thought I'd resurrect a pop culture post from last summer that sparked an entertaining discussion/debate.]
They were the best of fads, they were the worst of fads—all at the same time. The faddish objects of our childhood were sometimes loved and sometimes hated but they were hard to ignore. Here are a list of the 50 best/worst from the 1960s to today:
1. Beanie Babies
What made it the best: You and your friends loved collecting them.
What made it the worst: Old ladies loved collecting them too.
2. Bratz Dolls
What made it the best: 559 different dolls to choose from.
What made it the worst: They all looked like strippers.
3. Cabbage Patch Dolls
What made it the best: You got a birth certificate certifying when you “adopted” them.
What made it the worst: They were just an overpriced stuffed doll.
4. Charm necklaces
What made it the best: You could create them to match your personality.
What made it the worst: For every birthday someone would give you a cheap charm instead of a real gift.
5. Cheap cologne
What made it the best: The girl you had a crush on loved the way you smelled.
What made it the worst: Every other six grade boy smelled like Old Spice/Polo/Drakkar Noir too.
6. Chia Pets
What made it the best: They were easy to grow.
What made it the worst: Not matter what shape they were supposed to be, they always ended up looking like a green afro.
7. Cinnamon Toothpicks
What made it the best: Liquid cinnamon on a stick to make your tongue burn—in a good way.
What made it the worst: Because you couldn’t stop at just one, your tongue blistered—in a bad way.
8. Clackers
What made it the best: You could scare your little brother by clacking them right beside his head.
What made it the worst: You were a little brother.
9. Energy Drinks
What made it the best: After a can of Red Bull you could stay up all night texting.
What made it the worst: After the sugar crash, you felt like you needed to go to rehab.
10. Friendship Bracelets
What made it the best: Getting them from your friends.
What made it the worst: Not getting them from people who you thought were your friends—but obviously not since they gave them to every one but you, even to that ugly girl that they talked about behind her back and that other girl . . .
11. Friendship pins
What made it the best: They were cheap and easy to make, all you needed was colored beads and safety pins.
What made it the worst: Whenever you opened the pins the beads would spill everywhere.
12. Frisbees
What made it the best: Could make anyone feel like a minor athlete.
What made it the worst: Unless you had a frisbee-catching dog, they quickly became boring.
13. Furbies
What made it the best: Your first robot!
What made it the worst: Big-eyed robots are kinda creepy.
14. Garbage Pail Kids
What made it the best: They were disgusting.
What made it the worst: They were disgusting.
15. Gel Pens
What made it the best: Notes to friends looked better in neon orange.
What made it the worst: They always smeared.
16. Hacky Sack
What made it the best: They were easy to carry around; you could start a game anywhere.
What made it the worst: Phish-listening hippies made them uncool
17. Hello Kitty
What made it the best: They’re so cute.
What made it the worst: Good grief, they’re everywhere!
18. Hula Hoops
What made it the best: Having “hooping” contest with friends.
What made it the worst: Trying to find a place to store them.
19. Kewpie Dolls
What made it the best: They’re cute.
What made it the worst: They’re creepy.
20. Koosh Balls
What made it the best: You could throw them around without fear of breaking anything.
What made it the worst: They were only fun for five minutes.
21. Lava Lamps
What made it the best: The calming effect of watching the lava go up and down.
What made it the worst: They turned you into a hippie.
22. Lipsmackers
What made it the best: What could be better than makeup that taste like root beer?
What made it the worst: Realizing that it was just flavored chapstick.
23. Mad Libs
What made it the best: The fun of thinking up strange/funny/naughty words to fill in the blanks.
What made it the worst: After the third one they started to seem all the same.
24. Magic 8-Ball
What made it the best: More fun than flipping a coin.
What made it the worst: Ask again later.
25. Choose Your Own Adventure Novels
What made it the best: You got to be the hero of the story.
What made it the worst: The stories usually weren’t worth the page-flipping effort.
26. Matchbox Cars/Hot Wheels
What made it the best: They were almost as cool as having a real Ferrari/Corevette/Camaro/etc.
What made it the worst: Dad stepping on them in the middle of the night on his way to the bathroom.
27. Mood Rings
What made it the best: People could tell what mood you were in by looking at your finger.
What made it the worst: Unless “hot and sweaty” counts as a mood, they couldn’t detect anything.
28. Nerf Balls
What made it the best: Finally, a ball that you could bean your siblings with and not get in trouble!
What made it the worst: If they came in contact with nature (water, dogs, etc) they’d become a mess.
29. Ouija Boards
What made it the best: They were dangerous and mysterious.
What made it the worst: They were a starter kit to occultism.
30. Paper Footballs
What made it the best: They were easy to make.
What made it the worst: No matter how many you made, the teacher always took them away.
31. Pet Rocks
What made it the best: It’s a rock. . . and a pet! Get it?
What made it the worst: What? I paid how much for a rock?
32. Pez
What made it the best: They were cheap and easy to collect.
What made it the worst: The candy was terrible.
33. Pogs
What made it the best: You could both collect them and win them.
What made it the worst: Your friends would always get them taken away by the teacher.
34. Pokemon
What made it the best: You could collect them all.
What made it the worst: No matter how much money you spent, you could never collect them all.
35. Pop Rocks
What made it the best: The fizz and the pop.
What made it the worst: Didn’t they kill that Mikey kid from the LIFE cereal commercial?
36. Rubik’s Cube
What made it the best: They made you think you were smart enough to solve them.
What made it the worst: They made you realize you weren’t smart enough to solve them.
37. Scratch ’n’ Sniff Stickers
What made it the best: The cherry and banana stickers that smelled like cherry and banana (sort of).
What made it the worst: The licorice one that smelled like the inside of a baby’s diaper.
38. Sea Monkeys
What made it the best: The ad in the back of the comic books made it look like they were people from the lost city of Atlantis.
What made it the worst: Brine shrimp? Seriously?
39. Silly Bandz
What made it the best: They are cheap and easy to collect.
What made it the worst: Realizing that your generation is getting stuck with one of the lamest fads ever.
40. Silly Putty
What made it the best: You could press them on the Sunday comics and make a colored copy of the picture.
What made it the worst: There wasn’t much else you could do with them.
41. Skateboarding
What made it the best: The rush of riding for the first time.
What made it the worst: The first rush to the ER after you fell off and broke your arm.
42. Slime
What made it the best: Sliming your friends, brothers, and sisters.
What made it the worst: Trying to get snot green plastic out of the carpet.
43. Slinky
What made it the best: Those cool television ads that showed it “walking” down the stairs.
What made it the worst: They taught you the meaning of false advertising.
44. Super Balls
What made it the best: Nothing could bounce higher.
What made it the worst: They’d always bounce to a place you couldn’t find them.
45. Swatch Watches
What made it the best: They made you feel sophisticated.
What made it the worst: Your parents wouldn’t buy you an overpriced piece of Swiss plastic.
46. Tamagotchi
What made it the best: Like having a pet that you could carry around in your pocket.
What made it the worst: Like having all the responsibility of having a pet without the loyalty, love, etc.
47. Troll Dolls
What made it the best: They were adorable.
What made it the worst: When you’re not looking, they eat your soul.
48. Yo-Yos
What made it the best: The sense of accomplishment you got from learning to “walk the dog.”
What made it the worst: The stupid string always got tangled and knotted up.
49. Waxed lips candy
What made it the best: You could convince that cute girl/boy to give you “kiss” on your wax lips.
What made it the worst: The heartbreaking let-down of wax lip kisses.
50. Whiffle balls
What made it the best: The bat.
What made it the worst: You could never figure out how to actually play Whiffle ball.
Which favorite fads did I forget?
May 27th, 2011 | 8:54 am
Hacky Sacks were the worst.
May 27th, 2011 | 9:03 am
The Tech-Deck mini skateboards. Ask a teacher (I’m one) about them! Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
May 27th, 2011 | 10:20 am
I hope that in a few years we will be talking about “texting” in the same way.
May 27th, 2011 | 10:55 am
Bicycle Flag Poles…
What made it the best: They looked really cool flapping in the wind.
What made it the worst: They smacked you in the head when riding through the woods.
May 27th, 2011 | 11:00 am
dude HYPERCOLOR T-SHIRTS.
May 27th, 2011 | 1:25 pm
LOL – This made me laugh real hard. But these have lots of good points though.
“Slime
What made it the best: Sliming your friends, brothers, and sisters.
What made it the worst: Trying to get snot green plastic out of the carpet.”
Hahhaa I loved playing slime before. :p
May 27th, 2011 | 2:21 pm
Rat Finks
Best: Way cooler than troll dolls.
Worst: Quickly disappeared off the market (and troll dolls are still here!)
May 27th, 2011 | 3:11 pm
I thought the worst thing about clackers was that the shattered and put your eye out.
May 27th, 2011 | 7:55 pm
What’s that current thing called where kids buy a toy and then go online to do stuff with it? Dumb.
May 27th, 2011 | 9:17 pm
What were those two acrylic balls on a string that were popular in the 70′s…? Used to smack ‘em up and down. ??
May 27th, 2011 | 9:20 pm
Oh, I guess those were “clackers” #8
May 27th, 2011 | 9:20 pm
Does anyone else remember the electric wood engraving pens? Sharp metal tip, cord on the end, you plug it in and it heats up to nuclear-fission levels? After that, you couldn’t really do much with it except leave irregular black marks on pieces of wood, and small white blisters on fingertips.
I doubt they are for sale today.
May 27th, 2011 | 9:27 pm
Invisible ink pens. Used in booklets like these: http://smurfwreck.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=131946
May 27th, 2011 | 10:17 pm
I second Craig Payne’s post.
May 27th, 2011 | 11:51 pm
pentamom, are you thinking of Webkinz? They’re actually kinda fun, but do encourage materialism.
A couple of *old* fads:
Thingmaker/Creepy Crawlies
best: made really cool Things
worst: sometimes melted the wrong Things
Weebles
best: they didn’t fall down
worst: they wobbled
More recent:
Heelys
best: mini-rollerblade-in-a-shoe
worst: no safety regulation
May 28th, 2011 | 7:02 am
Whiffle Ball was NOT a fad. It was a sport, at least in the 60s. And the best way to play it was “homerun derby” style. Kids don’t know nothin’ these days!
May 28th, 2011 | 9:39 am
Bonnie, Weebles led to one of my favorite jokes. After the earthquake all of the farm animals ask the old bull why he was the only one that was not flung to the ground. He answered, “We bulls wobble, but we don’t fall down.” Somebody stop me.
May 28th, 2011 | 12:10 pm
Silly rabbi, kicks are for Trids!
I don’t remember the joke that goes with it, just the awful punch line.
May 28th, 2011 | 12:16 pm
Creepy Crawlers!!! You poured “goop” in the molds, cooked them in water-filled heaters, then pulled out your own designer plastic bugs to hide in the linen closet, the silverware drawer, mom’s underwear…but the down side was getting back to the store for more goop.
May 28th, 2011 | 1:50 pm
Furbies…lol. Did you ever see one of those get stuck in a glitch? It was as if the darn thing was possessed. High-pitched shrieks, eyes fluttering, whole thing shaking. We had to pull the batteries to make it stop.
My dad put three in his suitcase once to play a prank on a coworker. They woke up and started talking to each other in the elevator, filled with dad’s coworkers. “I uh…think my kids must’ve stuck ‘em in there.”
May 28th, 2011 | 2:06 pm
Yes, Webkinz is it. Thanks Bonnie, that was beginning to torment me.
The worst thing about Heelys is kids who can’t walk normally in public anymore and you wonder when they’re going to come careening into you in the middle of Walmart.
May 28th, 2011 | 2:08 pm
Easy bake ovens
best: you could bake your own cake
worst: serving size meant for Barbie and Ken
May 28th, 2011 | 2:31 pm
Skip Its!!!!
May 28th, 2011 | 3:23 pm
Pogo balls; and I second Hypercolor T-shirts.
I had completely forgotten about pogs and scratch-n-sniff; but I still have a box in the closet somewhere full of Hot Wheels, and a couple of Choose Your Own Adventures I never got rid of, and I’m pretty sure my sister still has her troll dolls and Cabbage Patch doll.
May 28th, 2011 | 3:36 pm
Yes, Craig, texting will be a fad. Just like that “internet”.
May 28th, 2011 | 3:57 pm
Lawn Darts!!! When they first came out, they were REALLY pointed.
good: making a bull’s eye before anyone else
bad: playing with someone who didn’t know the first thing about throwing the darn things!!
DANGEROUS ! ! !
May 28th, 2011 | 4:25 pm
Shrinky-dinks. I had fun with those-and I am “the mom!” I’m not much of an artist so they usually didn’t look that good when I colored them, but when they shrunk they looked Great!
May 28th, 2011 | 4:27 pm
Regarding:
Choose Your Own Adventure Novels
Well…I kind of disagree…
Ok MANY of these CYOAN were garbage, but you have also GREAT series among them:
Lone Wolf, by Joe Dever
Fighting Fantasy, by Jackson & Co.
GrailQuest, by JH Brennan
and others…
these CYOAN were truly ‘epic’ and well written.
In a sense it’s like adventure video games: there are many great ones but loads of crappy ones as well.
May 28th, 2011 | 4:33 pm
Hula hoops–never could hula!!!
Cabbage Patch dolls–waiting in line at 6am in the pouring rain to get one for my child!!!
May 28th, 2011 | 6:51 pm
@Craig Payne
Wood burning pens are still available, and can be found craft/hobby stores.
May 28th, 2011 | 7:18 pm
I used my wood engraving pen to make neat, realistic bullet dents in my toy army half-track and tanks.
May 28th, 2011 | 10:09 pm
I guess you young folks don’t remember Wacky Packs! “Quacker Oats,” “Poopsie Cola,” “Nertz” breath mints, “Sledge” furniture polish, “Gadzooka” gum, “Crust” toothpaste… none of this rings a bell?
May 28th, 2011 | 10:29 pm
Whoa whoa whoa, Ouija boards? There’s nothing whatsoever good about Ouija boards.
May 28th, 2011 | 10:52 pm
Gross-out bubblegum cards and stickers like Wacky Packages & Garbage Pail Kids! Perfectly suited for a young boys mentality. Not perfectly suited for the school books you got in trouble for sticking them to.
May 29th, 2011 | 1:26 am
[...] [...]
May 29th, 2011 | 9:19 am
Ant farms! I owned two at different times. Kept them for years. Only ever had one live farm each. When all the ants died, they stayed in the farm “forever”. Couldn’t get my parents to mail-order more ants, and I hated cleaning the dead bugs out of the farm without a real need! But they were great to watch!
May 29th, 2011 | 1:05 pm
There was a girl’s version of Creepy Crawlers that made flowers – driving me cuh-razy trying to remember what they were called.
Were Skip-Its the ball on the string tied to the ring you put around your ankle and then swirled it and jumped over it? So 1960′s! I remember doing it in the basement and smacking my head on the pipes.
Hula hoops, fine, but Shoop Shoop Hula Hoops, with the sand or whatever inside that made the noise!
May 29th, 2011 | 7:35 pm
Gum wrapper chains. They drove our parents and teachers crazy. This was back in 1965 and 1966. And who knows how many cavities this caused before the advent of sugar free gum?
http://www.gumwrapper.com/
May 29th, 2011 | 8:43 pm
Right on about Pokemon, especially since Nintendo adds about 100 new Pokemon everytime they release a new series of games. Oh well, that’s why Gamesharks and other cheating devices exist!
May 29th, 2011 | 10:24 pm
Spirograph! The most fascinating toy I owned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph
And…. what about “Incredible Edibles” which were the “Creepy Crawlers” that you could eat. Egads!
http://www.rubylane.com/item/376846-A1165/Mattel-Incredible-Edibles-Kooky-Kakes
My favorite all time toys: Fisher Price Little People. You could put an entire family on your finger tips. The Little People never had arms. They were the means by which I expressed my childhood dreams. Wonderful!
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/132966477_7705a5ab2d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/verpabunny/132966477/&usg=__jlp-PDv-8IJ53oLCd2fekJrAbHk=&h=375&w=500&sz=137&hl=en&start=1&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=hjICtSThg40i6M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=130&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Fisher%2BPrice%2522%2B%2522Little%2BPeople%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den-us%26tbm%3Disch&ei=MP_iTdO0BYT20gGUyNW6Bg
May 30th, 2011 | 2:46 am
[...] The 50 Best / Worst Childhood Fads They were the best of fads, they were the worst of fads—all at the same time. The faddish objects of our childhood were sometimes loved and sometimes hated but they were hard to ignore. Here are a list of the 50 best/worst from the 1960s to today… /* [...]
May 30th, 2011 | 9:00 am
I thought of spirograph as well, then saw someone else had mentioned it.
Anyone else remember slap bracelets? Or the Yo-yo ball?
May 30th, 2011 | 10:20 pm
How about the Yo-Yo Ball, a spring-loaded ball that would enable you to act like you can yo-yo. Best: The string did not get tangled. Worst: No real tricks to do with the thing except make it into a pretty nasty little hard plastic weapon.
Honorable Mentions:The Rubic’s Snake and Pyramid, All cartoon-based action figures from before the mid 1990s were wonderful, and don’t you miss cartoons that were both moderately normal but which actually had villins?
Oh, and I applaud whoever remembered the temperature-sensing, color-changing t-shirt. What a horrible Idea (though they taught us when we really did not want to be around the sometimes smelly kid; when his arm pits are a different color from his chest on the shirt, stay away.)
May 31st, 2011 | 1:36 am
I take it that JB was seconding Craig Payne’s post on texting, to which I add a hearty, Amen!
As for the electric wood pens, they were a standard Christmas gift in our family. I’m sure they must have stil been going in the 60s but got mine in the late 50s. It included colored papers with which you could write on leather or wood using the hot pen with the writing tip [exchangable tips that screwed on for different designs]. I still have the Roy Rogers wallet on which I wrote my name in colored letters.
May 31st, 2011 | 8:46 am
Spirograph! Thank you for the memory!
I also remember lanyards made with that flat plastic lacing. Seems like everybody had to make one of those before you turned 10.
Then you had to talk your parents into letting you put a knife on the end of it. Few of us in the 1960′s had a house key, didn’t need one, Mom or Grandma was home.
June 1st, 2011 | 11:41 pm
JNCO Jeans
What made it the best: The bigger and more colorful the patch the cooler you were.
What made it the worst: They cost as much as a new house and your mom would never buy you any.
June 2nd, 2011 | 7:53 am
[...] The 50 Best/Worst Childhood Fads [...]
June 2nd, 2011 | 10:05 pm
Mexican jumping beans!
June 3rd, 2011 | 12:11 pm
I’m not big into fads, children’s or otherwise. But I LOVE trolls. The coolest thing my mother ever did was when she braided the green hair of one of my trolls into cornrows. The worst troll-related thing she ever did was to throw out many of my trolls, including my buck-toothed big troll. I’ve never gotten a new big one but I was able to collect new small trolls including the troll in a red coat with a muff, the Mexican troll, the Halloween troll, etc. I’m still looking for the Israeli troll and the Eskimo troll.
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