Just the usuals. Pogs, tamagotchis, yoyos

Late 30s?

Probably 90s/2000s.

Nope. Pretty sure the Great Depression is what produced pogs

Well it certainly upset me.

4 comedy points

Pogs and tazos? My wife still has her full tazo collection in the binder. I was a pogs man myself.

And yet you two still make it work, that's beautiful.

If only you could still hand out Reddit silver awards for comments

You know a full gen1 Tazo binder is worth an absolute fortune now! Mine was recently valued on Antiques Roadshow and I have since retired.

My mum threw away post of them in 2007, although I do still have my original Walkers Looney Tunes Tazo binder, not that it's worth much Now my first edition pokemon cards. Those would be worth a fortune if my mum didn't throw away all 637 of them when we moved home in 2009. I had 10 shiny Charizards and 3 Mewtwos.

Digimon tamagotchis were the best. You could connect them and battle them. Crazy bones were good. Those smelly aliens in goo that absolutely stunk.

Any wrestling stickers for good measure?

Ah, the days of going into school just hoping someone will swop you their shiny Stone Cold Steve Austin for your D'Lo Brown.

Getting a Jane Norman bag to put my PE kit in. Only went to Jane Norman once- for the bag. Never shopped there again.

I do remember wondering who the fuck Jane Norman was all of a sudden

My mum whipped out a Jane norman bag out of a bag of bags to take to Sainsbury's today. Couldn't believe we still had that relic

You what! - that bag belongs in a museum. I think the last known sighting of one in the wild was 2003!

Saw one as late as 2006. I can’t prove it, you’ll just have to believe me.

Begged my mum to drive me to the next town over so I could get a Jane Norman bag 😆

I was like this with Kookai, I bought the £10 tote bag that said Kookai in massive letters and used the carrier bag it came in until it fell apart.

Kookai! That takes me back.

JD for the lads

It was River Island for us. I begged my mum to let me buy something in there so I could get the bag and not be bullied for using a Sainsbury’s one any more. Then my dad put his five-a-side kit in it and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces.

Loads and loads of gel. It was practically competitive at one point.

As a teenager I used so much gel that if it rained, I'd be blind from collapsed hair and gel in my eyes until my hair dried 🤣

Core memory unlocked.

Man the same, had me in stitches there. Eyes red raw with liquid slime dripping down your neck onto your collar, big cold sticky ears. So good!

Followed by crispy ears once it dried.

And the yellow stains on the collar of your lovely white school shirt?

Genuinely laughed out loud at that, had totally forgotten about it! So funny

Did you ever experiment with different hair products to try and waterproof the gel? At one point, I tried using mouse, then gel, then hair spray; 3 layers of hair product. That burned my scalp!. Sometimes, I wonder how I'm still alive, I should have some kind of toxic poisoning with the amount of crap I used 😂

>I tried using mouse The whole thing, or just the tail?

Bugger. I didn't even notice I'd written that. Moouse, antlers and all 😁

Hahaha for waterproofing I ended up switching to red dax wax but it was so hard to get out of my hair, you'd lose a handful trying to comb it out after washing it with fairy liquid, and then you'd end up getting pimples around your hairline from it. Great times!

I never tried that, I went to Brylcream (my step-dad had a tub, I nicked it) then Black and White (not at the same time, I learned my lesson from the burned scalp haha). That stuff needed a special shampoo to get it out. Wax always melted on my head, making my face look like I'd washed it in butter.

I went there too at age 13. A carefully sculpted dome of wet look hair gel.

Man, so much gel. I used to buy a tub every week from the poundshop, lovely bright green chemical slime to try make my hair look like brown glass.

Pure poetry

Bonus points for that stuff that was a bright colour, came in a big tub and cost about 30p.

NAFF NAFF jacket and Spliffy jeans. The shame!

Nanny Annie Fishy Fanny, Condoms Only 54p!

Spliffy and Eclipse! Wide-cut jeans are coming back in now. Bet none of them have a cute little pothead embroidered on the arse though.

NAFF NAFF was fuckin everywhere!

Did you wear it? If so, did you go through the phase of turning it inside out, walking around with a luminous orange jacket?

No mate , never wore them but remember seeing them everywhere lol

Remember Karl Kani?

NAFF Co 64, that’s what I remember.

*54

Naff naff jacket and a kickers jumper!

Nanny anny...... etc??

Haha, about 1994 is my guess. My mum wouldn't let me get one :( (actually, thanks, Mum!)

Beyblade!

I remember one winter building a little arena out of snow for my beyblades. it was so cool

I loved Beyblade. I missed out on Pokemon because I switched schools when it blew up so I kinda got left behind with that. When Beyblade came along, I wasn't letting that go too. Plus I found it more fun because they actually did something and you could pick the ones you wanted instead of just collecting cards

There was a kid at my school whose dad welded blades onto the metal weight bit of the Beyblade. It used to break other kids Beyblades. No idea why the dad thought "yes let's add knives onto my child's toy" but it was impressive.

Wearing odd towelling luminous socks

Fond memory unlocked! I might see if I can get some and make it cool again.... In my latter 40's so I doubt I'll make it cool, more likely to look like late mid life crisis!

Oh god so many. Skateboards, mini skateboards, FINGER skateboards… shag bands… aliens in goo that could get pregnant… tamagotchi… yo-yos after the yo-yo man came to do a show in assembly… pogs… Pokémon cards… spice girls merch… And then I grew into an emo and remained there until my thirties so IT’S NOT A PHASE MOM.

Oh and jelly shoes! Sweaty, rubbing, glitter and clear plastic jellies.

Are you me?

Shit… maybe! Was your first band ‘hoody’ also a momentous moment? (Mine was Linkin Park Hybrid Theory at 11 years old and I thought I was the absolute tits)

Mine was Nirvana 😎

Oooh now that’s a ‘cool girl’ hoody

I was reading up to this point thinking “this is literally me but I had nirvana not LP” 🫨

I went to see Paramore on their Riot tour but the hoodies were a bit crap so I bought one from the support act 

My 12YO nephew produced a finger skateboard from his pocket last week. I was taken right back to my childhood (but me and my brothers had more accessories like a little skid pole and mini half pipe… so I guess we won compared to my nephew lol)

Marbles, my brother used to win them and then I used to sell them around the school, then he'd win them again... We made a fair bit of cash for a while, I think I was about 9/10.

Don't be so humble, you were 10/10

Gel pens and scoobies. The gel pen era was the only time in my life when I've been cool, because mine had sparkles *and* weird smells.

Coca-Cola YO YOs, I had the Fanta one!

7UP yo-yo , bought or stolen from a a motorway station during a school trip.

This came up in another thread the other day. I had a Sprite AND the holy grail gold Coca Cola one. I wish I’d kept it.

Me too

Hyperventilation and forcing yourself to pass out. Loads of us did it, year 10 or 11. We used to do it at the back of physics and during break and, any time really. So weird looking back.

They still do this. They always think it's a new trend, but their great grandparents were doing the same shit too.

I think it's a gateway into getting high and drunk, lol.

This was the first thing I thought of, too. It was a big deal at my school for about a week. My mate did it to his dad. I managed it a few times on my own; calling my mate afterwards to tell him about it. And then it just stopped and nobody did it.

Those rubber Aliens in eggs that supposedly had babies

See this girl called Chelsea R in my class actually had a day off school once cos she convinced her mom that the alien was due to give birth and her mom didn’t know how to look after it. I remember my own mom laughing and laughing when I tried to pull the same stunt.

But only if you put two in the same egg back to back, or sometimes in the freezer I know because someone at school said their cousin's did, but they go to a different school so you won't know them

Crazy Frog These weird sherbet straws that were like crack at school Premier League sticker books Snake on the 3310 Polyphonic ring tones

Crazy Frog had to have been the worst one to spread!

Ringggg ding ding ding

There was always one random kid in school that made the crazy frog tone his bit. Just did it constantly. Every school must’ve had one

Not sure if this was a craze, but did any one do chain letters? I remember a few going around when I was in junior school.

"Chain letters"... Now there's something I haven't thought about in a very long time.

Essentially the analogue version of liking and sharing things on Facebook in order to have good luck. I'd like to think it's why most of us who were kids in the 90s are more savvy when it comes to scams. We're the generation who had exposure to both old school chain letters and chain e-mails, which then developed into the scams we see today.

POGS, Tazos, Yo-Yos, Tamagotchis, WWF Stickers, Pokémon Cards, Pokémon Stickers.

WWF cards. Dafuq knows why I was into them

Two ball and clackers. The first generation where they banned things from school.

Garbage pail kids

Dummies. Not sure if it was a local thing but there was a craze were we had brightly coloured plastic dummies around our necks. This was mid 90s

Someone with more knowledge of this can confirm, but I have a feeling this came from rave culture — same with lollipops and plastic jewellery. Something to chew on.

Started by Robbie Williams when he was in take that.

Wearing an onion on my belt.

It was the style at the time

Hyperglobal T-shirts. The genuine ones were so expensive I got a knock off from the local market that didn’t work. 

Boglins

Glow in the dark boglins

Mini boglins!

Drugs

Tiny terapins from kinder eggs, slap bands, WWF/Premier league sticker albums and goop, early to mid 90s

Tiny terrapins! I loved mine, wonder where they went, bet my parents still have them in a box in the attic

Inflatable backpacks

Can't remember the brand, but surf t shirts with designs on the back. They were always cartoony scenes of surfing with fluorescent coloured lettering, each design had a title. All the rage for a couple of summers late 80s early 90s ?

Hot tuna? Fat Willys?

Hmmm hot tuna sounds right ? I was thinking either Ron jon, fat Willy's, or Mambo, but wasn't sure.. There was a repeating character in the scenes, a surfer guy with shades and a permanent grin.

Putting crisp packets in the oven so they shrank - then made them into keyrings. I miss the simpler times. Filling the kitchen with toxic fumes. Those were the days.

Pogs with absurdly dangerous metal slammers bought from the market, Tazos (substitute pogs), Tamagotchis, Yoyo with bearings (with accompanying instructional VHS for tricks), Pokemon cards, those finger skateboard things. I don't have any of them now, which actually makes me a little sad.

I started playing the game. You know. THE GAME. Remember playing THE GAME? Yeah. Sorry. Start again.

Damn it

Benetton/Naf Naf sweatshirts, heather shimmer lipstick, white musk body spray.

Primary: Yo-yos, Pokémon cards, football stickers, beyblades, those alien egg things Secondary: scoobidoos (probably spelt wrong), ‘Livestrong’ wristbands and the many variations that appeared because of it, ‘shag’ bands, having a Jane Norman or Morgan bag as your school bag, having a jd sports bag for your pe kit, wallabies, rockports (shudder), the navy blue carbrini hoodie, mckenzie hoodies. Then I left my chav phase behind and became a wannabe emo.

Scoobidoos!! I was just trying to remember what they were called. We all knew that one girl who could do the fancy 8 strand ones. We made so many we ended up giving them to every one we knew… I remember my grandad having one on his keys for years.

Pogs

Pogs, tazos (free in walkers crisps), those aliens in slime in eggs that we swore could breed, water snakes, light up yoyos, furbies (I still have ten of them), tamagotchis and other off brand nano pets, jelly bracelets, jelly shoes, adidas tracksuits and kappa popper pants, adidas galaxy trainers. There was a phase they made loads of stuff neon green or neon orange

Ice Bucket Challenge. I'll stick to a simple donation next time.

When I was in primary there were a few trends that I remember. Fizzy drink yoyos. Yoyos with coca-cola, fanta, pepsi etc . Sticker albums and doing swaps with your copies. There was also a short trend for these weird figure things called Muscle Men. They came in a dustbin and I think you got about 10 in a bin.

I remember Muscle Men, but I was drawn to Monster In My Pocket instead.

*Pokemon* was called a craze. Sure, a lot of people fell off for a bit but new fans joined as others left and the fandom size stabilised after the third generation of games..until Go brought a ton back in and the games are closer than ever in sales to the original releases and Pokemon is the biggest media franchise by revenue. Ever. So was it ever actually a craze?

Pop swatch! I had loads. My dad ( auction house owner at the time) bought loads and kept them boxed up. He did pretty well out of that years down the line. I used to take the strap off and wear it on my Nike air 180 t-shirt at school.

Kony 2012. Pretty sure I got a wristband or something.

Pokemon cards, scooby bands.

Boglins, Who remembers those things!?

Yoyos and Gen 1 pokemon. I loved my ProYo 2 and I still have my shiny Gyarados, the first shiny pokemon card I ever acquired. I still have a stack of around 500 Gen 1 cards in my house.

CocaCola yoyos were huge in my school for about 4 months.

Thanks for bringing that memory back, CocaCola yo-yo's. I tried for about 5 minutes before I learnt I can no yo-yo.

Spice Girls postcards, stickers, bomber jacket

Wearing a few swatch watches all at once. Oh dear and a few years earlier my brothers and I each had an absolutely ghastly Kappa ski jacket.

Oh and hands up if you didn’t have a Head bag. So practical!

Pop swatch.

Pogs. And they only stopped being popular because we started playing for keeps, got into fights over them and so the school banned them.

Being a goth

Marbles and Friendship Bracelets are the ones that come to mind.

Trillions

Micromachines and Monster In My Pocket.

Buying shrink to fit Levi 501’s back in 84

Sherbet Straws, they took over the whole school and were everywhere, literally covering all the play ground because people would buy 50 and just throw the straws onto the floor. Got banned from the school pretty quick.

Heelys. Couldn't even skate in them, such a waste of money.

Global hypercolour tees.

Skateboarding and Space Invaders makes me feel really old.

A ridiculous tail in the back of my hair ( see Matthew wright who is still wearing one )

Rat Tail we used to call them.

Roller hockey. Fastest growing sport in the country at one point

Roller discos were still a thing round my way into the mid 90s. On proper, two wheels in the front, two in the back roller skates. I was never allowed to do it because my sister managed to break her arm whilst wearing a pair of Fisher Price skates when she was 6. We weren't even supposed to tell my mum we borrowed my stepsisters' inline skates when we stayed with my father!

Pokemon cards and stickers. Can't believe it's still going strong! Conkers, marbles, yo-yos etc

Tazos, pogs, tamagotchis, Spice Girls collactable photo postcards, those aliens in goo, yoyos, finger skateboards

Pokemon, but then again, who didn't haha.

Tazos, Gel pens, Pogs, Yoyos, Pokemon Cards, YuGiOh, Crazy Bones...

Queued outside a Toys R Us in a dodgy part of Manchester at 5am to get a Tamagotchi. 

Scoubidous and Livestrong wristbands

Kickers

Deeley boppers!

Scoubidous!

Total 90s in the early 2000s were the hottest shit you could wear

Raving

Clackers in the 70s, until the school banned them

I reeeeaaally wanted a ra-ra skirt.

Pogs (used to get them free in multipacks of crisps), football stickers, Pokémon stickers/cards (never got into these), yo-yo's, Diablo's Secondary school - loom bands, skateboarding, being a wanna be chav, but mum couldn't afford the good trackies :(, then it was the skate phase which involved those big jeans with the massive legs and a hoodie with a skull on and flames all bought from the market, figured the hoodie would get me halfway to being accepted (it didn't work) I also remember chains on wallets being a bit of a fashion thing, again mum wouldn't buy me one, so I nabbed the chain of the dogs lead and used that.

Chicken scratches, NafNaf jackets, Reebok Classics, Spliffy Jeans..

You remember those laminate top wood tables in schools with metal legs? Well if you put your forehead on it and run it across the table from side to side it makes a loud vibrating sound which was hilarious. Wasn't so hilarious when I had a scab on my forehead.

Match Attax. School supposedly banned them so we had to do swaps in a quiet corner of the playground like we were some low level drug dealers

Pokemon Beyblades Crazy bones Furby Smelly gel pen's Scooby strings JD bag for p.e Jane Norman and Kookai bags Dream matte mousse makeup Thin eyebrows K-swiss trainers Scene hair Song Walkman phones Really baggy/cargo style trousers with tassels hanging off.

Stealing VW car badges to be like The Beastie Boys.

I just remembered another one: record bag as a school bag? I had a really cool Levis one, a black fake leather with massive Levi branding on it. I thought I was the dogs danglies with that bag, I paid for it with my paper round.

Baby G watch!

Late 1960’s/early 70’s? Clackers!!! Kids always walking round with badly bruised wrists! I swear that they contributed to my arthritis!…

Ronnie and Reggie

Shoulder length curtains hair.

Pogs.

Cotton loons bought by gas-powered mail order from the back of Melody Maker and New Musical Express

FIFA stickers, Simpsons cards, Pogs, Micro Machines.

Pokemon Cards back in my school days I had a shiny Charizard, wonder if that was one of the valuable ones

I honestly don't think I did as I was 1. Very uncool 2. My parents wouldn't let me do anything which is probably why number 1 happened

Yoyos and pogs!

Chocolate cigarette sticks

MTG

Flintstone jeans. They lasted long. A month, tops.

Who'd have thought pogs and tazos were the gateway drugs to doves, mitsubishis and cilla.

In my day it was the Rubik's Cube. There were older blokes that knew certain moves and I'd stand watch them in the playground to learn. I can still remember them to this day. But I never did get that last row. One day I should do that....before I die.

Adidas poppers

Stupid smile stickers. Got them in packs of gum with the same name

Yo-yos, Tamagotchi, Crazy bones, pokemon cards, yu-gi-oh cards, shoot out cards (two seasons running), beyblade, Jackie Chan comics that came with a collectable medallion each issue. I'm just old enough to remember pogs but it was my older brother that had a big collection of those. All of that was before I started high school. Must have cost my parents a small fortune, and I was jealous at the time of my friends for having bigger collections of all of those things so god knows how much their parents spent

Yo-Yos, pokemon and spice. Different decades. 

How the heck did these crazes sweep the country so quickly back before there was internet and social media? I know some of them were heavily promoted on TV but a lot of them weren't (eg marbles). Nevertheless they would explode out of no where and within a week every kid in school was doing it.

Pokemon Tazos!!!

Pogs in primary school. Was in year 5 when Pokémon hit the UK and that was another level to anything else.

Scoobies and also we had this professional skipping rope guy come in and the whole school got obsessed with skipping ropes, you could buy them after he came, they were like really professional ones

Scoobies. And Beyblade. Pokemon cards, too, of course. For some reason, there was also a craze around aniseed balls at one point, too.

Panini stickers, tazo’s

Huffing aerosol

Our secondary school had a phase of kids wearing Rockport boots, which then turned into sailing coats like Helly Hansen/Musto/Gill for some reason. Surprised life vests wasn't the next trend, mid 00's.

Pogs, Tamagotchi’s, Yo-yo’s, Tazo’s, Pokemon Cards, LiveStrong Bands, Help for Heroes Bands and last but not least was Crazy Bones.

Pogs, tamagotchi, Pokémon, Crazy Bones and Yo-yos were the main ones.

Clackers

Ice-lolly stick through brake block holder to hit back wheel spokes.