Many look back at the 90s as sort of a Golden Age of entertainment. This is especially true for those such as myself who grew up in the thick of the era and was fully immersed in the culture. As a kid, obviously too young to drive, I was always looking for fun, and for the next crazy fad to keep me entertained. I looked to get my hands on just about every toy, game, and collectible that I could. I still hang onto a few dusty old holdouts which rest underneath my bed or stuffed in the back of my closet, simply because they're so strangely unique.
Though this appeal isn't limited to 90s kids alone. There seem to be those who didn't grow up during this decade yet are looking more favorably - or at least more curiously - at the unique toys and general culture from this era. It's not surprising, as the 90s were, for my money, a peak and culmination in terms of the level of diverse, creative, wacky, and at times, laughably bizarre toys and games. From odd technological experiments, to seemingly pointless substances, to cheesy board games, there was an abundance of weird and sometimes hilarious entertainment.
Yet, this is part of what makes this decade so charming, along with the toys it produced. In this list, we will attempt to cover at least a significant portion of this amusing, sometimes nonsensical culture of 90s toys and games. So without further ado, here are 30 of the most hilarious toys that we loved as kids, but in hindsight, just don't make much sense.
29 Bop It
When one thinks of 90s kids toys and games, "random wackiness" is a description that often comes to mind. This is definitely the case for this plastic version of Simon, called Bop It. The objective is to engage in the random commands spoken by a voice playing through a cheap speaker, which include twisting, spinning, and yanking plastic objects.
Games would start simple enough but get deceptively tricky as the game sped up.
The person playing was prone to plenty of heckling even if their run was successful, just from how ridiculous they looked fidgeting with this odd, ambiguously looking device.
28 POGs
Who would have thought playing with milk caps could make for a good time? The outsider might scratch their head at such a hilariously simple concept for a kid's toy, but for whatever reason, these things caught on to us 90s kids. Perhaps it was the fact that there was an absurd amount of variety of POGs, all with unique colorful artwork, logos, or designs.
Or maybe it was the satisfaction of throwing down metal "Slammers" onto stacks of POGs, and reeling in our winnings after victoriously flipping our opponents' POGs. It was like a basic introduction to gambling for children, and we enjoyed every second of it.
27 Silly Putty
It's funny - on the one hand, I can think back to my days fidgeting, squishing, and tossing this gooey, stretchy putty around, but in hindsight, I can't help but wonder, what was the point of this stuff? I suppose its purpose was just to enjoy the sensations of fidgeting around with it when bored. It was almost therapeutic - like a 90s version of the Fidget Spinner. Oh, there was also the amusing ability for this stuff to take on imprints from ink when pressing down on newspapers, which allowed you to distort and stretch images on the putty to your liking.
26 Gak!
The golden era of Nickelodeon in the early 90s helped usher in a wave of popularity for gooey and gross stuff for children, along with paranoid parents watching over their shoulders making sure their rugrats didn't eat the stuff. Among the leaders on this front were Slime, as well as Gak, which was distributed em mass to kids drawn to weird substances. It was a young child's dream - it was simplistic, colorful, messy, and most importantly, made sounds of flatulence which were guaranteed to get a chuckle out of them.
25 Mouse Trap
Mark this one under the category of "neat in theory, poor in execution." Mouse Trap was a convoluted mess which required tons of tinkering with small plastic objects, set up to trigger a chain of traps ultimately leading to trapping an opponent's mouse. It made for a pretty fun experience if you actually had the patience to assemble, reassemble, and dismantle everything. It also made for an amusing several seconds while watching the sequence of weird, random traps going off.
One has to wonder though, just where are these mice lurking that contains a mess of cranks and gears, a bathtub hanging from the ceiling, and a giant swinging boot?
24 Creepy Crawlers
While girls got the easy bake oven, boys got a "molding" oven which formed colorful crawling critters out of an industrial "goop". Unlike the Easy Bake Oven though, these things couldn't be eaten, though they did sort of resemble gummy worms.
This was an odd creation to say the least, but for whatever reason, this toy resonated with a lot of kids, particularly boys, who like things that are both creepy and a bit cringe-worthy. They at least made for a great way to prank family members by slipping a handful of them under their sheets or in the bathroom sink.
23 Skip It!
A number of toys tried to cleverly trick kids into getting a helping of physical fitness while also having fun. This outdoor toy by Tiger Electronics is a key example of this, though it also can serve as an example of a hazardous device that seemed to invite the potential for falling flat on your face. You basically fastened the loop around your leg while flinging this thing around and tediously hopping over it.
Use with caution, or you'll soon be "tripping it" rather than skipping it.
The device also comes with a counter, showing you the ever-useful, universal measurement of "skips." It was no Wii Fit, but Skip It was an admirable attempt to make fitness a bit more exciting.
22 Baby Alive
Baby Alive, from Hasbro, was a doll that came in a number of varieties, but in the 90s they stepped up their game, creating dolls that not only needed feeding and wet themselves, but warned you about it by speaking to you. I suppose they saw it fit to get girls used to tending to babies at such a young age, they were barely removed from toddlers themselves. An even stranger decision, though, is that they figured that tending to these babies by medicating, feeding, and dealing with constant crying and wetting, would somehow be enjoyable. This seems less like a fun toy for little girls, and more like a way to punish them with tedious chores.
21 Gooey Louie
Gooey Louie is 90s kid culture and entertainment in a nutshell; zany, humorous, and gross. The concept was not only cringe-worthy but nonsensical. The goal was to yank strings of snot out of Louie's nose, while trying to avoid the wrong string, which caused his eyes and brain to pop.
Maybe this was a way to stop kids from picking their own noses?
Clearly, Louie needs plenty of tissue, and a thorough examination at the hospital wouldn't hurt either. Exactly what kind of medical condition causes your brain to pop out of your skull from the mere act of picking one's nose too aggressively?
20 Mr. Bucket
The 90s seemed to be the peak era for a couple of toy and game trends - bizarre concepts, and burdensome, convoluted messes. Mr. Bucket took on both of these attributes, as it featured the amusing and slightly creepy open-mouthed grinning face that spat out plastic balls every which-way, all over your floor.
The goal was to scramble to collect them and return all the balls to the bucket, which wasn't always easy as the balls were prone to rolling under couches and being chased around by pets.
19 Floam
Just in case kids were looking for something even more bizarre and cringe-worthy than Gak, Nickelodeon and Mattel had them covered. Enter Floam, a mushy, gunky substance that had shades of Gak, but with tiny micro-beads that made the product feel like some sort of creepy, amorphic sea creature.
They also saw fit to release a version of this substance designed to be crafted into sports objects like balls and clubs, as well as a Floam Factory to make other random shapes with rollers and pockets.
18 Furby
When the late 90s rolled around, companies were beginning to push the boundaries of kids toys, injecting them with a dose of increasingly sophisticated technology and electronic workings. In the case of this massive fad, known as Furbies, they were perhaps hyped up to be a bit more sophisticated than they actually were.
Still, they made for some fun and hilarious moments. They would begin speaking mostly gibberish and eventually pick up more of the owner's langue, the more they heard. They could sing, purr when petted, respond when "feeding" them by touching a finger to their lip, interact with other Furbies, even belch and release Furby flatulence.
17 Crossfire
Crossfire is a prime example of the marketing being too good, to the point where it made the product itself look funny and cheap. While 90s kids remember that epic commercial, the game itself was rather lacking, though it provided its moments of laughter and trash-talking.
The name of the game was basically to rapidly fire off marbles at two larger randomly shaped marbles and knock them into your opponent's goal. It was a far trickier (and less exciting) task than it sounds. It also made you at least temporarily hate your friends.
16 Virtual Boy
In the latter part of the 16 bit era, it was primarily Sega, as well as a slew of other companies, churning out failed gaming experiments, but Nintendo certainly wasn't left out on this front. As a sort of bridge between the SNES and N64, the company, spearheaded by Gameboy designer Gunpei Yokoi, came out with this strange device.
This thing was so poorly designed and strained eyes to the point that it actually caused gamers to get headaches.
It provided a very basic and crude version of "virtual reality", which boiled down to squinting into a cumbersome goggle-like device which showed Gameboy-esque black and red graphics. The design was less than ideal for lounging, as you had to hunch over a table to look into it.
15 Koosh
Yeah, there's really not much to say about this Hasbro toy, as it's about as basic and pointless as it looked. This could honestly be a toy for your dog or cat as much as your child. It was obviously meant to cater to the toddler demographic I suppose, but anyone over 6 didn't have much to do with these or than toss them around or just get lost in their multicolored, psychedelic imagery. They certainly were fun to look at, as well as feel, with their wiggling protruding rubber strings.
14 Yak Bak
Apparently recording devices were all the rage in the 90s. While the Talkboy had at least utilized a cassette player (remember those?), this device was about as bare-bones as you could get. It simply came with a play button, and a record button which only allowed you to record your voice or a sound for a handful of seconds.
What was the point of this, other than to annoy parents by making it even easier for kids to repeatedly shout things to them?
You could then playback what you captured, complete with a gritty and crude sound quality that quickly got even worse as it aged. This thing truly made the Talkboy look like a sophisticated piece of technology.
13 Dream Phone
No, it wasn't just boys that had an array of strange and hilarious toys to reminisce about, but girls had their share as well, not the least of which was this "sleepover" game from Milton Bradley.
Because getting attention from fake dudes over the phone is fun!
The game was like a simulation or playing out of fantasies of girls giddily talking on the phone with the dreamy guy they had a crush on. The actual gameplay was similar to Guess Who with a tinge of Clue, as you were given cards of various guys, who you'd call up to get clues regarding which one was into you.
12 Twister
Twister is that game that everybody in the 90s seemed to own, but few dared play, with how awkward it made you feel. It was quite easy to set up and play; just spread the multicolored dotted mat across your floor, have someone strain to reach for the plastic spinner while sprawled across the mat, and you were good to go! Though it certainly wasn't easy on your body, as limbs would soon be aching and trembling the more you contorted, and an inevitable collapse would bring down the whole group.
11 Tickle Me Elmo
Most people around in the 90s remember this toy, likely as a result of the unprecedented coverage it received in the media, commercials, and even news segments. Stores reported massive shipments of these weird laughing Elmo dolls being wiped clean during the holidays. This toy helped spark the whole Black Friday phenomenon with swarms of customers practically trampling over one another to get the hot new toy or gadget at a budget price for their loved ones. It's still difficult to understand the charm in such a seemingly simple doll, though clearly consumers were "tickled" by this Sesame Street icon.
10 Handheld Electronic Games
Man, if you thought the Gameboy was crude and backward technologically, you clearly haven't experienced these basic handheld "gaming" devices. While they sported some neat artwork on the frame of the device itself, the actual gameplay and graphics taking place on the tiny screen was about as archaic and clunky as you could get. It all essentially boiled down to fixed images on a screen, which were lit up like a sort of glorified digital clock, cued by your limited controls. Games ran the gamut from Sonic he Hedgehog to obscure movie/TV references like Home Alone and Full House.