All would definitely be considered product fads. Riots at the stores just to get your hands on these items.
So I wanna know…What product fads did you give in and buy? Anyone else here have an extensive (and expensive) Beanie Baby collection? Seen your pet rock anywhere?
Marketing geniuses, they were.
Personally, I have a Tamagotchi. I loved that thing. Until it baked in the sun and ever since has various problems with the main chip.
I have 300+ Beanie Babies that I have been trying to get rid of. The prized “old version stripes” and “Libearty” to the current ones of about 2 years ago, when I stopped buying. A collection of Beanie cards as well.
I scoffed at the crazy “Gotta get Tickle-Me-Elmo” parents.
Never bought a Furby, but I wanted one. Harley Davidson Barbie…well, I never was into barbies.
I think that ends my list…so, what about you???
I had a Tamagotchi. It was a monkey. My parents bought it for me in Boston when I was taking a course at BU during my freshmen year of high school. I got back to high school two weeks later and one of the tenors in chorus asked to look at it, then dropped it and nobody ever found it again.
Well, I have a bunch of beanie babies, but (gasp!) my kids play with them and most of the tags are gone. My MIL got my son a furby a few years ago - the thing fell off a shelf and no longer talks - tbh it was rather creepy!
Well we gave a niece a Cabbage Patch Doll when she was 5 or so. (She’s almost 20 now!)
For our sons we had Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and Zords, Star Wars figures and spacecraft models, Tickle Me Elmo, Beanie Babies, and right now we’re on a list for the video game cube thing. It’s suppose to come out by his birthday in September, if not maybe by Christmas.
Rubik’s Cube… Um, and Star Wars, I guess. Hmmm… Not much else. Unless you count computers, though we were pretty late into getting one of them (1984 for a ZX Spectrum).
Leg warmers - they were actually practical in our climate, Rubiks Cube, Trivial Pursuit - when it first came out and was a really hot item, 80’s hair and clothing - including my punk/new wave phase.
Fads I assisted my children in?
Power Rangers and Pokemon were the big ones. I actually fought the mobs of people for the bloody Power Ranger dolls when they first came out, and hated myself for it.
I totally missed the Beanie Baby boat, and in fact thought the whole fad for those things was silly. Tamagotchi? I had my own kids to feed at the time. The fun in looking after another being was lost on me. Couldn’t believe the Tickle Me Elmo fad. I laughed when two months after Christmas the highly sought after Elmo’s were back to regular price. My kids still don’t own one. I hate noisy toys. Furby’s? See my notes on Tickle Me Elmo.
Well, I tried to participate in the whole Tamagotchi fad but I couldn’t find one. I was so desperate to have a “digital pet” that I went out and bought a Giga Pet. It was the most bootleg thing ever…the thing just kept getting virtually fatter and fatter until it died. I kinda miss it…
~Kittie
Slap bracelets – you know, those nylon-covered metal affairs that were straight until you smacked them into your wrists. A true fad with a quick descent.
HyperColor – heat-sensitive clothing. Changed colors depending on your body temperature. I had so much of this. Everyone got to see that your armpits and butt were warm.
Z Cavaricci jeans – with the little zipper covers that had the name on them? Truly low-quality but expensive.
God, middle school. It seemed so appropriate at the time.
Cabbage Patch Kids
Neon clothing
Jelly bracelets (lined up my arm)
Acid-washed jeans
Garbage Pail Kids
Rubik’s Cube
Atari video games
Leg warmers
Coca-Cola clothing
I got a Tamagotchi at the tail end of the fad. It was cool at first, but quickly got annoying. I thought they’re only supposed to live for a week or two. Mine lasted 30 days, when I finally beat it to death. Damn thing was constantly crying for something, so I kept hitting “punish” until it died.
Before that, I had a Rubik’s cube. I never could solve it on my own, so I bought a solution book and memorized the patterns, thus I looked like I was smarter than I actually was.
I had a Cabbage Patch Doll during the “parents fighting each other to the death in stores for 'em” phase, what was that, early 80s I think. Seriously, I remember hearing about people getting bones broken in the rush to nab the dolls. I had a cousin who worked at Service Merchandise and a grandma who decided her little granddaughter had to have that doll-- so Jerome, my cousin, raided the stock truck along with the rest of the employees and bought on Grandma’s behalf.
Had a Tamagotchi when they were big-- this time because my brother worked in a department store and was able to pick up one for him, me and my mom. Couldn’t get them to live longer than about 21 days. And he was lucky getting them-- his store’s policy was that employees could reserve popular items, but if a customer wanted one and the only one left was a not-yet-paid-for employee pick, the employee was SOL.
We had a family Furby until my mom killed it. It had developed quite a personality, but she knocked it off a table and it reset to a new infant state. She felt strangely guilty about it, so I did the only sensitive thing I could-- had my coworkers and friends all send her sympathy cards. One of them wrote that “Popo is with Jesus now.”
As for current fads, I’d like a pair of those Levi’s Super Low jeans, but I don’t want my navel bursting into song.
For about year, starting in 1997, I was really into Beanie Babies (not the source of my user name, though). My ending collection is up to 20, and I still have them all. I like them, but I’m not into them. But I only bought them because I liked them, not for the vaulue. I ripped the tags off mine. My philosophy is “It doesn’t feel like I own it until the tag is off”. I remember buying some at a store and I quietly mentioned to the person I was with that I did this. This stuffy old lady turns around and sniffs,
“My seven year old knows not to take the tags off.” Then she proceeded to brag that she kept her Beanies behind a glass case.
When I was around four or five my mom searched all over Vegas to find a Teddy Ruxpin. I also loved Cabbage Patch Kids, and I have two Furbies right now. One of them has it’s batteries out and the other is sitting right above my computer. He’s been asleep for a year and a half.
All of you slap bracelet fans are in luck because they are back! I have a couple purple fuzzy ones that look great when I wear a long sleeve black shirt with them.
I had several Cabbage Patch dolls. My brothers used to tease me by hanging it (by neck or toes) from the ceiling fan.
I wore Coca-Cola, Guess, Jordache, Sasson (jeans), leg warmers, jellies, and IZODS. Can you guess what decade I grew up in?
