Toys from the 1990’s

These few posts will explore the cultural and generational changes through the toys of each decade – kinda fun and interesting.

Toys From The 1990s
The 1990s saw the culmination of years of marketing, cross campaigning, and the development of new technologies in toys. The result was that hundreds of toys hit the market each and every year. Thanks also to TV, every year saw a “must have” toy similar to the Cabbage Patch Kid rush in the 80s.

Roller blades saw a particularly heavy rush in the early 90s. Similar to skateboards, roller blades found mass appeal very quickly, growing beyond the bounds of simple children’s toys.

Beanie Babies were such an incredible craze that the prospect of children owning them soon died away. The prices they garnered, induced by their rarity and mass demand made them impossible for children to own. Tickle Me Elmo hit the kind of epic mass appeal for children that Cabbage Patch Kids did before it. Selling out weeks before Christmas the descendants of Elmo are still alive and kicking (and still hard to find).

With a turnaround time of about 5 years on new video gaming technology, two generations of advancing games saw their time in the 90s.  Portable gaming, such as Nintendo’s Gameboy became increasingly popular, selling millions of units.