As we near the end of the 2010s, 90s nostalgia is really in. And it’s no wonder. For many of us, the 90s were the decade in which we grew up. Everything about it was so unique — and sometimes bizarre — that it’s easy to idolize the whole decade.
It was a strange decade. We wore a lot of denim and experimented with candy just a little too much. What’s more, the internet was in its infancy. For the first time, people had access — even if it was limited access — to the World Wide Web.
There were so many new and exciting things going on in the 90s. We were saying goodbye to the 20th century and getting ready for a new century, sure it would be amazing.
Some of these things still seem so fresh in our memories, but in case you’ve forgotten, 1990 was almost 30 years ago. Yes, you read that right — 30. Kids who weren’t alive during that decade are now old enough to vote and get married.
Yep, there are actual adults who weren’t around to experience the 90s. But if you were, you know just how awesome growing up in the 90’s really was.
Here are 60 popular things from the 90’s you may have forgotten ever existed.
Back in the 1990s, Fortnite wasn’t around yet. Multiplayer gaming meant getting together physically to play digitally. Don’t forget to wear your denim cutoffs.
How did we ever walk in these things? What’s more, why did we think they looked good? The 90s were all about anti-fashion and challenging the concept of what looked good. Unfortunately, we didn’t do it in the right way.
Ah, the Tamagotchi, our first experience of responsibility. What child doesn’t love a game that requires you to anxiously try to keep a small creature from dying, usually failing horribly and having to deal with the guilt for the rest of your life?
Computers are much older than the 90s, but it was during that decade when they first started being a common sight in homes. Computing was a highly exciting task for the people of the time. It was recommended to have a fainting couch nearby for emergencies.
Before modern Netflix, even before early Netflix, we had to go to Blockbuster. There, you’d skim the aisles of videotapes to find the perfect one for your Friday night. Of course, if the store was out of the movie you wanted, you were out of luck.
Technology wasn’t new in the 90s, but it was still a novelty to the average Joe. We were pretty easily impressed back then, too. This is what we called 3D. We thought it was amazing.
This is what passed for cool back in the 1990s. It was like the newer version of a mullet, except it was “Party on top, business on the bottom.” Why we ever thought these looked good remains a mystery.
Did you know that you can download apps for your cats and dogs to play with? These Gen Z house pets don’t know how good they’ve got it. In the 1990s, they played with balls of yarn and liked it.
11. This was the most stressful moment of your life
Digital games have come far in the last 30 years. Back in the 1990s, they weren’t as relaxing as they are today. This one probably gave you an anxiety attack on a daily basis.
We all had a slinky that we loved, preferably in a neon color. But when this tragedy struck, you knew it was probably the end. Once two of these got tangled, there was no untangling them.
These days, we don’t even use DVDs anymore, preferring to stream most of our content from online platforms. In the 90s, we had to deal with all the problems that come with using physical video playback, like these destroyed videotapes.
For some reason, dance was the big kid craze of the time. Everyone was enrolled in a dance class, boys and girls alike. We all had recitals and had to wear gaudy costumes, usually taking photos like this one to embarrass us for the rest of time.
Nothing else can explain their reasoning for dressing us like this. When your clothes say “preschool” but your hair and glasses say “nursing home,” it’s time for mom to review her style guide.
Middle school was weird. It had nonsensical status symbols and things that made you cool or uncool with no rhyme or reason. For example, these pens that let you write in five different colors? Super cool.
Even if you didn’t have your ears pierced, that was no reason you couldn’t wear cool jewelry! There were few decisions as agonizing as choosing which stick-on earrings you wanted to wear that day.
We’ve all had one of these and experienced the stress of trying to play it without learning any of the rules. No one ever bought these games. They just appeared in your game closet out of nowhere.
We played outside a lot in the 90s, but we had some downright dangerous toys. For example, the Skip It, which was prone to tangling around your ankles, smacking you in the shin, and making you eat pavement.
In the 1990s, we couldn’t stream music on cell phones or even to play it on a portable CD player. What we did have were Walkman’s. But they weren’t exactly cheap — they were $150 apiece when introduced in 1979.
21. You cried in the shower because of this shampoo
The brand proclaimed it was the “No Tears” version and boy, did we buy it. Everyone who was a child between the years of 1990 and 2000 remembers the sting of their eyes and the smell of kiwi in the shower.
By the end of the decade, we were leaning toward smooth, sleek hair that laid flat. But those early days were still influenced by the 1980s, and boy did the hairstyles show it.
Back in the 90s, every 12-year-old could become a graphic designer just by mastering WordArt! This was a great way to feel cool when you showed off those fonts. You’d think we all designed them ourselves.
24. This bad boy made you a professional photographer
Polaroids are known in the 2010s as a retro trend, but in the 90s, that was just the way you took photos. Digital photography wasn’t yet widely available, but this bad boy let you point and snap like a pro.
Sure, iPhones are nice, but have you ever seen one without a cracked screen? Cell phones in the 90s didn’t have texting or Snapchat. But they could take a fall. Now you set it down too hard and the screen shatters.
Here’s a memory of the 90s that you’ve probably forgotten: these goofy kids’ chairs at McDonald’s. We don’t know why the corporation phased them out because we loved them and we want them back!
In theory, these were supposed to glow in the dark, perfect when riding your bike at night. But there were also ones that just did — well, this. It was a simple way to turn your bike from average to super cool.
Remember waiting eagerly for your Disney Adventures magazine and finally seeing it get dropped in the mailbox? Then we’d all spend hours looking through it. The 90s knew how to do magazines.
For reasons we’ll never know, schools in the 90s decided this was the best way to teach us our multiplication tables. Whatever their reasoning, we can never forget the feel of those plastic buttons.
Remember when your parents tried to convince you that raking the yard was a good time? They had a simple way to do it: put the leaves in these pumpkin trash bags. Abracadabra, it’s no longer a chore!
Before we enjoyed our rented videotape of Aladdin, all of the kids had to sit and ponder this serious message from the Federal Bureau of Investigations about how their life would degrade if they dared to pirate movies.
Go away, Linda Ellerbee. No one wants your news briefings. We want violent cartoons with funny voices and we want them now. Get out of here with your real-world issues.
Back in the 90s, Breyers decided to break out of its usual box and go for something completely different. The Viennetta was half cake, half ice cream and had layers that are probably imprinted in your memory.
Every time you walked into an arcade or Chuck-E-Cheese, you needed to make a stop at this bad boy. There, you’d get all the coins you needed to go play Whack-A-Mole and earn crappy plastic prizes.
These were a central part of your summer in the 1990s. Were they difficult to eat? Yes, they were. Did they make a horrible mess? Absolutely. But you’ll never forget the taste of juice and paper.
36. These Garfield cups made orange juice taste better
Every household had at least two of these Garfield mugs. Each one had a different comic and man did we love them. There was nothing like drinking your morning juice out of one of these.
37. The red Pizza Hut cups made soda taste bubblier
Be honest — looking at this picture makes you feel that texture in your mind. We’re not sure why Pizza Hut decided to put stretch marks on its cups, but they became an indelible part of our childhood.
Doesn’t every kid want to stop running, jumping, sliding, and swinging to play a rousing game of Tic-Tac-Toe? Adults in the 90s thought so. They’ve since realized that no one wanted that, and you’ll rarely see these at a playground these days.
Before digital coupons existed, you could find these at points all around any grocery store. They were fun to pull, which meant that every kid did it until their mother threatened to take them home.
The days when your teacher let you play BrainQuest were the best. All you had to do was play trivia with your friends with minimal supervision and it counted as learning!
You could find this at almost any arcade back in the day. What’s not to love about a game that makes basketball smaller and easier so that every kid can feel like a professional?
Package designs change over the years, but for some reason, certain ones stick with us. Anyone who grew up in the 90s thinks fondly of these cans and of drinking cherry Coke, which was better than regular Coke just because.
Ah, Bath and Body Works. Its scents reigned supreme during the 90s, dividing teen girls into scent camps of sweet pea, Japanese cherry blossom, and cucumber melon. And glitter. Glitter everywhere.
No one knew where they came from, but somehow, every house had this exact pitcher. It had stains on it from cherry Kool-Aid and it tasted funny when it came out of the dishwasher.
Back in the 90s, board games weren’t supposed to be “fun” or “relaxing.” Instead, we played Operation and Shark Attack, which were designed to make you fear for your life.
In the 90s, your parents loved watching the Weather Channel. It showed this and only this literally 24 hours a day with occasional breaks to talk about …well, more weather. It also referred to thunderstorms as T-storms.
These were the greatest! Sure, you couldn’t write with them and the smiley face one never worked, but we still thought they were the greatest. We used them at every opportunity.
Solitary on Windows 95 was only marginally more interesting than real solitaire. It had lots of pictures of clownfish and castles and other things that had nothing to do with solitaire. We never found out why.
49. Getting Fruitopia from the vending machine at school
In the 90s, these things lined the halls of every high school. People didn’t seem to buy from them often. For all we know, there are still Fruitopia machines out there with juice from 1998.
These roughly-carved wiggly-legged bugs counted for decoration back in the 90s. You’re not sure why, but you were definitely jealous of the girl in your class that had 12 of them.
51. Watching them bury the Nickelodeon time capsule
Nickelodeon buried a time capsule in 1992. It’s slated to be opened in 2042. It contains news reports, Reeboks, rollerblades, CDs and movies, and a piece of the Berlin Wall.
This game worked by having two people toss tennis balls back and forth while trying to catch them on the Velcro mitts. This seems like yet another game no one bought, but everyone had.
53. Being jealous of the kids with this logo on their jeans
Denim was a big deal in the 90s, and Tommy Hilfiger was some of the best. The kids who had this logo on their jeans were living the high life. You couldn’t help but envy them.
Before we could project images from the Internet on the wall, every classroom had one of these. Your teacher would ask the tallest kid in class to pull it down before the geography lesson started.
Add to the list of things no one has ever needed: Pringles carrying cases. Aside from the fact that Pringles come in their own container, this is far from a realistic serving size.
Surfing the Web was the coolest thing to do! Of course, it took 20 minutes for a page to load, websites crashed constantly, and the Dial-Up tune was seared forever into your brain, but still…so cool!
The 90s had a lot of snacks. They may not have been healthy — like, not even a little — but man were they good. Only in the 90s did you get your own pack of cookies to dunk in a tub of frosting.
Be real. As much as you wanted a Furby, you were also a little bit terrified of them. And no wonder — these monster toys “woke up” at any time of the day or night to fidget, sing, and talk.
Ah, the game that taught you how terrible life was during the pioneer days and what a bad idea it is to kill 100 buffalo at once. You’d spend so long naming all your family members, only to have them all die.
In the 90s, we had the brilliant idea of putting candy cartoon figures inside big hollow balls of chocolate. They weren’t good, but you loved them anyway.
60 Popular Things From The 90's You May Have Forgotten
Cedric Jackson
07.29.19
As we near the end of the 2010s, 90s nostalgia is really in. And it’s no wonder. For many of us, the 90s were the decade in which we grew up. Everything about it was so unique — and sometimes bizarre — that it’s easy to idolize the whole decade.
It was a strange decade. We wore a lot of denim and experimented with candy just a little too much. What’s more, the internet was in its infancy. For the first time, people had access — even if it was limited access — to the World Wide Web.
There were so many new and exciting things going on in the 90s. We were saying goodbye to the 20th century and getting ready for a new century, sure it would be amazing.
Some of these things still seem so fresh in our memories, but in case you’ve forgotten, 1990 was almost 30 years ago. Yes, you read that right — 30. Kids who weren’t alive during that decade are now old enough to vote and get married.
Yep, there are actual adults who weren’t around to experience the 90s. But if you were, you know just how awesome growing up in the 90’s really was.
Here are 60 popular things from the 90’s you may have forgotten ever existed.
