9 Notorious Forgotten 90s Toys We'd Still Play With Today

My memories from before 6 years old may be sparse, but a few toy sets I loved back then have stuck with me all these years. I distinctly remember the bubbly joy that filled my chest when the built-in tree stump in my late-90s Winnie-the-Pooh treehouse flipped to show a cookie platter underneath. While we can’t stop Father Time from wreaking havoc on our childhood memories, we can toast the forgotten 90s toys that still excite us decades later.  

I wasn’t a Barbie doll girlie, much to my mom’s dismay. I loved that you could change their outfits, but I’d rather tie her around the ceiling fan blades to see if my twin brother and I could pop her head off than make up fake scenarios with her and her friends. This is where Betty Spaghetty became the apple of my eye. 

A bendable, plastic take on Barbie, Betty Spaghetty walked so Gen Z toys like Bratz Dolls could run. All of her body parts were removable and easy to store. Weave beads into her plastic string hair and pull off her hands or feet for a stick human of epic proportions.

As someone who nearly took out a family of four sitting at a table 20 feet behind me when axe throwing because I threw it so hard it ricocheted farther than any of the attendants had ever seen before, Socker Boppers were on my holiday wish list many years in a row. Had my mom brought those blow-up boxing gloves into our house, my twin brother wouldn’t have stood a chance.  

The Hulk hands of yesteryear, Socker Boppers were so fun because of the ridiculously violent concept. Here little Jimmy, put inflatable caps on your hands and hit people with them. Oh to be alive when people didn’t bat an eye at toys that gave black eyes and busted lips.

Without a doubt, the best 90s toy commercial was for the Magical Rainbow Sponge. Twenty+ years later, and this woman’s quotes still live rent-free in my head. From “UGH, this was one night I did not sleep!” to “Look at those WIGGLES!,” this commercial had me hook, line, and sinker.

These mail-in products were all the rage in the 1990s, and the rare few who actually bought them found that this one held up. Though a sponge that you put multiple pigments on to create a pattern isn’t revolutionary, the marketing campaign is still going strong. 

Related: 7 Toys From the 60s That Prove Boomers Had It Better

I begged for Blo-Pens from the very first time I saw the commercial for them. Before I even knew air brush art was a thing, I was entranced by the idea of creating art with only your breath!

Looking back, Blo-Pens were perhaps the most unhygienic toy of my childhood. Sure, let’s just breathalize ourselves on this pen cap and then swap spit by sharing colors with the person beside you. My school that eventually banned hand sanitizer for fear of kids huffing it really should’ve been more worried about this ‘harmless’ art toy.

Doodle Bear was one of those toys that you know some exhausted parent who was tired of washing crayon off their walls pitched to a big toy company. For all of the 80s conservative messaging that ran rampant in America, this 90s toy that unintentionally bred a generation of tattooers didn’t ring any alarm bells.

And while Doodle Bears only held up for a few washes before becoming stained in faded marker, they were one hell of a liberating toy.

I was horrifically fascinated with Baby Born as a kid. As someone who wanted absolutely nothing to do with babies, this knock-off Home Economics doll that actually peed and cried made me want even less to do with the squirmy things. What could be more fun than training literal children to be parents themselves, am I right?

But, if kids and their obsession with the poop emoji is anything to go off of, I think this one would still be a hit 20+ years later.

Growing up with two older blonde twin sisters and being a twin myself meant that the 90s Mary-Kate & Ashely Olsen empire felt realer for me than any other franchise like it. It’s why I snatched up those Mary-Kate & Ashley dolls like they were going out of style. And while my own quirky sense of play took them on adventures, I’m sure the manufacturers didn’t anticipate my particular brand of fun (with a flick of the wrist that snowboarding helmet turned one of the dolls into a mass murderer à la Jason Voorhees called Saw Girl).

Today, there’s a litany of fashion dolls to choose from, but dolls like Mary Kate & Ashely helped spur creativity in the oversaturated market.

I still complain to my mom about how she never let me get a pair of Moon Shoes to this DAY. Granted, my clumsy giraffe-like bumbling around never helped my case. But if your parents were cool parents and not worried about the dangers of strapping trampolines to their kid’s feet, then you got to revel in my 8-year-old dream, and I hope you enjoyed ever second of it.

Once you got a gander of these new-age gadgets, no pogo stick or scooter could possibly compare. Out of all the toys on this list, I’d willingly risk a twisted ankle for a chance to try out this old forgotten toy.

Before we had an entire TV cabinet of consoles to choose from, RC toys satiated our hunger for new tech. For rough-and-tumble kids like me, the Tyco Rebound 4x4 was the toy of the future. No need to worry about upsetting your parents after cracking the front of your RC Corvette on the side of the house. Instead, you could ram this thing into a tree or send it flying down the stairs, and it would always bounce back.

In the 1990s, toy manufacturers weren’t afraid to lean into children’s more destructive, chaotic sides, and for that, we salute them!

Sure, growing up with high-speed internet and virtual reality has its perks. But I wouldn’t trade the blood and bruises and ink-stained clothes of growing up in the 90s for anything. So, here’s to the forgotten 90s toys that made us who we are and that still go hard all these years later.