The Top 20 Christmas Gifts (For Boys) from the 1990s

The 90s were such fun loving times for us 20 somethings. Check out this trip down memory lane.  Prepare for nostalgia over load.



20.)Skip It

To be honest the Skip It was not that cool of a toy, but its spot on this list is ever so deserving for two reasons. The first is the commercial because it’s a 90’s icon. The song is awesomely catchy and annoyingly bad.

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And reason number two is the Skip It was a toy that could/would never be put on shelves in todays over parenting, over protective world.  The Skip It is down right dangerous.  You couldn’t use the thing on grass and you had to play with it on concrete.  Think about it, it’s a toy where you’re jumping around with a bulky plastic thing strapped to your leg. Kids where bouncing their heads off pavement and parents where picking them up and challenging them to try and get an even higher score. Remember, there was a counter on that ball, and this was the 90s.

19.)Creepy Crawlers

 

Creepy Crawlers was a toy from the 60s that was rereleased and found popularity again in the 90s.  The toy essentially allowed you to put some sort of gelatin in to a tray with a stamped out bug in it, fire it into an easy bake oven and voila, some sort of useless throw away toy. But why this toy makes the list is simply because only your rich friends had them.  In no way, shape or form (creepy crawler pun intended) would your parents actually waste money on such things.

18.)Crocodile Mile

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Versions of the slip and slide have been around since the 60s, but Crocodile Mile brought something new to the game. The “splash down pool”. Crocodile Mile brought all the broken bones and paralazation that the original slip and slides brought, but allowed you to lay in a puddle of luke warm hose water while you did it.

17.)Pogs

Get your Slammers ready! This was the 90s version of marbles.

16.)Sega Dreamcast

The Dreamcast was Sega’s last video game console release and a last ditch effort to try and hang in there with Nintendo and Sony as the leading video game juggernauts.  The Dreamcast honestly was the XFL of video game consoles. Flash in the pan, gimmicky, and forgettable. It did, however provide some very memorable titles, most notably the introduction of the 2K sports titles.

15.)Power Wheels

The thing that started the whole American kids becoming fat and lazy.  The Power Wheel phased out the Big Wheel. Kids could now just charge up a battery, push a peddle, and take off.

14.)Starting Line Up Football/Baseball/Basketball Players

 

These were the coolest things around for kids who loved playing sports. The football players came with a helmet that you could take on or off. They also always came with a card, coin, or something else equally as cool. What made them so cool was really just the cool uniforms.  Very limited movement, unlike the versions of today, but when you had 7 or 8 of them you could get a pretty good football game going.

13.)Power Rangers

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The 80s was the decade of the action figure/awesome kids TV shows featuring said action figures.  Thundercats, He-Man, TMNT, Ghostbusters, and Transformers are all much better than  Power Rangers. But Power Rangers were the kings of the 90s. The Power Rangers not only rushed in the action figure of the 90s, but also many tweens of the 90s into puberty. Many 20 some things across the nation still find themselves fantasizing about Kimberly, the Pink Ranger.

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12.)Super Shredder

The TMNT were released in the 1980s. So they won’t be making this list individually. But their popularity grew in leaps and bounds during a stretch run in the early 90s. So their presence must be represented here.  The apex of the TMNT Mountain was the 1991 sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. I don’t know for sure, but that might be the longest movie title ever. What I do know for sure is this is the greatest movie involving radioactive turtles while also featuring Vanilla Ice.  Most importantly, this movie introduced us to the Super Shredder. Kids in the 90s loved TMNT toys, but the Super Shredder action figure was the must have after its release.  In the movie a cinematic Shamalyain twist turns normal Shredder into a roided out 38 pack ab destroyer. A performance that only lasted a minute and a half that should have won an MTV movie award for best fight, and should have landed director Michael Pressman a best directorial nomination from the academy. (Fun Fact: Wrestler Kevin Nash played the role of Super Shredder. Too Swweeeet)

11.)Talk Boy

The Home Alone movies were blockbuster phenomenons. They also made Macualey Culkin the coolest kid on the planet. In the second movie Kevin McCalister uses this tape recording device to wreck havoc on The Wet Sticky Bandits and Dr Frankenfurter.  The device was only meant to be a fictional prop used in the film, but demand for it from kids actually led to its mass production. You could record your voice, play it back to yourself, and all the while speed it up or slow it down. In hindsight and by today’s standards not the most exciting thing in the world but it was the 90s, we didn’t need friggin Iphones or PSPs. Speaking of PSPs…

10.)Gameboy

This is the original portable video game device. 4 AA batteries had never been used like this before.  You could play your favorite games, albeit a dumb down version of the games, but this certainly kept Nintendo’s strangle hold on the video game market. The Gameboys mark upon the world was cemented earlier this year when it was introduced into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

9.)Super Soaker 50

The 90s water gun. Revolutionary for its time, it ushered in a new era in the squirt gun.  It was the first in a line of Super Soakers that changed the game, not only in water wars for boys in American back yards, but also wet t shirt contests across the nation.

8.) Koosh Vortex Howler Football

The Vortex football was the coolest football to come out since the original Nerf football.  Its small but heavy design allowed you to throw the thing a country mile. Highlighted in the original commercial where John Elway is touted to throw it 90 yards! I cannot find the commercial on youtube, which is a super disappointment.  The other main feature of this ball was its 3 howling whistles.  The noise is only something Bubb Rub and Lil Sis would enjoy, and the hard plastic knobs of the whistles where nothing but knuckle breakers when catching it.  This football was awesome; you could play catch across 3 neighbors’ yards, and peg your friend in the face from across a parking lot.

7.)Crossfire

This is self explanatory…

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awesome.

6.)The Nerf Bow and Arrow

This was one of those really hot items boys of the 90s had to have.  Everyone needed one. If you didn’t have one you were a loser. 

Totally simplistic design, awesome 90s paint job. The arrows traveled about 30 feet tops, and the arrows were so light weight that even a sneeze from someone close by would throw off its flight path.

In comparison check out the evolution of the Nerf bow and arrow and see what the kids get to play with today…

5.)Reebok Pumps

Pump it up! That was the slogan for probably the most memorable shoes of the decade (Outside of Jordans).  The shoes weren’t super expensive, like their Nike counterparts, and the technology really got kids excited.  Another one of those must have Christmas presents of the early 90s. 

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4.) Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) 

This is where the real evolution of video gaming started: The Sega Mega Drive. Some might claim the Super Nintendo was better, but the Genesis kicked Mario right in his balls.  The most important upgrade of them all wasn’t just the better graphics it ushered in over the NES, but the fact that this thing is a tank. Mine still works today without having to blow into the cartridges.

3.)Nintendo 64

Here’s the run of video game consoles to close out the list. The N64 is just an all time classic. The 64 put Nintendo back at the top and drove kids crazy.  It introduced the joystick to the controller and brought us amazing titles like Mario Kart, Mario Party, James Bond, Star Fox, and Zelda 64. Not much I need to say about this thing, it was just awesome. 64 bits and allowed as many as 4 people to play at one time.

2.)Starter Jackets

 

Starter Jackets were another must have for any American boy in the 90s.  Rocking out a Starter Jacket was the number one way to show support of your favorite team, or whatever team you were front running at that time.  It was eerie how the success of the Cowboys (Dilo) and Bulls (Louie D) led to so many new fans wearing those teams Starters, but at least most kids from the 90s have come to grips with their front running from back then.

Starter Jackets were also a way for suburban kids to feel like they were from the ghetto. Starter Jackets where so cool, kids actually started stealing the interlocking letter s and star logos off other kids jackets like hood ornaments. It was so thugged out suburbia, you don’t even know!

1.)Sony Playstation

Such an obvious picks it’s almost an anti climatic end to an awesome list. But the total domination and revolutionary changes made by its release changed video games forever. No more cartridges while giving us eye popping graphics and ,of course, Lara Crofts boobs.



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