Growing up in the '90s and early '00s was sometimes a trippy
, err,
weird experience. From cartoons that seemed to be created while the artists were, uh, "feeling nice," to toys that were reminiscent of bizarre sci-fi or futuristic movies, child
millennials were subjected to some strange stuff. Perhaps it had to do with the rapidly advancing technology combined with the fact that middle-aged toy-makers were once teenagers in the flowerchild era, but the toys we had as kids were weird as.. well, a creepy furry monster that talked to you and possibly had government surveillance equipment inside of it.
For your nostalgic entertainment, here's 11 weird toys we millennials had as kids:
1. Furby
The ultimate creepy toy, Furby was the coolest thing ever until it wouldn't shut up when you were trying to sleep. It might have been the first attempt by the NSA to get an inside scoop to what was happening in your bedroom, but it was worth it to have a weird little gremlin that you could feed with your finger.
2. Creepy Crawlers
The creepy equivalent to the Easy-Bake Oven
3. Tamagotchi
Why did we want to clean up that little pixel's poop and make sure it was
happy and didn't die?
4. Trolls
Okay talk about creeptown, what was the deal with these little guys? Their beady little eyes, crazy hair and naked little bodies made no sense as a toy, yet, somehow, they were awesome. Just make sure they were in your closet before you went to sleep.
5. Robot Dog
In the '90s and '00s there were several different brands of mechanical pets, but the one I had, and maybe the weirdest, was the Poo-Chi. This robodog looked like a canine terminator and freaked my real life dog the heck out.
6. Water Finger Traps
These finger traps had some sort of liquid substance, sometimes glitter, and usually some little plastic creatures inside. They were squishy, wiggly, and... weird. And they weren't that hard to get out of. Plus when they popped you regretted it so much.
Yeah. This was a thing that happened. Do we need to explain why this was freaking weird?
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Maybe this one is just me, but this toy is super weird. I mean, you're sticking facial features and accessories on a.. potato. WHY? What were these toy makers doing when they came up with this idea?
9. Floam
I mean what even was this stuff? It was like stretchy play-dough with little Styrofoam balls embedded. But it was a Nickelodeon product; of course it's weird.
10. Koosh Balls
Again, why? What purpose did these weird hairy balls serve? (I'm regretting those adjectives already, but how else do you describe them!?)
11. Basically all the McDonald's Happy Meal toys
So a lot of the McDonald's Happy Meal toys were really, really weird in the '90s, including chicken nuggets wearing
Halloween costumes and Loony Tunes race cars, but maybe the weirdest were these McDonald's McDino Changeables. AKA McDonald's food transformers that changed into dinosaurs. Um... okay, sure.
While there's definitely some weird toys nowadays, they don't compare to the ones us millennials had in the '90s and '00s. They just don't make 'em as weird as they used to.
