Trends, Fads, and Crazes!

[Dodie16]

Those things that happen in our lives that seem so "cool" at first, and then just as suddenly aren't "cool" anymore and are forgotten about, until for some reason or another we remember them (sometimes fondly, other times not so much). We all at some point in our lives fall victim to what everyone else is doing/wearing/listening to. So why do we do these things? The answers to that question are numerous. However, I'm not here to discuss that. I'm here to discuss what trends/fads/crazes YOU got sucked into!

As for myself, here is some of my most memorable:

Tamagotchies/Giga Pets/Nano Babies- Those little digital toys that had the virtual animal or alien or babies programmed into them, and you had to take care of thier ever demanding needs! When I was in Junior High, a lot of my fellow classmates had them and they would beep when they needed attention. They were soon banned from school because they disrupted class. I had like three of these little toys. My mother had to babysit them when I was away at school, and they would drive her crazy!

Backstreet Boys- Oh boy was I obsessed with these guys back in the day! I had posters, C.D.s, calenders, and magazines that had these guys in them. I am not ashamed to say that I like thier music. I even have a couple of tracks on my iPod from them. However, my old fascination with these guys is over and done with.

Adidas Break-Away Pants- A lot of kids at my school wore these. Essentially they were like windsuit pants, except with buttons running down the side of the legs. I don't know what the design was intended for, perhaps to make it easier to change into your gym clothes.

Wide-Leg Jeans- I swear I had a couple of pairs of these. The legs of these pants would be so wide on some that you could literally make two pairs of jeans out of it! Dear Lord, what was I thinking...

Macarena- Haha! The dance for anyone who doesn't know how to dance at all! I swear this song played at nearly all my elementary and junior high social events! I also remember participating in a cross-dressing fashion contest, and for the talent round we all had to do the Macarena.

Well, I suppose to make this topic a bit more interesting:

Do you still find yourself succumbing to these sorts of things?

I can't say that I really do. I suppose you sort of grow out of what everyone else is doing and develop your own sense of what YOU like. I think that's what happened to me anyway.

[Pete]

How could you not mention POGs? Simply the greatest circular cardboard disc collectable game ever. I still have no idea how to play, but I remember trading with my friends all the time. It was sad.

We also got really into the Magic: The Gathering craze back in like 4th grade. We obsessed over that, despite making the rules up as we went, since the rules were too complicated. The best part was when my one rich friend went to a tournament, and played with "our" rules. He got laughed out of the tournament and gave away all his cards that night.

There was also the Lunchables craze, where all the cool kids ate those God awful things. Looking back on it, I'm really happy my mom made me lunch daily. I picked up a pack about a year ago, and it was disgusting.

Our 7th grade class was split into 2 camps. Yo-Yo kids and Pokemon kids. I was a yo-yo kid, and I remember learning all of these super cool tricks, and going around and shutting off the Pokemon kid's gameboys, since they would tangle our yo-yo strings.

Tamogatchies and the macarena were also huge in my school. We were kind of poor when I grew up, so I had the bootleg tamogatchi from the dollar store. I wound up killing it because I would put it on silent and leave it at home. Makes me glad I didn't have the expensive one!

In high school, we didn't really have any fads, since we all wore uniforms. Made things easier.

Freshman year of college though... start of the whole popped collar phase. I have NEVER popped my collar once. No d-bagginess for me.


I used to love crap like that back in the day, mostly because I cared what other people thought of me. Nowadays, I really don't give a damn about trends. If I like something, I like it, and that's how it is.

[Dodie16]

Originally posted by Pete
How could you not mention POGs?

Haha! Now that you mention them, I do recall my older brother Marc having a ton of those! Him and his friends would collect them and trade them off. I don't think that they knew how to play the game either. I never understood what the big deal was, but I guess that's because I was never really into them, just like they weren't into stuff that I liked.

Sort of a funny story about POGs. They got so popular at my school, that they were banned! Kids still brought them, but they would get detention for having them if they were caught.

[Rocky]

Oh yeah, I was definitely into POGs back in the day, once I saw my friend's brother with his plastic bag full of pogs I was hooked from day one. That only lasted like a school year though.

Never got into the whole trading card stuff, besides with Pokemon. I was a big fan of pokemon for awhile so I naturally got hooked on the game. I was a poor dirt kid though so I couldn't really afford many cards, but the Pokemon Trading Card game on the Game Boy Color was a lot of fun! Oh, and yo-yos were definitely cool too.

I guess for a fad, me and my friends were really into Dragonball Z and Toonami in general. I thought the shows were like the gospel when I was 10. So for most of my birthdays and stuff, I got DBZ toys, videos, and the like for a couple of years.

Not sure if this was a fad or just me trying to be a pretty cool guy, but back when I was like 15 or so, I got my hair permed pretty regularly so I had like this jewish afro looking thing going on, I thought it was pretty sweet, does that count?

[Pete]

Haha, we had our yo-yo's and Pokemon cards banned, since they started fights, more often than not. I remember one time a Pokemon kid messed with a yo-yo and wound up having said yoyo bounce off of the back of his head. Long story short, everything got banned until we all stopped caring.

How to Play POGs

I still don't even understand the rules... but I think I'm gonna see if I still have mine in the attic tomorrow. Should be worth a laugh.

[Insufficient Mage]

Tamagotchies used to scare the hell out of me. I didn't know how to switch it to "silent" mode, so at night I would stuff it beneath all my clothes in the drawer, and could still hear its muffled beeping every 10 minutes or so, because it was hungry or something. Finally I let it die and never revived it because I was seriously losing sleep over it. I have no idea why it frightened me so much.

I remember when every other kid used to collect gel pens. And make their handwriting look all fancy and pretty. Some of them would carry around pencil boxes full of their collection of gel pens, and trade colors.

Pokemon's been mentioned but its hard not to repeat, since it ended up being such a huge part of my, and many others' childhoods. Trading cards, comparing your party on the Game Boy (and trading them if you had the link cable), good stuff.

Beanie Babies... Those were huge back in the day. I still have almost all of mine, in the garage somewhere. I had/have over 200, which compared to the hardcore collectors is nothing, but being a kid with that many certainly made me feel special. Whenever a new one would come out, I'd save up change and go down the street and buy it to add it to my collection.

What about those rolling backpacks? All the cool kids started using those for a while. Now I'm pretty sure if you use them, you're considered a geek.

Oh, and Neopets...

Lately, I don't even know what the current trends/fads are. But I do think I grew out of that mentality for the most part.

[Zerobanshee]

One trend that I was obsessed with was Digimon...for like the first season. Aguman, Greymon, SkullGreymon, it was all fantastic.

Pokemon was a big hit in my life. I don't play much anymore, but did quite a lot in the past. I remember Rattata being my first caught one, and it ended up being my favorite.

DragonBall Z. Lived it, love it still. It was my childhood. Goku, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillen, Vegeta, I loved that show. It was fantastic, I still watch them today.

Samurai Pizza Cats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SwatKats, all those shows were fantastic. They kept me entertained, and fufilled my enjoyment of animals doing stunts that a human couldnt' hope to accomplish.

Add more later.

[GypsyElder]

Dude, Ferbies !!!!

Who the heck didn’t have a Ferby? And if you didn’t you were a loser who wanted one. I remember I wanted one soo bad, they had so many different ones too. I finally got one when I was like between the ages of 6 and 8. I don’t remember specifically. I had the baby one. It was magenta with a purple tummy and neon green Mohawk. It’s name was CoCo, He always called me “daddy” though or “Da Da” -_- In fact, I still have it. My dad made me take the batteries out because I left it in the stereo cabinet so it would fall asleep and I guess I forgot about it. He got freaked out because I guess it woke up one day and scared the crap out of him.

I’m also guilty of Beanie Babies and Gel Pens
I used to collect beanie babies. I still have some of the rare ones I had. I remember I used to go to this comic book store where they had all of the really rare and expensive ones. I wasn’t allowed to get those though, just look, because my parents would never buy me those ones, far too expensive of a 4th grader. Was I in the 4th grade? I don’t remember.

As for Gel Pens, that was a big thing in the 6th grade. All the girls were sharing and trading. I had so many Gel Pens.

Tamogotchies ans Nano Pets they’re kind of the same right? I used to have one, it was Yellow and had purple buttons. It was a dog. I got it because my brother had one and I wanted to copy him just like everything else. My Nanopet was actually fun. The downside is that every time I put it to bed, it would wake up in the middle of the night, become all emo because I wouldn’t play with him, and then die. I would wake up to him flying with his little Anlgel wings.

Pokemon Cards was another. I still have my collection today. I remember I used to be able to tell the difference between the real and fake ones, and the ones that were special because the coloring was slightly different. I never actually played with them though, just collected.

Yeah I rememberPOGs and the little balck cylindrical container you kept them in. Or the little sac thingy. I never actually collected them my brother did. I didn’t know how to play either.

Skater Shoes Was a really big thing in elementary. That’s all I wore. All my friends too Guys and girls.

Pound Perries was another one of mine. Still have them XD

Sailor Moon: and it's still legit I don't care what you say, I still know the opening lyrics corny attacks and all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxjlcUw1Wkw
Yeah I went there...

Vans was a HUGE on not too long ago. My Sophmore and Junior Year.

VANS:
YouTube - Vans Song - The Pack

Not sure if this was a fad or just me trying to be a pretty cool guy, but back when I was like 15 or so, I got my hair permed pretty regularly so I had like this jewish afro looking thing going on, I thought it was pretty sweet, does that count?

Only if you provide Pics Rocky, and if you do:

Jonas Brothers = END.

[Lily]

Omfg Furbies hahaha, I thinkI threw mine in the bin, he was blue and black and said somethingabout bananas on occassion....

I've still got some POGS knocking about somewhere, Tazos too hah. Tamagotchies too, I had a cat one and I couldnt keep it alive ]:

Yo-yos, I remember them coming in and out really fast, I got mine confiscated for playing with it inthe hall way at school

Then there was those candy necklace things.... bloody lethal they were they got fired around all over the show, and then they were banned from school

In later years I saw school kids walking round with dummies in their gobs, Im glad I missed that craze or Id of probably had one myself and the very thought just makes me cringe

Bloody popper pants, I remember those buggers, mine fell off when I was on a tire swing, thank the LORD I had shorts on underneath, it was still pretty grim though.....
Shell suits as well, dear god.... the less said about that the better
The girls all had poodle perms and nose piercings as well... I have naturally curly hair so never did that one, thank god

[Meier Link]

How can this conversation be going on with a single mention of one of the greatest inventions ever; the slap stick braclet! I find this thread very amusing as it reminds me so much of my past, well atleast everything prefurbies and the backdoor boys.

As a teen I went through may different trends and fads. I remember my punker days as well as my goth, skater, yuppie, religious cultist (j/k on that one) before I settled on my I don't give a shit I will wear what I feel is comfortable stage that I have been in for almost 10 years now. Apparently even that has become a trendy way of life.

I am just glad that the Emo revolution started after I grew out of all that trendy pop culture bull shit.

Pogs where great for the 5 seconds of fame, along with magic 8balls and bell bottom pants. I think it is halarious how somethings are so circular through out history, tight pants, bell bottoms, aviator glasses, flight jackets, big band, 80's hair bands, big hair, no hair and hippies are just to name a few. It kind of makes me wonder when powdered wigs are going to make a come back, pale skin appearntly is becoming the new sexy.

I think I have done suffficient at stating whichs ones of the ones that I listed I was a part of. If I think of anymore I will come back and edit them in.

[Zerobanshee]

I never owned a Furbie. My dad was obessed enough about my sexuality, and was convinced "I would turn out wrong" if I got a Furbie.

He didn't have a problem with Sailor Moon, however. Wierd double standard, I loved that show.

One thing I will always miss is the Tamagatchi fad. My brothers & I had a Digimon Tamagatchi each, and we would constantly battle and feed them, it was great. I remember being so proud that mine transformed into a Dragon. ^^

I used to love Dinosaurs a lot, too. I dunno if that classifies as a fad, but I could name dozens of dinosaurs when I was younger. I had my room wallpapered in Dinosaurs, and had hundreds of posters and collectible toys.

Zaboomafoo was something I remember being into as a kid. It was the wierdest show ever, it had some wierd spider monkey or something in it, that's all I really remember.

Rubix Cubes were actually a thing in my last year of high school. Everyone had a R.C, and tried to find the fastest way of solving the damn thing. My friend, David Household had the record of my school, he could solve it in 50 seconds. He had a whole formula or something memorized.

That's all I can think of for now. XD

[Taco-Calamitous]

Dodie16: You were into the Backstreet Boys? Was it during their recent come back? My sister was into them back in the late 80's/early 90's, a time when you must've been not born yet/an infant or toddler. Maybe you got into their older stuff later...

I was hugely into Pokemon for a while-taped every episode of the first season, caught all 150 of the original, owned a copy of every game for the original Gameboy, owned a starter set for the card game, even though I didn't learn to play it. My friends did, though. They still play it, sometimes. I still play the games sometimes-I've bought two of the newer ones for the DS-and I recently watched one of my old pokemon tapes and felt a huge rush of nostalgia when the old "We'll be right back!" spot came on. The one before WB picked the show up.

I used to like Blink 182, Fenix TX, New Found Glory, & Sum 41. I liked the Good Charlotte song "Another Loser Anthem," too. Although when A Simple Plan came out, I thought they were total garbage, and started to wonder about the "pop-punk" (or better put, "mall punk") trend. I still like older pop-punk bands (and keep in mind, pop-punk could pretty much be anything from NoFX to MxPx, from Pennywise to the Descendents/ALL. Anything that isn't strictly the original stripped down sound of old school punk, no guitar solos, etc. I've been doing my homework lately.)

Beanie Babies... haha, man, that one's kinda embarrassing. Mostly I was into it because my sister was. She would go random places to find the rare ones, and I would go with her, which was fun. She'd also buy me some sometimes, and I was like, "Yar! I'll save this and sell it for a hundred bucks a few years down the road!" ...and then the fad died out, and the prices for the rare ones went down. And I still have some of them in my room, in random places, collecting dust.

I also liked Sailor Moon, and I still like Samurai Pizza Cats. I also liked Toonami, for the first several years. Midnight Run was the shit. Where else could you hear Duo say "Damn!" I then graduated to Adult Swim's anime line up-and some of their comedy. I don't care for the majority of it now, although I know they're still showing Bleach and The Venture Bros. Bleach was a little bit of a trend too, wasn't it? My friend who was stationed in Japan got the rest of my friends and myself into it back in '06, I think it was. I haven't watched it for like forty episodes, now...

Most of the things I get into at whatever point in my life, I still like now, and can come back to and be like, "That was cool. That was fun." Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Dodie16]

Originally posted by Telegraph
Dodie16: You were into the Backstreet Boys? Was it during their recent come back? My sister was into them back in the late 80's/early 90's, a time when you must've been not born yet/an infant or toddler. Maybe you got into their older stuff later...

No, I'm not a fan of thier new stuff. I was into them when they were super popular. I think it was about 1996 or 1997 when the craze hit. I was in Junior High at that time.

Are you thinking of New Kids on the Block that your sister was into, and not Backstreet Boys? They were big in the late 80's, and yeah, I was really young when they were popular, so I don't remember too much about them.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Oh, yeah yeah, that's the one, ha. All them boy bands are the same to me! Come to think of it, she liked them, too. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Insufficient Mage]

One thing that I think was in everybody's childhood for some decades now (or maybe mostly girls') was jump rope and hand-clapping games, with the obnoxious rhymes that went with them. I don't see that much in this generation though. I don't know about where everybody else lives, but how often do you see kids playing outside anymore anyways?

And uh, Spice Girls anyone?

[Yesha]

I remember when I was young 7 or 8 at that time, I'm reaLLy into these things..

Tamagotchies - I had, I think 3-5 of these.. but ended being lost, broken and stolen by younger sibling or simpLy my fauLt! LoL!

Yoyo, beybLade, Let's Go (minicar racing), Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Pogs - Yeah! I had these back then, my dad Loves to buy these for me.. aww..

FLare Jeans - As a young kid, I Love to wear these.. but right now.. I prefer wearing skinny jeans/pants.. LoL!

Tapes - I Love coLLecting aLot of these when CDs are not yet a out/trend in our country.. I'm stiLL in PhiL. at that time..

[GypsyElder]

One thing that I think was in everybody's childhood for some decades now (or maybe mostly girls') was jump rope and hand-clapping games, with the obnoxious rhymes that went with them. I don't see that much in this generation though. I don't know about where everybody else lives, but how often do you see kids playing outside anymore anyways?

And uh, Spice Girls anyone?

Guilty of all of the above. I still remember most of those hand games, and I still have the original Spice Girls album along with the Backstreet Boys. I used to have a crush on Nick Carter, until he decided to act all "Gangster" after that, he just became busted.

Don't even get me started on Aarron Carter

K-Ci and JoJo is where it's at. They don't need 18 group members. lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFhEL...om=PL&index=36

[Padraic]

Just looking at this brings back some good (and horrible) memories.

The worst craze that we ever got was Peek-A-Pooh's a little Winnie the Pooh doll in an animal costume. All the girls had to have them, and my friend's sister had the 20 on her bag get cut off and stolen. I started collecting them trying to be entrepenureal (spelling?) so when the value went up I could sell them, I don't think that'll ever happen and I lost them.

Unfortunatly we never got a pokemon or digimon phase. The closest one we got was Yu-Gi-Oh. There was 1 table where you could play at recess so if you were lucky and got the chance to play and you win, you instantly get... street cred? It was all grades vs any grade. You could see even a kindergartener against the mean grade 6er... It was funny when either of them lose. The kindy would cry, and so would the 6er cuz they thought they were the best. Looking back I realized the show that went with it made no sense. at all. One line of the show, you'll see what I mean

You must learn to trust in the heart of the cards

.

Oh! and can't forget the swings! At our elementary at recess or lunch everyone would race to the swings. after a while they closed the parks down on any grade above grade 3 because of all the fighting that was going on.

Haha, there's always one fad that I don't think will ever fade away. I'll give you a hint. It cirulates through highschools, and you don't want the teacher to find out... Make that two

I never really got into the fads that much so I can't remember most of them but there were a lot more going...

[Xanatos]

Tamagotchies - I was into this for like about two days, the second time this thing woke me up early in the morning I smashed it.

Pokemon - The first season was excellent, I was hooked immediately. I did even buy Pokemon cards, toys, stickers, have five Pokemon games for my GBC which leads...

Pokemon Games - Really addictive, the first ones were great and fun but if you've played one you've played all of them, now I find them irritating repetitive.

Football (Soccer) Cards - This was highly popular at least here where i live, I was big collector of these but I've lost my interest in this long time ago.

[RamesesII]

Samurai Pizza Cats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SwatKats, all those shows were fantastic. They kept me entertained, and fufilled my enjoyment of animals doing stunts that a human couldnt' hope to accomplish.

We so gotta chat Ruin haha I loved Samurai pizza cats and TMNT.

I was a big part with POGs although we called them tazos over here although we did also have the original POGs. I was right into collecting tazos still have them actually haha I also still have a sh*t load of Basketball cards that was a big thing in my day sports cards.

Duncun yo-yos that was an awesome trend as was pop tops, the little hard rubber caps that pop when you throw them on the ground and bounce up, also a big fan of cap guns and sling shots I think every little boy had one of them and the good old cassettes whats that iI hear you youngins say, the little rectangular plastic thing with tape in it that you slip into your walkman geez i was so cool with mine haha.

Damn I can't forget handball and marbles yep some fun times we didn't have PSP's and Nintendo DS we lived outside you know the blue sky and green grass haha our fun was imaginary in trees and sticks etc etc but who wants to hear and old man rant on haha.

[Unknown Entity]

I had one of those cheap ass Tamagatchi's you could get from the pound store. The thing wouldn't go to sleep at night, so to keep it alive I had to wake up every so often to feed and clean up after it. One night after hearing that succession of bleeps, I got so pissed with it, I chucked it down the stairs, and watched it explode into tiny pieces of Tamagatchi nothingness.

I collected Dragon Ball Z Cards over a period of two years. I had so many, it was rare I'd buy a set and find a new one. I had so many repeats, I couldn't even trade them any more. I think my aunt chucked them out one weekend when she was helping me and my brother clean our room (we were like... 8 and 9 years old).

Then there were the Beanie Babies. I had a few, and I have no idea where they went. I still have my Courage one though - he is my favourite.

Macarena, again. I remember it starting off very fun, and then it just got old. It was overplayed. =[

Shag Bands. Ugh, those plastic loops the girls used to wear. "If a boy breaks one, you get a kissy-wissy. If he breaks two, you get a shag. *giggle*". It was all pretty sick. I never owned any myself, but I liked the colours.

Scoobies. I made loads of these at school... they were pretty fun for a while. I still have them lying around somewhere.

[Priscilla]

I collected Pokemon cards when they are really popular. I didn't really trade them but I bought them so often. Now I only have the actual Pokemon and got rid of all of my energys and trainers. I also collected Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

I had so many Tamagotchis. I had four real ones and about the same of cheaper ones. I would take them everywhere and make mum look after them while I was at school. I would be upset when my dog in my favourite one would run away.

I collected Beanie Kids. (I think they are called Beanie Babies in the UK. Not the TY ones though) I have 104 at last count.

Oh and tazos. I used to have so many of those and play against my brother.