Now that the Furby is back, it might be time to resurrect a few other toys from the '80s and '90s.
If they were good enough for us, they're good enough for this generation.
After all, do kids really need these newfangled tablets and phones, or would they be happier with a Tamagotchi?
These swirling projectiles were as dangerous as they were sparkly. The ad might have shown girls watching their dancers peacefully and majestically flying through the sky, but any '90s kid knows the real way to play was to make sure your dancer hit your friend's in an epic mid-air battle.
Polly Pocket still exists today, and while you can still fit the doll in your pocket her homes have gotten significantly less portable. Retro Polly Pocket had whole worlds you could really stuff in the front pocket of your overalls or your pencil case, and that was worth your mom's wrath when she picked another tiny Polly from the vacuum.
Polly Pocket for your nephew, Mighty Max was appropriately spooky and creepy, ensuring it's status as an action figure set rather and than a doll series. It even featured mini creatures like Frankenstein's monster for ultimate creep factor.
Or that time your parents got you a toy to help you beat up your brother. These plastic air sacks were suppose to lessen the force of your mighty grade-school blows, but at the right angle, they still strike fear into the heart of a younger sibling.
For the industrious kid who doesn't simply want to buy his rubber spiders, this set promised squishy bugs in every (muted) color of the rainbow. They were perfect for stashing on the dinner table, in your sister's lunch box, or on your own shoulder as a beloved pet.
The toy that pits you-against you. If you were lucky enough to get the newer and fancier model that counted your skips you could focus your mental energies else-where, like making sure you didn't take out one of the lawn gnomes with one of your glorious skips.
A game you'll play until green-red-yellow-yellow-blue-green flashes before your eyes as you fall asleep. A mainstay of music classrooms, the beeping booping circle also made appearances on family car trips and field trips before the adult driving finally and suddenly announced they were Simon-ed out.
It can be anything you want it to be, and it will permanently attach itself everywhere you don't want it to be. There are still people in their thirties finding bits of Gak on their blankets. And yet opening a new pod of the goo was always worth it.
This is a true game of skill, and the competition can get vicious. There were many techniques, from the double hander to the kid who'd lie in wait until most of the balls were gone. And every so often there would be a truly ambitious kid who handled multiple hippos at once.
There were water guns before, and there have been water guns since, but no water-powered firearm will ever beat the Super Soaker. These are the water weapons that could defeat an entire water-balloon neighborhood, that never seem to need to be refilled, that guaranteed your victory.
Image: Flickr, HerryLawford