Nostalgic father Bruno Bouchet ranks popular 90s toys EVERY kid will remember from their childhood

Anyone who grew up in the 1990s will remember the excitement of discovering a Tazo coated in crumbs inside their packet of chips.

Nostalgic father Bruno Bouchet, from Sydney, can certainly remember and he has included the Tazo in his ranking list of 18 childhood games and toys – along with Tamagotchi, handball, marbles and fart bombs.

The managing director and the former Kyle & Jackie O radio show producer said he compiled his list of what he believes to be the ultimate ranking of the ’90s schoolyard trends’.

Sydney father Bruno Bouchet has ranked 18 of childhood games and toys from best to worst

Poll

So which game was YOUR favourite?

  • Tamagotchi 8 votes
  • Fart bombs 1 votes
  • Handball 5 votes
  • Yoho Diabolo 0 votes
  • Fun Snaps 0 votes
  • Tazos 1 votes
  • Footy cards 2 votes
  • Skip-It 1 votes
  • Marbles 2 votes
  • Slap bands 0 votes

GOD TIER

The self-proclaimed ‘List King’ crowned ‘Pogs’, Tamagotchi and ‘shag’ bands as the best in the ‘Royalty Tier’.

‘Tamagotchis was every 90s kid’s first shot at being solely responsible for another thing’s life. The stress of having to feed, entertain and clean up after your Tamagotchi was sometimes too stressful for some of us, but in the end – it was excellent training for parenting,’ Mr Bouchet said.

He said Pogs was one of his top picks – a very popular game among kids in the 90s, which consisted of cardboard caps with a design on one side.

‘There was nothing more thrilling than throwing down that Pog slammer as hard as you could and trying to flip over as many Pogs as you could. If you were lucky enough to own some Power Ranger Pogs, you were the coolest kid in your school,’ he said.

Another game he fondly remembers is ‘shag’ bands, a game where children would ‘get around with these flimsy pieces of plastic on their wrists’.

‘The one rule being: you got to shag whoever broke it. I’ve never heard of any shagging that occurred due to a broken band,’ he said.

‘I’ll the be the first to admit, looking back at shag bands with 2019 eyes, they’re highly inappropriate and it’s best they stay forever buried in that era.’

The self-proclaimed 'List King' crowned 'Pogs', Tamagotchi and 'shag' bands as the best in the 'God Tier'

In the 'Royalty Tier, Mr Bouchet picked 'Yak Bak', 'Fart Bombs' and handball

The self-proclaimed ‘List King’ crowned ‘Pogs’, Tamagotchi and ‘shag’ bands as the best in the ‘God Tier’, while  he picked ‘Yak Bak’, ‘Fart Bombs’ and handball for his ‘Royalty Tier’

ROYALTY TIER

In the ‘God Tier’, Mr Bouchet picked ‘Yak Bak’, ‘Fart Bombs’ and handball.

He said he felt so ‘darned futuristic to say a phrase’ into a Yak Bak and be able to have it ‘played back at the touch of a button’.

Taking a trip down memory lane, Mr Bouchet said he remembers ‘secretly activating’ a fart bomb by ‘squeezing it’ during a school assembly  

‘What happens next is pure hilarity that you’ll still be giggling about on your deathbed. The fart bomb inventors absolutely nailed the horrid rotten egg smell! The fart bomb will never, ever get old,’ he said.

Another schoolyard activity he recalls is playing handball during lunchtime. 

‘We all remember furiously trying to work our way up to the ace square only to then experience the agonising humiliation of walking all the way back down to dunces again,’ he said. 

ADAM SANDLER TIER

In the centre of his rankings, he put ‘Yoho Diabolo’, ‘fun snaps’, ‘rubber poppers’, and ‘phone cards’ in the ‘Adam Sandler Tier’, or what he describes as the ‘take it or leave it’ category.

Mr Bouchet said his entire school owned a Yoho Diabolo, which was a giant yo-yo that can leave the string and can be thrown very high.

‘The entire schoolyard was full of people doing the ‘churning-butter’ motion then flinging that rubberised hourglass as high as they could,’ he said. 

‘In many schools, mine included, they ended up getting banned after a few kids had their teeth knocked out by the falling diabolo.’

He said fun snaps, which were ‘mini explosives wrapped in cigarette paper were a fun way to spend lunchtime by throwing them on concrete and hearing that satisfying cap gun-like bang.

‘But the novelty wore off them pretty quickly and the rebellious kids would try everything to make them more exciting by getting hundreds of them and running them over with a bike and throwing them off overpasses to the cars below.’

Another fond memory was playing with rubber poppers until his mother made a hilarious comment that put him off the game for good.

‘The anticipation of the rubber half-sphere to snap into the air was always thrilling. My mum ruined the trend for me when she told me it looked like a diaphragm,’ he said.

He said another trend he noticed was kids would trade used phonecards at school, which they found from public phone booths.

‘They’d then bring them in to school and spend the next week making trades. Trading phone cards was a more futuristic version of stamps,’ he said.

In the centre of his rankings, he put 'Yoho Diabolo', 'fun snaps', 'rubber poppers', and 'phone cards' in the 'Adam Sandler Tier', or what he describes as the 'take it or leave it' category

Controversially, Mr Bouchet said Tazos belonged in the 'Pleb Tier', along with footy cards, 'Yomega Yo-Yos' and 'elastics'

He put ‘Yoho Diabolo’, ‘fun snaps’, ‘rubber poppers’, and ‘phone cards’ in the ‘Adam Sandler Tier’, while Tazos belonged in the ‘Pleb Tier’, along with footy cards, ‘Yomega Yo-Yos’ and ‘elastics’

PLEB TIER

Controversially, Mr Bouchet said Tazos belonged in the ‘Pleb Tier’, along with footy cards, ‘Yomega Yo-Yos’ and ‘elastics’.

‘Tazos were the poor man’s Pogs. Sure, Tazos had a licence deal with The Simpsons, Looney Tunes and Space Jam, but they were never able to break free from just being a cheap add-on to a packet of subpar chips,’ he said.

‘The problem with footy cards is that they were geared towards the “jocks” (AKA: the popular kids who were the strongest and most athletic). 

‘Despite being interested in footy, jocks considered any type of collecting as nerdy, meaning footy cards lived in a weird no man’s land where they were too lame for the tough kids and too tough for the lame kids.’

Mr Bouchet said Yomega Yo-Yos were a ‘gamechanger’ but it would come ‘in and out of fashion’.

While he found playing elastics ‘required too much coordination’.

‘We all remember the giant elastic band that’d be stretched around the ankles of two people while someone in the middle would jump around while singing a ditty about England, Wales and puppy dog tails,’ he said.

‘It required having to remember songs for it to be enjoyable. Luckily, towards the end of the 90s, Dance Dance Revolution forever killed off elastics.’

Lastly, the 'Would Rather Eat a Bucket of Cat Vomit Tier' included 'slap bands, marbles, Magic The Gathering cards and Skip-It

Lastly, the ‘Would Rather Eat a Bucket of Cat Vomit Tier’ included ‘slap bands, marbles, Magic The Gathering cards and Skip-It 

CAT VOMIT TIER

Lastly, the ‘Would Rather Eat a Bucket of Cat Vomit Tier’ included ‘slap bands, marbles, Magic The Gathering cards and Skip-It.

‘I’m fairly certain no kid ever gotten more than 30-seconds of joy out of slap bands. After the initial slap of the band on the wrist, you’re left staring at a piece of cheap plastic that will shortly end up in the bin,’ he said.

Mr Bouchet said kids only traded marbles and a few days later, ‘moved on to a cooler trend’. 

‘At one point in their lives, every kid ended up getting hoodwinked by a bully who fooled them into thinking one cat’s eye marble was worth 10 Jupiters,’ he said. 

He said Magic The Gathering cards were ‘boring’ and only the ‘geeky kids’ would sit around in a circle ‘yelling about warlocks, paladins and shapeshifters’ while the ‘cool kids would be busy scribbling rude words on the back of toilet doors’.

‘However, I will acknowledge that every kid I knew that played with Magic cards went on to have extremely high-paying jobs and marrying models,’ he said.

As for Skip-Its, Mr Bouchet said: ‘It’s literally just a long piece of plastic that you put around your ankle and awkwardly jump around with. 

‘The trend lasted a solid five days before everyone acknowledged it sucked.’

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