Topic: The Dead Fad Thread

Clifford Stoll wrote a piece in Newsweek in 1995 claiming that the internet would be a fad, forgotten in 2-3 years, with choice quotes such as "no online database will replace your daily newspaper."

Beyblades, crocs, heelys (those shoes with the wheels in the heels), beanie babies, furbies (hated those things), the original Pokemon craze, ring pops and pogs and that mid-2000's revived interest of the Rubik's Cube.

I'm speaking total. You've got games Like Just Dance 2014 that sold over 5M units. You have your Wii Parties, Nintendolands, among others. Then you have other games like Captain Toad and Pikmin that support motion controls and a substantial part of the sales come from people wanting that experience

In the end it totals to quite a few games. Motion controls are clearly here to stay.

Tiger Electronics please

Neopet Cards. Never played the official game, but I sure loved collecting them (I wasnt allowed to collect Yugioh or Poekmon cards lol)

Whatever happened to Silly Bandz? They lasted for a year and then completely died out. Finger skateboards were also a thing.

I don't know if I'd call it a fad, since I think it was isolated, but there were tons of people I knew back in middle school that would wear Real 3D glasses without the lenses out in public for no reason whatsoever. That was weird.

The "arrow to the knee" meme.

They were expensive, shapeless strings of rubber.

That happened.

What does that remind me of?

Hmmm dead fads...well...British Knights, Jnco, Bugle Boy, wearing overalls with only one strap over your shoulder, Looney Towns shirts, Talkboy, Hit Clips, Zubaz, Mood Rings. Just some of the popular fads throughout my childhood.

I also feel like Webkinz was a pretty big fad. It's been ages since I last checked my account, but all I know now I that I never see them in stores anymore. Back when it was a thing I remember a lot of my friends had them.

And yeah, silly bandz was a fad I kind of got into. I've still got a ziplock bag full of 'em. I remember trading them with my friends. It was fun while it lasted, but yeah, they were overpriced. Then they started releaseing silly rings, which was when it was obvious they were trying to milk the fad. Somehow though, I still occasionally see silly rings lying in parking lots.

Also, I guess my friends and I have outgrown in so I wouldn't know, but is Playmobil a dead fad? I know they're really good toys, and my friends and I used to like them a lot, but I don't really seem to hear about them anymore, but like I said I don't know if it's because it's a dead fad or just because I've outgrown it and don't pay any attention to it anymore.

Finally, Bop-It I feel was a pretty big fad. I still have like, five different iterations of that game!

What about robot dogs? I had a Poochi and several variations of Tecno including the original, newborn, dalmation, and even a cat and mouse Tecno. I got into those after Pokemon quieted down. From age 12 to about 15 I messed with them and I'm proud of it too.

I actually think Pokemon is starting to die now. Running out of ideas and the anime become cliche. Gen 7 will have way to many pokemon.
Digimon is good. Not as it used to be but Digimon 03 will be here soon and it will be back to normal.
Yugioh is still big. The anime is still pretty good and the actual TGC is great.
DBZ will always be a fav. Don't know why, maybe because it was a just an easy Good Vs. Evil without a massive web of events like Naruto.
Bakugan was great. Then it got crap. Quickly... I regret buying some merchandise.
Still, Hot Wheels was pretty cool back then. I preferred watching some of the animations like Accelerators or something.

Jack Thompson

I remember his name cropping up on many a GameSpot articles.