People Are Sharing The Things That Were Considered "Cool" To Have When They Were Younger, And It's Truly Taking Me Back

TBH, I still think a lot of these would be cool to own today.

A couple of days ago, Reddit user u/Iapoties asked the AskReddit community: "What was considered 'cool' for a child to have when you were younger?"

Nintendo

Of course, the thread soon became a nostalgic look back at all the things that just screamed COOL in the '90s and '00s, as thousands of people chimed in. Here are some of the top-voted and best comments:

1. "Pogs"

Yvonne Hemsey / Getty Images

—Objective-Dingo6603

"I remember one that had O.J. Simpson as the slammer. Had a picture of him on it behind bars and it said, 'O.J. in the SLAMMER.'"

—Kitchen-Explorer3338

"My friend had a solid metal slammer and it had a skull embossed on it. That shit was sooooo fuckin' cool."

—squarefan80

2. "Tamagotchis"

Chesnot / Getty Images

—shutupdaniel1

"Never had them, but I remember seeing commercials for them ALL THE TIME on when watching TV."
—Wisconsinmann

"I had a knock-off alien one that was shaped like a spaceship. Same basic thing, but I was not as cool as the kids with their egg-shaped fancy ones."
—slukbunwalla

Okay, but the Tamagotchi commercial really was played ALL THE TIME:

Commercial Break Room/ youtube.com

3. "In junior high, LiveStrong bracelets were the epitome of cool. The originals, sure, but then a bunch of other charities/businesses did them and all the kids at school collected. I admittedly went overboard and also wore them longer than most, but I was super proud of my collection."

Medianews Group / MediaNews Group via Getty Images

—Willowed-Wisp

4. "Silly bands"

Hkpnc / Getty Images

—TRANSparent-Ink

"Omg, I forgot about those. There was always that one girl who had, like, 50 of them on one hand."
—manbamtan

"Lol, those sort of got turned into sex bracelets at my middle school. Got banned too if I remember."
—Elver86

5. "A Nintendo 64 console."

Yvonne Hemsey / Getty Images

—slumberingGnome

"I remember my mom taking my brother and me to Toys 'R' Us back in the day to get a Nintendo 64. It was tax time and we got to pick out 2–3 games along with it. Conker's Bad Fur Day being one of them, and Pokémon Snap was another, I believe."

—Mvmvfoxx

6. "Gak shoes. They were shoes with little soft plastic parts on the side or toes filled with 'Gak,' essentially slime, that you could move around by pressing on the plastic. Bonus points if you got multicolored or glitter/metallic Gak shoes."

How to feel like the coolest kid at school. (Nickelodeon Stride Rite shoes) from nostalgia

—KarenTheManager

7. "Sock'em Boppers! More fun than a pillow fight!"

Socker Boppers amazon.com

—iamnobodytoo

"Me and my brother went and bought them as adults one Christmas or Thanksgiving. Beat the hell out of each other in the backyard as a family bet. Yes, I'm American."
—Mental_Guarantee8963

The jingle never warned how bad it could hurt if you got hit by it hard:

90s Commercials/ youtube.com

8. "Pokémon cards"

Evan Agostini / Getty Images

—JeremyBreitenbach

"Oooh, my mom bought me a pack once. I didn't play nor collect them. In the pack was a shiny card, the ones with some kind of glittery background. The next day at school I traded it for a regular card of a Pokémon I just liked better. I don't even remember what Pokémon were on these cards 🤣. The other kid seemed overjoyed, but the card was stolen from him not two days later."

—dalaigh93

9. "A Walkman"

Oscar Sánchez Photography / Getty Images

—ilikemoots

"Remember when the batteries were almost drained? Everything was slower and low pitched."

—permacougar

"The Sony Walkman with the orange headphones were the gold standard back then. I, unfortunately, got a Sanyo cassette player that didn't even have a reverse function. If you wanted to replay an earlier song you would have to flip the tape, fast forward and then flip back again."

—alkaline79

10. "Hypercolor T-shirts were super cool...but then we realized everyone wanted to put their hands on you and pit stains became blatantly obvious."

Hypercolor Tee Shirts- Color changing cloths activated by heat from nostalgia

—SuumCuique1011

"Dammit! I was scrolling down thinking, No one will say Hypercolor, and there you are."
—SaintWithoutAShrine

11. "Yu-Gi-Oh! cards"

Boston Globe / Boston Globe via Getty Images

—cheekyvanguard

"When I was back in primary school (elementary school for you Yanks) every boy had a deck of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and every day the library would be crowded to the brim with kids dueling and trading. Those were the days."
—CaptainNapal545

12. "Lunchables, but especially the pizza ones."

San Francisco Chronicle / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

—Lmee_Raja

"I was always so jealous of kids who had those. Then I got one once at school on a field day, and realized the sauce tasted kind of like ketchup. Ruined the illusion."

—Elver86

TBH, they really made it sound like the Lunchables pizza was going to taste something like a Bagel Bite:

member berries/ youtube.com

13. "Every cool kid had one of those little TVs with a VCR built into it."

Homepixel / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—phatale

"A friend had one and we'd record our Super Smash Bros. matches."
—mai_tai87

"I had one that had a VCR and a DVD player built into it!"
—Just-Call-Me-J

14. "Gogo's Crazy Bones. I don’t know if that was just my school though. This was in the mid-'00s."

jjdandfamily ebay.com

—HistoryStudent98

"This triggered a memory I forgot I had!"

—ThatKrazyGoat

In case you forgot, these were sorta like Pogs:

90s Nostalgia/ youtube.com

15. "A 64-count pack of crayons"

Crayola walmart.com

—humbird09

"With the sharpener! So cool. One kid at my school had a 128-pack, and I was so jealous. My mom never wanted to buy me more than 24, though one time she got me a 64-pack of RoseArt. Very disappointing. Then I went to a different school in fourth grade and my teacher banned packs of more than 24  — probably tired of child status symbols."

—kdbartleby

16. "A BMX bike"

Classicstock / R. Walker/ClassicStock / Getty Images

—black_flag_4ever

"There it is. This 100%. Gawd help you if you got a Huffy from Venture, or a Mag Wheel and pads kit from Target. You weren’t shit if it wasn’t a branded BMX bike from a specialty bike shop. No way."
—ll1037j

17. "Clothes from Delia's."

SMS9099/ ebay.com

—FightWithTools926

"The amount of time I spent circling clothes I would never order in their catalogs."

—PmMeYourDiscordChat

18. "A themed birthday party. You know, like having all the party decorations be of SpongeBob. Including the plates, napkins, and bounce house."

Unique Store amazon.com

—thebiggestpinkcake

19. "Starter Jackets"

rjc.riprock ebay.com

—Nerdy_numbers

"Yes!!! I felt sooooo cool when I got my first Starter Jacket! Those were legit."
—Brite_4cats

20. "CDs with the explicit content warning label."

Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

—B0J0L0

"Those warning labels helped sell millions and millions of albums!"
—Kitchen-Explorer3338

21. "MOON SHOES! Naturally, I was never cool enough to have them. It's alright though cuz it turns out they sucked."

Moon Shoes - the toy we all wanted, but never got (at least for me) from nostalgia

—sleepyhollow_101

"I had some growing up and I really wanted to love the shit out of them, but they were so bulky and just...meh."

—CMaya2006

Aside from the fact that if you watched Nickelodeon you would see this commercial at least 25 times in the afternoon, they also made it seem like you jump to wild heights:

ClassicCommercials4U/ youtube.com

22. "Schwinn Sting-Ray bike."

VyntgeVybz etsy.com

—cuttle-Cat

"The five-speed with the crotch-killing shift lever."

—Hillyard61

23. "Those kid-sized battery-powered cars that went 2 mph and ran for about 15 min on a 3-hour charge."

Bigfoot Power Wheels from nostalgia

—BeardedLobsterMan

If you ever rode one, you know that they didn't go as fast as they showed in the commercial, especially on anything that wasn't concrete:

Rewind Me/ youtube.com

24. "Game Boy"

Science & Society Picture Librar / SSPL via Getty Images

—mlbo0p

"I had a pink one. My friend group was mostly boys and they’d call it my 'Game Girl.'"

—Faiakishi

And lastly...

25. "A Furby. Unfortunately I never had one, my parents said they were too expensive and they were toys 'for girls.'"

Getty Images

—Twelve_Demon_Moons

"Of all the toys in the world, I feel like Furbies most defy any attempts at gendering. How are you gonna look at a Furby and tell me it's for either a boy or a girl? It's for nightmares and nightmares only!"
—sleepyhollow_101

You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity