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What have they done to the Doodle Bear?
There was a time when everyone in my school was playing with these things, but considering they're literally just little cardboard discs, I feel like kids now would just laugh at them.
I had one of these as a kid and was obsessed with it. I set the damn thing loose all over my yard until the string finally gave out. Apparently, I got off easy — the toys were discontinued because they ended up causing dozens of injuries, including scratched corneas and incidents of temporary blindness, broken teeth, and a mild concussion.
I dragged this thing around everywhere and never bothered having my mom wash it — once I ran out of room, that was it. She just lived that way for the rest of time. You can still find a few different (inferior) versions of them on Amazon, and pre-owned originals all over eBay, but I think it's safe to say the Doodle Bear's heyday is long over.
Mattel put out an array of these dolls in the first half of the aughts, basically stopping production not long after New York Minute — the twins' final film together — came out. As amazing as a pair of grownup Olsen dolls dressed in black with little cigarettes wedged into their tiny plastic hands would be, I think it's safe to say we've seen the last of the Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls.
I was a couple months away from graduating from high school when these music-loving robot pups came out in 2005, but if I'd been 10 years younger, I would have begged for one of them. Of all the toys on this list, I wouldn't be surprised if this (or a knockoff) was launched and went viral on TikTok.
As with some of the other toys on this list, you can still actually buy Tamagotchis and other e-pets, but Gen Alpha will never know the joy and sorrow of watching their digital pet die because their teacher confiscated it, or having custody revoked by their parents.
If you're a millennial (or maybe an elder Gen Z'er), you definitely had one of these, and definitely used to see how far you could get it up your arm.
Troll dolls have actually been around since 1959 and were popular in the '60s, '70s, and '90s, so who knows? Maybe they'll have another go-around. (And no, I don't mean the weird-looking ones from the Dreamworks movies.)