Toys and games in the 1990s
Toys and games in the 1990s represented a transformative era for the industry, marked by innovative designs and the integration of new technologies. Major companies like Mattel, Hasbro, Nintendo, and Sega introduced a vast array of products that catered to a growing consumer base. This decade saw the rise of iconic toys, such as the Tickle Me Elmo and Furby, which generated massive demand and became cultural phenomena. Traditional toys like action figures and dolls maintained their popularity, often enhanced by tie-ins to movies and television shows, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Jurassic Park.
The 1990s also ushered in the digital age of toys, including virtual pets like Tamagotchi and interactive learning aids from LeapFrog, reflecting a shift towards educational and tech-oriented play. Video games became a cornerstone of entertainment, with advancements leading to more immersive experiences and the birth of genres such as first-person shooters and role-playing games. The decade established toys and games as a multibillion-dollar industry, shaped by marketing strategies and trends that created must-have items and collectibles. Overall, the 1990s were characterized by creativity and commercialization, leaving a lasting impact on childhood play culture.
Toys and games in the 1990s
Definition Objects used in play, especially by children, and structured recreational activities with goals, rules, interactivity, and often a rivalry or contest
During the 1990’s, there were must-have toys and fads every year, as the toy and game industry grew. Many classics remained popular, and traditional kinds of toys and games were reinvented, often based on popular films, television shows, or the new technology. In the video game industry, generations of hardware and software development occurred, and video games became an established and lucrative part of mainstream America.
The 1990’s were a productive and important decade for toy manufacturers and consumers. Mattel (Tyco, Fisher-Price, Pleasant Company), Hasbro (Tonka, Kenner, Tiger Electronics, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, Galoob, OddzOn), Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and other companies created thousands of different products to meet consumer demand. Toy and game development was impacted by the new technology, television, films, advertising, and e-commerce.
Traditional Toys and Games
During the decade, traditional kinds of toys such as action figures, dolls, and stuffed animals continued to be popular, though often with a new twist or style. Action figures based on the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) were best sellers that year. The most popular toys of 1993 included Hasbro’s action figures and dinosaurs from Jurassic Park (1993), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine figures, Pleasant Company’s American Girl line of dolls, and Hasbro’s Street Fighter action figures, based on the popular video game. The global toy craze of 1994 was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers action toys, based on characters in a children’s television show produced in Japan in 1975 and later airing in the United States from 1993 to 1996. By 1995, sales in the United States were more than $400 million, and they became the best-selling action figures of the decade. The other best sellers of 1995 were Hasbro’s action figures based on the Star Wars films, Mattel’s dolls and action figures from the Disney film Pocahontas (1995), and action figures based on Pixar’s Toy Story (1995), considered one of the greatest animated films ever.
In 1997, the yo-yo, one of the earliest toys, had a revival. The simple classic yo-yos reappeared, but now there were also new aircraft aluminum yo-yos with centrifugal clutches and light-emitting diodes.
First appearing in 1959, Barbie dolls thrived during the decade. In 1990, the award-winning Bob Mackie Gold Barbie, with over five thousand golden sequins and beads, was introduced. The Dolls of the World series expanded to include Nigerian, Brazilian, Native American, Kenyan, and Chinese Barbies, among others. Many Barbie dolls made their debut, including Air Force, Navy, 1920’s Flapper, Gibson Girl, Rapunzel, Harley-Davidson, and Marilyn Monroe Barbies. In 1999, Collector Edition and Gala Edition Fortieth Anniversary Barbie dolls were released.
A notable variation on the traditional stuffed animal was Ty, Inc.’s Beanie Babies, which were first released in 1993 and sold only in small stores for approximately $5 each. These understuffed animals, which had tags with their names and birth dates, started a collecting frenzy. As certain designs were discontinued, they were sold at increasingly inflated prices. By 1996, over 100 million had been sold, and in 1997, McDonald’s issued over 100 million miniature Teenie Beanies with its Happy Meals.
Originally a game played with juice or milk bottle caps in Hawaii, Pogs was a popular game of schoolchildren during the first half of the 1990’s. This simple game required only laminated disks (milk caps) called Pogs and a slammer to turn the disks. Produced in hundreds of designs, such as favorite cartoon characters, Pogs were the leading toy collectible of 1995.
Many classic board games continued to sell well and new editions were published during the decade. They included Monopoly (1933), Scrabble (1938), Risk (1959), Life (1960), and Trivial Pursuit (1979).
Virtual Pets and Electronic Toys
Virtual or digital pets were introduced during the 1990’s. These artificial animal companions were digital simulations of real animals or fantasy animals that existed only in the hardware. They required the owners to feed, groom, train, and nurture them. In 1995, video game developer PF Magic released the first virtual pet, Dogz, followed by the appearance of Katz in 1996. Meanwhile in Japan in 1996, the Bandai company released its Tamagotchi digital pet, housed in a small egg-shaped computer with an attached key chain and three buttons for selecting or performing activities such as feeding or playing with the pet. The pet was displayed on a tiny liquid-crystal screen, and the egg would beep when the pet needed attention. The owner would then push a button to provide food or medicine, to play, or to clean. If uncared for, the pet would die. Introduced in the United States in 1998, the Tamagotchi was an immediate success. In 1997, Tiger Electronics introduced Giga Pets, a series of pets including Digital Doggie, Compu Kitty, Micro Chimp, Baby T-Rex, and Virtual Alien.
Tyco’s Tickle Me Elmo was the must-have children’s toy of the 1996 holiday season. Based on the Sesame Street character, this bright red, interactive stuffed toy giggled, wiggled, vibrated, talked, or laughed hysterically when squeezed or tickled. Although about a million units had been shipped, stores sold out of them immediately. Demand was so high that they were often sold to the highest bidder on online auctions, where the original retail price of $30 was inflated to as much as $1,500.
The must-have toy of the 1998 holiday season was Tiger Electronics’ Furby, an interactive, furry robot with six built-in sensors and its own spoken language. In response to being tickled or petted, turned right-side up or inverted, and changes in light and darkness, Furby could respond by wiggling its ears, opening and closing its eyes, and speaking with a vocabulary of 200 words and sounds in English or “Furbish.” After its debut in October, supplies could not keep up with demand, and the $30 suggested retail price was inflated to $200 and higher at online auctions.
In 1998, the Teletubbies from Playskool and Eden were best sellers. These toys were based on characters from the television show Teletubbies, which was first released in Great Britain on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1997, and then aired on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States beginning in 1998. Intended for toddlers, the show also became popular with college students. The four Teletubbies were cuddly aliens named Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po. Each Teletubby had an antenna, and television clips of real children appeared on their tummies. The plush Teletubby toys could play songs, talk, and respond to touch.
Educational Toys
The 1990’s saw the increasing popularity of a new generation of electronic learning aids (ELAs). These interactive, age-specific educational toys were designed to help children learn academic skills, such as reading, math, music, and science. Founded in 1995 by Michael Wood, LeapFrog became the leader in the educational category with its first product, Phonics Desk. Unlike the computer software products available at the time, Phonics Desk was a plastic toy designed for preschool children. In 1999, the SchoolHouse division opened, marketing directly to schools with its Leap into Literacy line. The key product was LeapPad, a toy containing interactive electronic books.
Video or Electronic Games
During the 1990’s, video games became established in American popular culture. As technological advances enabled more realistic graphics, faster action, and more complex environments, new kinds of games and themes appeared.
Released in 1991, Street Fighter II, a one-on-one fighting game for arcades, introduced advanced controls and ultrasmooth animations. The violent Mortal Kombat (1992) created a new realism with its digitizing of actual actors. In 1993, Rand and Robyn Miller released the CD-ROM game Myst, which generated a new genre of nonviolent adventure games for a single player. In 1993, the “first-person shooter” subgenre was popularized with Id Software’s violent Doom, which used immersive, side-scrolling 3-D graphics to give the player the impression of actually moving in an environment. Will Wright’s SimCity series popularized the “God game” genre, in which the player directs the game from an omnipotent perspective. Role-playing games (RPGs) became popular again with Diablo (1996), Baldur’s Gate (1998), and Pokémon (1998), Nintendo’s RPG series for its Game Boy. Finally, video games could be played on the Internet. The first commercially successful massive multiplayer online game was Ultima Online (1997), followed by Asheron’s Call and EverQuest in 1999.
Impact
In the 1990’s, toys and games became a multibillion-dollar industry in which hundreds of new toys were introduced annually. There were must-have toys every year, with collectibles and fads wildly inflating prices.
The advances in technology revolutionized entertainment, education, marketing, and communications. Advances in gaming hardware and software, CD-ROM technology, the Internet, and the personal computer enabled new kinds of toys and games, such as massive multiplayer games on the Internet. A new toy category was born with the creation of the world’s first virtual pets. The gaming industry became increasingly lucrative, with sales reaching $6.9 billion in the United States in 1999. With the maturation of the Internet, online stores proliferated, and in 1999 online toy sales reached $425 million.
Subsequent Events
In the twenty-first century, corporate wars and phenomenal economic growth continued in the video game industry. Sony introduced PlayStation 2 (2000) and PlayStation 3 (2006). Microsoft entered the gaming hardware business with Xbox (2001) and Xbox 360 (2005). Nintendo introduced GameCube (2001) and the Wii console (2006) with a unique wireless remote controller permitting players’ physical gestures to control a game. New titles, as well as subsequent editions of video games developed in the 1990’s, were steadily created for the new systems.
LeapFrog Technologies continued to expand and develop new technology-enhanced educational products. By 2003, their products were sold in over twenty-five countries, and LeapFrog had become the fourth largest toy company in the United States, after Mattel, Hasbro, and Lego. In 2007, LeapFrog had net sales of $442.3 million.
Tamagotchi virtual pets remained popular, and new characters and games were developed. In 2005, Nintendo released Nintendogs, a real-time pet simulation video game for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. The Teletubbies celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2007, and books, DVDs, toys, and other products continued to sell. Beanie Babies continued to be collectibles. In 2007, almost all of the remaining Beanie Babies were retired, and a second generation or line called Beanie Babies 2 was introduced in 2008.
In 2007, video game industry revenues approached $40 billion worldwide, and total U.S. retail sales of toys reached $22.1 billion.
Bibliography
Biddle, Julian. What Was Hot! A Rollercoaster Ride Through Six Decades of Pop Culture in America. New York: Citadel Press, 2001. This history includes the major fads each year throughout the 1990’s. Illustrated.
Cross, Gary S. Kid’s Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997. A critical analysis of how advertising and consumerism have changed the concept of toys and children’s attitudes toward the world. Illustrated. Bibliography and index.
Jaffé, Deborah. The History of Toys: From Spinning Tops to Robots. Stroud, England: Sutton, 2006. Beautifully illustrated exploration of toys through the ages, including the influences of technology, marketing, education, religion, and new materials. Bibliography and index.
Kent, Steven. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon—The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001. A fascinating chronicle, including hundreds of interviews and fun facts. Illustrated.
Miller, G. Wayne. Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies That Make Them. New York: Times Books, 1998. A behind-the-scenes look at the toy industry, including the chief executive officers, movie moguls, and toy inventors. Illustrated. Bibliography and index.
Oxoby, Marc. The 1990’s. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003. This history of popular culture includes a chapter on “Fads, Games, Toys, Hobbies and Sports.” Illustrated. Bibliography and index.
Walsh, Tim. Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them. Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel, 2005. Written by a toy inventor, this fascinating study contains interviews with industry leaders, insider stories, and over four hundred color photographs.