Annual Top Christmas Toys of the 90s Quiz

Answer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Based on a comic book series, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was made into a five-part miniseries in 1987 followed by a regular TV series in 1988. While popular, TMNT hysteria really took off after the unexpected success of the 1990 movie which grossed over $200 million worldwide.

While the first action figures premiered in 1988, 1990 brought about a new series with the turtles being disguised (e.g. Donatello as Don, the undercover turtle) in addition to the launch of the giant turtles series with each turtle standing 13" tall. With accessories that included wacky weapons and pizza-powered vehicles, TMNT merchandise were quite the rage in 1990.

Answer: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was Nintendo's first proper foray into home video gaming, which comfortably outsold its contemporaries. Fast forward seven years, and the highly-anticipated Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) began hitting shelves across the world. With a slew of games from Nintendo's flagship series, including "Super Mario World", "Super Mario Kart" and "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past", the SNES went on to sell nearly 50 million units in total, keeping kids of the '90s well and truly glued to their televisions.

Question written by eburge.

Answer: Barney Doll

Barney the Dinosaur first premiered on "Barney & Friends" in the spring of 1992 on PBS in the United States. The premise of the show featured children playing and then imagining their stuffed dinosaur coming to life. Barney would then suddenly appear, engage the children and by the end of the program return back to his original form but not before saying "I Love You". Of course, when the dolls began appearing on store shelves, children couldn't resist them, seeing their own Barney as the stuffed animal on the show that could come to life. "Barney & Friends" ran for 13 seasons with over 200 episodes, inspired a multitude of specials, movies and albums and became a cultural touchstone for millions of kids during that time.

Answer: Home Alone 2: Lost In New York

Believe it or not, the biggest-selling Christmas toy of 1993 was a non-working prop in the movie "Home Alone 2: Lost In New York". Used in the movie by Kevin McAllister to secretly record people and later play back their voices to trick people, the Talkboy was marketed as a tie-in to the movie with Macauley Culkin (who played Kevin) featured on the front of the box. Though it played like a piece of spy equipment in the film, the Talkboy was basically a cassette device with a grip handle and an extended microphone.

Despite that, kids that Christmas season demanded it hoping they too could be as sly as Kevin McAllister.

Answer: Orange

"Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" was an American live-action TV show that spanned only three seasons but, with multiple showings per week, well over 100 episodes were produced during its short run. It originally featured five teens given powers to combat an alien invader who is set on the destruction of Earth. Most memorably, they could at times combine into a massive machine called the Megazord. Both as individual action figures and as figures that could assemble into the Megazord, "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" became an instant fan favorite and stores were reported to limit sales of action figures to just one per family given the intense demand.

Answer: Beanie Babies

Beanie Babies were first launched by Ty Inc in 1993, with only nine original stuffed animals, and by 1995 were one of the most popular children's toys in the world. They were highly collectible and came in two sizes, with miniature versions of each full-size beanie toy. The miniature versions, called Teenie Beanies, were released in 1996 and were sold as part of McDonald's Happy Meals. Some Beanie Babies bears were sold as limited editions, including one called the Princess Bear that was released in honor of Princess Diana of Wales following her death in 1997.

Question written by kaddarsgirl.

Answer: Elmo

The first "Tickle Me Elmo" produced in July 1996 was sent to Rosie O'Donnell as a gift for her then one-year-old son and soon became a sensation worldwide. It would start by giggling when you pressed its belly and after three squeezes in a row would start full-out laughing and shaking. On Black Friday of 1996, "Tickle Me Elmo" toys sold out in US stores within the first two hours. By 1997, Tyco had sold more than 5 million of the laughing toys. Following the success of "Tickle Me Elmo", Tyco released "Tickle Me" versions of Big Bird, Ernie, and Cookie Monster in 1997, but they were never as popular as the original "Tickle Me Elmo".

Question written by kaddarsgirl.

Answer: Tamagotchi

Tamagotchi were first released in Japan in November of 1996 and then released worldwide in May of 1997. The name of the toy, "tamagotchi", is a portmanteau that combines the Japanese word for "egg" (tamago) with the word "watch". Aki Maita, one of the creators of the Tamagotchi, won the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize in Economics (an award that honors trivial achievements that "make people laugh, and then think" for inventing the toy). Tamagotchi pets begin as an egg, go through several stages of life, and could be taught to do things such as use the toilet. Pets that were poorly taken care of could die, but they could also die of old age. If one's Tamagotchi died, the game could be restarted with a new pet.

Question written by kaddarsgirl.

Answer: Furby

Furby was a furry robot toy with large ears and large eyes that could blink. It initially spoke Furbish but over time would develop a vocabulary with English words and phrases. Released in October of 1998, it quickly became a must-have item with Furbies being resold on the nascent internet for ten times its resale value.

However, not everyone was sold on the toy. The makers of the film "Gremlins" sued the makers of Furby due to the toy's resemblance to a Mogwai, the cute critter in the 1984 film (that suit was settled out of court). On top of the that, so little was understood about Furby that the U.S. National Security Agency reportedly banned Furbies from their property for fear that they could surreptitiously be recording.

Answer: Trading card game

As with most TCGs, the aim is to build up an impressive deck by either buying cards or trading with other people, and then battling them to become the ultimate Pokémon Trainer. The "Pokémon" TCG craze swept Japan in 1996 and finally made its way stateside two years later and just in time for Christmas. Its popularity wasn't just restricted to the '90s - the cards were widespread well into the early noughties, with millions of cards selling year upon year.

Question written by eburge.