Slap bracelets
Fabric-covered metal bands that curled around your wrist with a slap, and a fad that many schools banned.
Museum
The 90s Museum
A growing collection of 78 objects that defined the decade: the toys we begged for, the consoles we fought over, the gadgets in our pockets and the snacks in our lunch boxes. Each exhibit has its year, its maker and its story. Dates we have checked are shown plainly; approximate ones are marked "c.".
78 exhibits
Exhibit of the daySee the exhibit →
Super Mario Bros. 3
Made by Nintendo
The NES classic with the raccoon tail, the world map and Bowser's kids.
Super Soaker
Made by Larami
A pump-action water blaster that turned backyard water fights into an arms race. Early versions were sold under a different name before the Super Soaker brand took off.
Fruit by the Foot
Made by General Mills
Three feet of rolled fruit snack on a paper strip, and a lunchbox status symbol.
Fruit Gushers
Made by General Mills
Fruit snacks with a liquid center. The ads showed kids' heads turning into fruit.
Sega Game Gear
Made by Sega
A backlit color handheld that ate six AA batteries in a few hours.
Street Fighter II (arcade)
Made by Capcom
It made one-on-one fighting games the arcade event of the early 90s.
Super Nintendo (SNES)
Made by Nintendo
The 16-bit Nintendo, sold in North America with Super Mario World.
Butterfinger BB's
Made by Nestlé
Bite-size Butterfinger balls, advertised by a certain spiky-haired cartoon kid. They were discontinued in 2006.
Crystal Pepsi
Made by PepsiCo
A caffeine-free clear cola from the "clear means pure" craze. It was gone within about a year, then came back briefly as a nostalgia release.
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Image © Midway (now Warner Bros. Games), via Wikipedia, used for identification and commentary
Mortal Kombat (arcade)
Made by Midway
Its digitized fighters and gore helped push the industry to create the ESRB rating system.
Super Mario Kart
Made by Nintendo
The first Mario Kart, and the start of decades of couch-multiplayer rivalries.
Talkboy
Made by Tiger Electronics
A cassette voice recorder that became a must-have after starring in a 1992 holiday movie sequel.
Totally Hair Barbie
Made by Mattel
Floor-length crimpable hair made it the best-selling Barbie doll ever made.
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Made by Panasonic and others
An expensive CD console that launched at $699.
Apple Newton MessagePad
Made by Apple
A pen-based personal digital assistant whose handwriting recognition became a running joke, years before smartphones.
Atari Jaguar
Made by Atari
Marketed as the first 64-bit console, with a controller covered in a phone-style number pad.
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Photo: daryl_mitchell from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Beanie Babies
Made by Ty
Small bean-filled plush animals whose deliberate scarcity created a collecting bubble.
Doom
Made by id Software
It defined the first-person shooter and spread through shareware.
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Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Fred Hsu assumed (based on copyright claims). / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Magic Eye books
Made by N.E. Thing Enterprises
Colorful patterns that hid a 3D picture if you relaxed your eyes just right.
Magic: The Gathering
Made by Wizards of the Coast
The first big collectible card game: you collected cards and built decks to battle friends.
Myst
Made by Cyan / Brøderbund
A quiet puzzle island that sold CD-ROM drives to families.
NBA Jam (arcade)
Made by Midway
"He's on fire!" Two-on-two basketball with physics-defying dunks.
Donkey Kong Country
Made by Rare / Nintendo
Pre-rendered 3D graphics on a 16-bit console.
Fruitopia
Made by Coca-Cola
Tie-dye-label fruit drinks with names like "Strawberry Passion Awareness".
Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme bar
Made by Hershey's
White creme with crunchy cookie bits. One of the few 90s candy launches still everywhere.
Iomega Zip drive
Made by Iomega
100 MB on one removable disk, the size of about 70 floppies.
Pogs
Cardboard milk caps stacked and knocked over with a heavy slammer. The craze peaked in the mid 90s.
Reese's Puffs
Made by General Mills
Peanut butter and chocolate corn puffs. Still on shelves today.
Chrono Trigger
Made by Square
A time-travel RPG often named one of the best games ever made.
French Toast Crunch
Made by General Mills
Tiny slices of French toast in cereal form. It was discontinued in 2006 and brought back in 2014.
Josta
Made by PepsiCo
A guarana soda, often called the first energy drink from a major US soft drink company.
Pizza Hut Stuffed Crust
Made by Pizza Hut
Cheese baked into the outer crust, with ads telling you to eat your pizza crust first.
PlayStation
Made by Sony
CD-based games and a grown-up image made Sony the new leader.
Sega Nomad
Made by Sega
A handheld that played real Genesis cartridges, as long as you had plenty of AA batteries.
Sega Saturn
Made by Sega
It arrived as a surprise early launch in North America, months before the PlayStation.
Virtual Boy
Made by Nintendo
Red-and-black 3D goggles on a stand. It was discontinued within a year.
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Photo: Warszawska róg Szerokiej w Tomaszowie Mazowieckim w województwie łódzkim, PL, EU. / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Bop It
Made by Hasbro
A shouty reaction game: bop it, twist it, pull it, faster and faster.
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Image © Sony Interactive Entertainment / Naughty Dog, via Wikipedia, used for identification and commentary
Crash Bandicoot
Made by Naughty Dog / Sony
PlayStation's answer to Mario, with a spin attack.
Game Boy Pocket
Made by Nintendo
A slimmer Game Boy with a sharper black-and-white screen that ran on two AAA batteries.
Motorola StarTAC
Made by Motorola
A tiny clamshell phone that made flipping your phone shut the coolest move of the late 90s.
Nintendo 64
Made by Nintendo
Its analog stick and four controller ports made it the split-screen party console.
PalmPilot
Made by Palm Computing
A pocket organizer with a stylus and handwriting recognition.
Pokémon Red and Green
Made by Game Freak / Nintendo
The original Pocket Monsters games launched in Japan.
Super Mario 64
Made by Nintendo
It showed the world how a 3D platformer should move.
Tickle Me Elmo
Made by Tyco Preschool
A giggling plush that sparked holiday shopping frenzies in 1996.
Final Fantasy VII
Made by Square
Three discs and cinematic cutscenes that brought Japanese RPGs to the mainstream.
Giga Pets
Made by Tiger Electronics
Tiger's rival virtual pets, from digital doggies to compu kitties.
GoldenEye 007
Made by Rare / Nintendo
Four-player split-screen that defined N64 sleepovers.
Orbitz
Made by Clearly Canadian
A clear drink with floating gel balls. It looked like a lava lamp in a bottle.
Tamagotchi
Made by Bandai
The egg-shaped keychain pet that needed feeding and cleaning, until schools banned it.
Game Boy Camera
Made by Nintendo
A swiveling camera cartridge that took tiny grainy photos, printed on stickers with the Game Boy Printer.
Game Boy Color
Made by Nintendo
A color screen arrived just in time for Pokémon mania.
Nokia 5110
Made by Nokia
A chunky phone with swappable covers and Snake, the game that made waiting rooms bearable.
Oreo O's
Made by Post
Cookie cereal that disappeared from US shelves in 2007 and returned in 2017.
Pokémon Red and Blue
Made by Game Freak / Nintendo
Pokémania began in North America.
Tech Deck
Made by X-Concepts
Finger-sized skateboards with real brand graphics, for kickflips on your desk.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Made by Nintendo
Its Z-targeting set the template for 3D action games.
Go-Gurt
Made by Yoplait (General Mills)
Yogurt in a squeeze tube, so you could eat it with no spoon in the school cafeteria.
Neo Geo Pocket Color
Made by SNK
A color handheld with a clicky micro-switch joystick, loved by fighting game fans.
Pokémon Snap
Made by HAL / Nintendo
You photographed Pokémon instead of catching them.
Pokémon Trading Card Game
Made by Wizards of the Coast
The English card game that took over playgrounds, and then got banned from many of them.
Pokémon Yellow
Made by Game Freak / Nintendo
Pikachu follows you around, just like in the anime.
Sega Dreamcast
Made by Sega
It launched on 9/9/99 with a built-in modem for online play.
Super Smash Bros.
Made by HAL / Nintendo
Nintendo's mascots fighting each other became a party staple.
PlayStation 2
Made by Sony
It also played DVDs, which made it many families' first DVD player.
Pokémon Gold and Silver
Made by Game Freak / Nintendo
One hundred new Pokémon and a day and night clock.
Razor scooter
Made by Razor USA
A foldable aluminum kick scooter that took over sidewalks at the turn of the millennium, and many ankles too.
The Sims
Made by Maxis / EA
A dollhouse life simulator that became the best-selling PC game of its era.
Nothing in the archive matches that. Try a year like 1995 or a word like "pet".
About the 90s Museum
The museum is built from the same fact base as our 90s Year Explorer and the 90s trivia quiz, so every date is checked once and used everywhere. Launch dates are for North America unless an exhibit says otherwise. Where we could not confirm an exact year, the date is marked "c." for approximate.
Photos appear only where a freely licensed photo shows that exact object, and each one is credited under the exhibit. Other exhibits use our original sticker art. Brand and product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify the products.
The collections
- Toys and fads: from slap bracelets to Furby. See popular 90s toys and forgotten 90s toys.
- Consoles: the 16-bit war to the Dreamcast, covered in 90s video game consoles.
- Video games: the landmark releases in 90s video games that changed gaming.
- Gadgets and tech: Zip drives, PalmPilots and the first DVD players, in 90s tech gadgets.
- Snacks and food: Gushers, Surge and Crystal Pepsi, in 90s snacks and 90s drinks.
New exhibits are added as we research them. Spotted something missing or a date that looks wrong? Tell us.
Frequently asked questions
What is in the 90s Museum?
78 objects from the 1990s across five collections: toys and fads, consoles, video games, gadgets and tech, and snacks and food. Each has its launch year, maker and a short history.
How accurate are the dates?
Dates were checked against reliable references and are North American unless noted. Approximate dates are marked "c." so you can tell them apart.
Can I search the museum?
Yes. Search by name, maker, year or keyword, filter by collection and sort by date or name. Every exhibit also has its own link you can share.
Will more exhibits be added?
Yes. The museum grows as we research new objects, and every new exhibit also feeds our year explorer and trivia quiz.