'90s Things No One Remembers

Buzz Feed

24-06-2025

Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community about the things from the '90s they're convinced no one else remembers (or that Gen Z wouldn't understand). Here are 35 of their top response:
"A step further from the purple and green ketchup, there was that butter that came in blue or pink. As a kid, this was the highlight of my breakfast."
—Anonymous, Portland, OR 28
"The Nickelodeon show Weinerville. There have to be other people out there who have the image of grown men's heads on little bodies burned into their memory like me!"
—Anonymous, New York
Here's a promo from the show:
"OK Soda. Weird advertising that didn't resonate with most people, and it tasted like a mix of cola and orange soda."
—Anonymous
Watch an old ad for the soda below:
"Swatch Twin Phone."
—Anonymous, 51 Colorado
Here's a commercial showing how it worked as two phones in one:
"Nickelodeon Gak! It was a weird and almost assuredly toxic gelatinous goop that was basically ruined the moment it touched any part of the house or outside. Lucky moms in the '90s got to deal with this literal hazardous waste disguised as a toy."
—silkyvampire294
Here's a compilation of early '90s commericals for Gak:
"The board game Nightmare. Players would watch a VHS tape that guided them through the board game. After playing two or three times, it was pretty much never played again because the VIDEO WAS THE SAME EVERY TIME."
—Anonymous, 43 CA
You can see clips from the VHS in the commercial below:
"The commercial for Creepy Crawlers that played during Saturday morning cartoons."
—Anonymous, 43 Billings, MT
Here's a Creepy Crawlers commercial from 1992:
"Sun In. So many orange-haired people walking around after they sprayed it in their hair and went to the beach. Never really turned blonde, just ugly orange."
—comfychair793"It only worked for people who were already blonde. Source: had blonde hair and used it for highlights."—minervamcgonogall"OMG, I forgot about this! I went through so many bottles of Sun In in my teens! 😂😂"—jamiesmith9
Here's a (really weird, IMO) commerical from 1990:
"Water babies — the baby doll that you'd fill with water. I loved mine, and it was arguably my favorite baby doll."
—mo2758
"If you're American, A*Teens and S Club 7. I'd expect Europeans to remember them. My sister and I were two of the few that we knew who were obsessed!"
—Anonymous, 40, Ohio
"7-Layer Burritos from Taco Bell — and also their Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito. The BCB is pretty self-explanatory. 7 LB was rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, pepper cheese, lettuce, and, I think, tomatoes. They had basketball announcer Dick Vitale do a TV commercial with 'seven seven-footers' for the seven layer burritos ads. I think there was a Godzilla tie-in with the BCB. Both of those items are gone from Taco Bell's menu now."
—evilorca597
Here's the 1994 7-Layer Burrito commercial with Dick Vitale:
"Pop Qwiz microwave popcorn!"
—clever_girl
Here's the old commercial for Pop Qwiz:
"Those little cans of air freshener that looked like Fancy Feast cat food and had a scratch-and-sniff label on top of them. They were always sitting by the checkout line in big box stores."
—Anonymous, 36, Illinois
"Clear phones. You could turn the ringer off, and it would just light up when it would ring! Best phone ever for sneaking on the phone way past when you were supposed to be asleep! 😂😂
—jamiesmith9
"Mall Madness board game."
—wittysinger478
"Dolly the sheep being cloned. To quote Ted Lasso, 'Where are we at with cloning these days, by the way? Them Scottish folks have been mighty quiet on that front for a while, which means we gotta be close, right?'"
—ssstege11573
"VHS vs. Betamax."
—marvelousqueen11
"The Sweet Valley High TV series. I still remember the theme song, too."
—Anonymous, 34, Los Angeles
"Blowing into the Nintendo cartridge. I saved many a game that way. It was so standard that my friend's parents would ask if we blew into the cartridge when we said a game didn't work."
—luckyclown551
"I had several baby dolls as a child, but one of my favorites was one that I got for Christmas one year (and it was a big deal — it was $50!) that was similar to Baby Born, but very distinctly not. It came with a rattle, and its gimmick, besides being hyper-realistic, was that if you shook the rattle in one of the hands, the doll's head would turn towards the rattle. I loved this doll to pieces when I got it, and I have never been able to find any evidence that it even existed online, even though I distinctly remember seeing ads for it."
—lobster_lemon_lime
"I remember the sports drink All Sport. It was just as popular as Gatorade back in the '90s."
—Anonymous, 41, Walla Walla
Here's an old commerical for All Sport:
"Singled Out with Chris Hardwick and Jenny McCarthy! She drove me nuts, but the show was funny. And definitely not something I should have been watching at that age."
—Anonymous, 41, Chicago
"The game Ask Zandar. I remember in the commercial, the wizard goes, 'You will get a phone call about this,' and the phone rang. That legit happened to my friend and me once, and we still laugh about it."
—ogsassytaco
Watch the commercial below:
"Mystery Mansion. I own this game. My family and friends loved it when I was a kid. No one I know now that I've met later in life remembers this game existing. It is so fun!"
—Anonymous, 38; North Dakota
Here's a commerical for the 1995 version of the game:
"Skip-It!"
—Anonymous, 34, Los Angeles
You can see the Skip-It in action in the commercial below:
"Enchanted Palace!"
—Anonymous, 36, MA
Here's an old commercial for the game:
"Nickelodeon Flash Screen."
—Anonymous
Here's an old commercial showing how it worked:
"Lifesaver Holes!"
—Anonymous, Becca, MN
Here's an old commerical:
"The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth."
—Anonymous, 35, Illinois
"In grade school, all the girls were reading The Babysitters Club book series. A new book was released about every other month, and on the day it came out, we'd all rush to our local bookstore in little groups to get our copies before they sold out. You were always guaranteed to run into several other schoolmates while you were there. It was an event!"
—Anonymous, 46, Fort Lauderdale, FL
"Tacky Stretchoid Warriors."
—Anonymous, St. Louis, MO
"Pass the Pigs."
—Anonymous, 43 San Diego
Here's a '90s ad for the game:
"The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary."
—Jennifer, Arizona
"Parker Lewis Can't Lose. A show I swear to God nobody I know remembers."
—Anonymous
And finally: "How good toys from drive-thrus were! Teenie beanies from McDonald's meant we had six little white cats and one little black cat — those seven cats had so many adventures up and down our house stairs. Taco Bell had the 'Queiro Taco Bell' talking plush. Even gas stations — those Chevron collectible cars with faces that had names/profiles and blinked as you pushed them. We have boxes of those cars up in the attic for my sister to take when she has kids of her own. Feels like a fever dream."
—Anonymous, 34, USA
There were quite a few foods here I wish I could time travel to try, so what's a '90s snack or fast food item you seriously miss? What made it so good? Tell me in the comments!