The ’90s Tag

You know what’s mental? That the 1990s ended twenty years ago! Twenty! I was 15 or 16 back then, life was all about the PlayStation 1, that beautiful grey box, reading through the Discworld series and having about 2 friends in the whole world! I have to say, I quite like being an adult these days, but it would be cool to hop into some kind of time machine and power back to the final decade of the 20th century!

I’d like to thank Heather of Just Geeking By for tagging me in this challenge!

So let’s do it!

Favourite TV Show

Oh boy, there are so many: ReBoot, The Animals of Farthing Wood (harrowing nightmare that is was), Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Art Attack, Round the Twist, Aquila, Mike n Angelo, Bernard’s Watch, Finders Keepers, Skeleton Warriors (that theme tune, oof!), The Pirates of Dark Water…

Favourite ’90s Song

Whilst I’m more an ’80s music fan, the 1990s did have some excellent songs, favourites include Rhythm of the Night, Rhythm is a Dancer (the classic Rhythm combo), a bit of Rage Against the Machine, You Oughtta Know by Alanis Morrisette (that rage!) and my secret guilty pleasure song, Livin’ La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin! I also like Don’t Marry Her by the beautiful South, but only the sweary version as it was great when the radio played the wrong version!

Favourite Commercial/Advert

I actually don’t have a clue! I can’t remember any ads from back then, oh apart from those cheesy action figure ads! Remember the one where Mr X was cutting trees down, minding his own business, then Action Man rode in and battered him on a BMX? That was rad/ a massively inappropriate use of force!

NSYNC or Backstreet Boys?

Being an awkward male teen growing up in the north of England, the answer would have been a vehement “no” for both! As a 35 year old man married to a 90s pop fanatic, however, I have to say both have their merits. Backstreet’s Back is catchy as hell, only rivaled by Bye Bye Bye! (by by by by? Bye bye bye bye?)

Favourite Music Artist

I’m more into individual songs from the ’90s, not really a fan of any classic bands of the era, per se! I do dig The Beautiful South though, I guess.

Did You Collect Anything Back Then and What Did You Collect?

Books! I spent my pocket money on a book each week for years! Discworld and the Sharpe series mainly! I was also an avid collector of PlayStation games, as one kid in our village could burn copied games for a fiver a pop, a great way of checking out all manner of different games! I also had a few Tamagotchis!

How Many Tamagotchis Did You Go Through?

3 I think? One was a chicken, the middle one I cant recall and the final entry was a cuttlefish, of all things! I didn’t want to see my cuttlefish die though, so I just paused it til the battery died. He’s technically still alive somewhere…

Favourite Video Game and Console?

I’m sure you can guess the console by now (though both the Master System and Mega Drive get plenty of love too!) The best game from the ’90s would have to be either Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee or Final Fantasy VII, absolutely genre defining!

Favourite Cereal/Free Cereal Toy?

Weetos! Weetos are chocolate hoop things that have a mad scientist as a mascot, they were awesome and no doubt full of e-numbers! As for toys, if you sent off tokens from certain cereals then you could get die cast Matchbox Thunderbirds vehicles! They were amazing, especially Thunderbird 2 which had little modular pods with whatnot. It cost £2.50 also, but my mum paid that so it was free for me!

Who Was Your ’90s Crush Growing Up?

Wish I could remember! I mean sure, there were a few people from in my year but celebrities, no idea!

What Was Your Favourite Disney Channel Movie?

No idea, don’t think I’ve ever seen one? I’ll just say Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers to fill the gap?

Favourite Show? (Disney, Nick, Cartoon Network)?

Ok so yeah, sticking with Rescue Rangers for Disney (Duck Tales is overrated, come at me world), Rocko’s Modern Life and Aaaaaagh Real Monsters were amazing on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network was all about Johnny Bravo and Dexter’s Lab!

Weirdest Fashion Trend

I was way too unadventurous to get behind any powerful trends! I do remember the Kickers vs Pods school shoes war of 1998 – 2001 though, that was rough!

What Were Your Favourite Toys?

Micro Machines, Matchbox cars, Lego, Alien/Jurassic Park action figures, Boglins, all sorts of stuff that still sits in my parent’s attic and probably will forever (especially as my brother thinks his kids will “ruin them”!)

Disney, Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network?

I went between Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network fairly evenly, though didn’t care for Disney as much. I loved cartoons and would generally skip anything that had real people in!

What Early Morning/Weekend TV Shows Would You Watch?

I used to sneak down at 6am on Saturday morning to watch Inspector Gadget, Sharky and George, TinTin and that naff Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon pretty routinely, until a really scary episode of TinTin scared the bejesus out of me!

Favourite McDonalds Happy Meal Toy?

Easy! Those transformer ones, they were amazing! I still want the one that looks like chips!

Favourite Book

Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett, as well as the Truckers series of books. The Hobbit also gets a mention as it got me into fantasy in the first place!

What Would You Watch When You Got Home From School?

It was a rapid fire swapfest between CBBC and CITV, of course! Such classics as Get Your Own Back (Dave Benson Phillips is a legend), Blue Peter, Aquila, Bernard’s Watch, all the good stuff. When I hit year 6 in about 1995-6, we got Sky TV, so I used to watch a lot of the ’90s Spider Man cartoon loads too! (Spider blood, spider blood, radioactive spider blood!)

What Was Your Favourite Thing From the ’90s That’s No Longer Available Today?

A less awful video games industry!

Those golden days of memory cards, physical collections and wacky peripherals certainly outweigh microtransactions, season passes and loot boxes in my mind! Maybe it’s because I was a kid, but it all seemed so less cynical back then!

Tagging

Thanks for the tag Heather! I have no idea who to tag, but let’s go with Ms. Luna and Pinkie’s Paradise and hope that they were around in the ’90s!

Over to You

Hope you enjoyed my brain workings! I was 6 – 15(ish) in the ’90s so got to experience all sorts of things as I went from kid to horrible teenager! You may think that I copied some of Heather of Just Geeking By‘s posts but nope, we just have weirdly similar tastes in things, even Finders Keepers!

Were you alive in the ’90s? If so, what were you into?