Curated playlist
1990s toys
- PlayStation (console)The PlayStation exists because Nintendo dumped Sony on stage. Sony then decided to build its own console.
- Sega SaturnAt the first E3 in 1995, Sega announced its Saturn console had already shipped.
- Nintendo 64The Nintendo 64 sold out all 300,000 of its first Japanese units on launch day, June 23, 1996.
- Game Boy ColorThe Game Boy Color began as a shelved color prototype called Project Atlantis.
- DreamcastEvery Dreamcast on Japanese store shelves sold out within a day in 1998. Sega ended it in under three years.
- Masters of the Universe"By the power of Grayskull... I have the power!" With those words and a magic sword raised overhead, a young prince turns into the hero He-Man. Masters of the Universe is the American franchise built around that moment, a sword and planet…
- PokémonPokémon Red and Green came in two versions so players would trade. Each version held Pokémon that the other did not.
- G.I. Joe: A Real American HeroG.I. Joe: A Real American Hero began in a men's restroom at a charity event.
- Dragon BallDragon Ball's seven orbs were shrunk down from eight Buddhist prayer beads in an old Japanese novel.
- Power RangersPower Rangers owes its existence to a hotel television in Japan. Haim Saban was on a business trip there in the 1980s. The only thing his hotel set would show was a series about five masked people in spandex suits fighting monsters. He was…
- Hot WheelsHot Wheels began as a 98-cent toy car in 1968, and in 2000 a single pre-production example sold for close to $70,000. The brand is an American franchise of scale model cars. Elliot Handler, a co-founder of Mattel, invented it, and the…