Creatures Caves

It'd be interesting to hear about the different playground crazes in other countries, like America and Australia.

Every craze ended up getting banned at the schools I went to. To name the most significant ones:

Pokemon Cards

We had these at my secondary school too, they were at their most popular when I was in my first year. As I went up the school they got less and less popular (well, Pokemon just became 'uncool' didn't it?

). I remember most kids going around the school with their cards, either you had them neatly presented in ring binder, or you had them bundled together with an elastic band and stuffed in your pocket. I was one of those kids, sporting a yellow ring binder and a meager collection of cards, I could never collect many. I wasn't collecting them to aid my game however, I just wanted to "catch 'em all"! And it was really exciting to buy a new box of Pokemon cards, because it meant that there might be a rare "shiny" card in there. We all went mad over the sought after "shiny" cards, often trying to rip others off in attempt to get better cards, like you'd try so hard to exchange a Pikachu card for a Charizard "shiny" card, trying to persuade your classmate why this would be a good swap.

I remember being involved in a big argument once over a Jigglypuff card, we all wanted it!

Tamagotchis

The Tamagotchi craze happened whilst I was starting middle school. When these first came out in the shops, you couldn't get one for love or money. In order to get one you had to go to a store and put yourself on a waiting list, it was that bad. The idea of being responsible for and looking after a collection of pixel on a screen was so exciting back then, especially if you didn't have any pets at home. In the end, I got the 'Nano Baby' and later on my friend Holly gave me her GigaPet Chimp, on long-term loan. (In fact, Mum still plays with my Nano Baby

) They were eventually banned from my school because people brought them into the classroom and they kept beeping and disrupting the lessons.

Furbies

I was in my last year of middle school during the Furby craze. Like the Tamagotchis, when the original Furbies came out (not like the new, re-modelled ones they have now) you just couldn't find one on the shelves. The idea interacting and looking after something had captured everyone's imagination again - it was a must have! I remember seeing people queuing outside of Woolworths, when they had a new delivery. I eventually got a Furby of my own. I've forgotten its name but it had grey fur speckled with black spots, and pink hair to match a pink belly. I loved to make it communicate with Furbies - I thought that it was fascinating! I think that was the main reason I wanted one really. I could never teach it any words though, which disappointed me hugely.

However, I wasn't smitten with the Furby for long - one night it really annoyed me by waking me up, so I threw it out of my bedroom window and it broke. I wasn't allowed another one.

Yoyos
Same case as Evilmoo's really. I remember mine was a red 'Yomega' - people either had a Yomega or a 'Proyo'. It seemed the more tricks you could do, the more impressive you were to other people. If you could do "Around the World" you were royalty. I sucked though, I couldn't do any tricks at all. I could only manage to "sleep" my yoyo.