So What the hockey puck Happened to POGS?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I don't see these things AAAAnywhere. Idk if people remember this early 90s fad that came and went, but I do, and you used to be able to find POGS everywhere. I go to thrift stores and flea markets all the time, and I see lotsa old video games obviously, one in a while a few pokemon cards, but I NEVER see pogs. I've been thinkin about collecting Pogs, and was wondering if anyone else is or was into these? I have no idea if there are any rare or valuable pogs, the only place I see these is Amazon/Ebay, and they're dirt cheap.

I just remember in 4th grade the two greatest things to me were pogs and Sega Genesis, and these little cardboard discs are good time capsules into 90s culture.

[incubus421]

I loved POGs back in the day!
I still have some of my favorite caps and slammers around here somewhere. I remember "Poison" being a big term and "Spinners"...which I believe are the ones I have stashed away.
I wish there was some kind of reference page for this hobby.

[A.C. Sativa]

Um... Who cares?

[The Adventurer]

I was definitely there for the hight of the POGs craze. I recall being the biggest fan of 8 Balls and Video Game related POGs. Man... I wish I still had those Mega Man X POGs that came with Nintendo Power...


Um... Who cares?

Clearly you, since you spent the effort to post in this thread.

[FrankSerpico]

Did anyone else have the X-Men pogs? I still have some in a box somewhere with random basketball and football cards including a sweet Apocalypse slammer

[BetaWolf47]

All I have left is a single Killer Instinct POG that was given away with Wendy's kids meals. Has Fulgore on it. Used to have a Donkey Kong Country POG game.

[JSoup]

I always assumed all the unsold pogs left over from the great teacher/student pog wars of the 90s were destroyed by the school districts.

[Rickstilwell1]

When I was a kid I used to have a whole Danish Butter Cookie container full of POGs that I got from friends at school, but I have no idea what happened to it. It probably got sold to parents of kids at my grandparents' many yard sales when I got a bit older.

[Gameguy]

I still have a tube of Pogs around somewhere, though I doubt any are the desirable ones. I would pick some up if they were video game related, I still see Pogs at thrift stores but they all seem generic so I don't bother with them.

They're the same type of stuff like Crazy Bones and Beanie Babies, all but forgotten now.

[Greg2600]

Our former sports-card store made a good deal of money on pogs. I never understood them. But the kids had to have them. They were dirt cheap to buy, and were all profit. Especially the themed ones, like sports teams and Simpsons and Marvel. The metal stompers or whatever they were also cost us nothing, but sold for a high markup. We even ran tournaments on the floor of the store, making money. I think I still have the Simpsons set in tact somewhere.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I remember having the Bigfoot slammer, which was a big deal to me. It was about an inch thick, and half was rubbery grip with fingerprints to get that perfect slam, and it as blueberry scented. They also made a pink one that was probably strawberry, but blueberry was blue, and being a boy, well... You get it. I remember then getting convinced by a kid to trade it on the bus for a Tornado slammer, some sort of metal spirally slammer, that was supposed to be unstoppable, and my mom made me reverse the trade.

I have no idea what happened to them. It seems lotsa people I know have some stashed away but have no clue where, and I haven't seen them in flea markets or thrift store in 15 years. They're dirt cheap to buy online, I doubt there's even rare ones, but I'll collect them again.

[Rickstilwell1]

Oh I think I remember having some Power Rangers pogs come to think of it. There were pogs of anything you could think of. Come to think of it anyone could make them homemade. The right kind of cardboard, print out some decals and stick 'em on there. Make pogs with pictures of video game consoles and games on 'em. It would be so easy to bring them back.

[JSoup]

I remember getting some at this wilderness store that opened up (and closed half a year later) in my local mall when I was in 5th grade. They sold an odd mix of taxidermy and wildlife themed toys and apparel. They had pogs that were just professional photographs of animals, but super close up. Had this awesome one of a dung beetle....

[8-Bit Archeology]

I had everything. I had tons of pogs, the pog-maker, and the official tournament board with the mouse-pad-like cusion. I even had a tin for all my different slammers. My favorite stuff was having the milk cap series. They where classic with a staple in them as a throwback to the milk cap game that inspired pogs.

Such a fun game. The best thing about pogs was that everyone I knew had them. They where cheap and everywhere. So if you wanted to play, chances where someone around you could join.

[SpaceHarrier]

I have some X-Men, Spawn, and Jurassic Park POGS. Most of the rest are either generic nature pics, 8ball type stuff, Coke/Sprite logos, or theme park promos.

[Nesmaster]

Still have mine. I loved the metal slammers.

[moses]

I still have a bunch, have all the power ranger ones from mcdonalds, I drove my little brother to every mcdonalds around so we could complete the set, I also have a sheet of x men ones somewhere

[Atarileaf]

Idk if people remember this early 90s fad that came and went.

You realize you answered the question in your thread title yourself right? That's kind of the definition of fad - something that's shortlived. Somethings that's popular for a while and quickly disappears.

[Aussie2B]

I would imagine that a lot of the cardboard ones probably got trashed/recycled. They're not the kind of thing that people would think are really worth selling or donating, especially after nobody gives a damn about them anymore.

Somehow I largely missed out on the phenomenon. I never owned any, don't recall ever seeing anyone playing, and I was only vaguely aware of their existence (like from the Nintendo Power supplies catalog selling them and what have you). Maybe they weren't nearly as popular in my neck of the woods.

[T2KFreeker]

From what I understand, they are still pretty popular in Hawaii, where the craze actually started. They had them there before they were popular on the "Mainland". Last I saw, they still play it there and still make them there, although, gone are the days of the cool Videogame stuff and superheroes. Just back to basics like it originally was. If you think they were huge here, you should have seen what it was like in Hawaii in the 90's. Was utterly insane. Not to mention, they were quite proud that they started the whole thing too.

[XYXZYZ]

Shouldn't this be in off-topic?

In the early 90s I would see pogs in the comic book shops, and I found them kind of depressing. I mean, they were just little cardboard discs that diverted money away from comic books and video games.

[old_skoolin_jim]

Classic stuff! I was in the 5th grade when POGs hit it big. I still hve a pickle jar full of my pogs and slammers. Let's see what franchises I can rattle off having bought pogs for... Animaniacs, Simpsons, Wild CATS, Goosebumps, and I too was a big fan of the "retro" ones with the staple in them. I also had the POG maker and pretty much made custom pogs out of Sega Genesis game promo posters... I remember making them for Sonic 3, Virtua Racing, Jurassic Park, Ecco, and a bunch more.
Extremely random, but one of my favorites at the time had a picture of a cow sitting in an easy chair wearing reading glasses, and she's looking up from her newspaper with a confused look on her face, while saying, "MILK caps?" I once had two of it (red AND green variants!), but gave one to a friend.

[gbpxl]

I loved POGs back in the day!
I still have some of my favorite caps and slammers around here somewhere. I remember "Poison" being a big term and "Spinners"...which I believe are the ones I have stashed away.
I wish there was some kind of reference page for this hobby.
I could start cataloging them, though it'd be kinda difficult, considering how generic and information-less a lot of them are. A lot of them are just random pictures with no date stamp, company name, or anything whatsoever. The easiest ones to find info on are the ones that come in sets like The Simpsons ones.

[fpbrush]

Oh I’m bad, I just brought back a thread from the crypt. You still have em anywhere? I don’t see the Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic card playing spiffs going for it. Beyblade versions maybe?

[Kid Fenris]

I approve of reviving ancient threads, so I'd just like to say that my favorite pogs were the Mega Man X ones that Nintendo Power gave away.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266229253258?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=z3YkqLfSQTO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=u3ED_y-TTTa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Buy a set before the price goes up 500 percent for no apparent reason.