30 Toys and Accessories Every '90s Preteen Absolutely HAD to Have

I still remember getting my Teddy Ruxpin for my birthday one year. He was a stuffed bear with a cassette player in his back so he could read you stories. I took him absolutely everywhere and probably still have him.

Everyone at my school had some kind of virtual pet. It didn't take long for the school to ban them because they were a huge distraction. It was hard work keeping your critters alive! I think I had approximately 15 different ones, from a baby to a kitty to some kind of reptile.

I'm quite pleased that the numerous scrunchies I rocked throughout elementary school are now back in style. It's just too bad that I got rid of the giant bag of colorful ponytail holders a few years back, because I would totally wear them again today.

Jellies were never comfortable shoes to wear, probably because they're just straight-up plastic, but that never stopped me from wearing them all Summer long every year — to the pool, to the grocery store, to my friends' houses.

I had just about every piece of Barbie paraphernalia available in the 1990s, including this Barbie Dream House. I got it for Christmas one year and love it so much that I still own it. Who would ever want to part with a two-story pink and white Barbie house?

Koosh balls were my original stress relievers, back when elementary school stress included psyching myself up for playing wiffle ball in gym class and not missing the bus in the morning. I loved pulling on the rubbery strings, almost like it was a yo-yo, but I never had to worry about it not coming back up to me.

There was a period of time when a whole bunch of slimy, squeezy, weird substances showed up in stores. One was Gak, which was more on the slimy side and came in a star-shaped container. I, naturally, had it in neon pink and loved the weird smell it left on my hands.

Another one of the weird substances was Floam, which was stiffer than Gak and had little Styrofoam-like beads in it to help it hold a shape. I had it in probably seven different colors and used to make little scenes out of it.

I wish I could say this is an exaggeration, but I truly still have over 200 Beanie Babies stashed away in my parents' attic. I had all the limited-edition bears, every creature known to man, and multiples of several of them. It was a fun hobby I shared with my dad, and now my dad won't let any of them go. They're just so cute, though, so I guess it's OK.

I heard never-ending horror stories of these little animatronic Furby dolls talking at all hours of the day and night. My parents were wise enough to not buy me one, but then again I never wanted one, because they're a bit scary looking, am I right?

I think there might have been some sort of actual game that went along with these round cardboard Pogs — and the plastic Slammers — but for my friends and me, it was really just about collecting them.

There wasn't a whole lot you could do to play with Polly Pocket, but I miraculously managed to never lose a Polly. Probably because I just left them in their containers.

My family stocked up on Super Soakers for Summer when all our friends would come over to play in our pool. It was always fun to run around the yard with these squirt guns and then dive in to continue the chase.

Crossfire is a tabletop game that's a little bit like hockey. You had to shoot your little metal pellets at the puck to score goals, and I don't know that I ever won a game because my aim has never been my strong suit.

View Masters were such cool toys back in the day. You put in a disc with photo negatives and looked at them through the lenses. I had a huge variety of Disney discs.

Supposedly these strap-on Moon Shoes made you feel like you were walking on the moon, but I mostly just walked like a clumsy baby animal in these clunky things.

My Tickle Me Elmo is very special to me. It was one of the first toys I saved up for and purchased myself. We couldn't find it in any of the stores near our home, so when we ran across one while on vacation in another state, I knew he was meant to be mine. The laughing stuffed animal still lives with my parents.

Listen, I know Easy Bake Ovens are ridiculous little machines that basically bake with the heat of a light bulb, but I'm still bitter that I never had one. My mom just let me help her bake real things in the real oven, but I wanted the cool little one too. I almost bought myself one in college, but it just wasn't the same at that point.

I'm not up on what toys are like these days since I'm old now, but the more I think about all my toys in the '90s, the more I realize everything was miniature. Littlest Pet Shop pets were no exception. They were similar to Polly Pocket but a little bit bigger, essentially just plastic animals with little playsets that I naturally had a few hundred of.

I wasn't much for dolls when I was young, but the one I truly loved was my Water Baby. The body was hollow rubber so you could fill it with water, making her more pliant like a human baby.

It took a lot of convincing for my parents to buy me a Puppy Surprise. The stuffed mama dogs all came with a mystery number of babies in her tummy, but my mom wasn't fond of the fact that it was a pregnant toy with babies inside. Nevertheless, my dad bought me one anyways!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still haven't gone out of style, which is pretty amazing actually. My brothers liked them in the late '80s, and because I wanted to tag along on everything they liked, I ended up being a TMNT fan in the '90s too.

Picture it: Christmas, 1995. Every little girl wants a Teacher Barbie for Christmas, and the store shelves are bare. My parents are panicking because they can't find the Barbie I want. My mom has all her friends in every zip code checking for one. Somehow one materializes before Christmas Day. She was just such a cool Barbie for a young girl, because that was back when school was fun and your teachers were your heroes.

Picture it: Still Christmas, 1995. The other hottest toy of the season is the Doodle Bear. Yet again the shelves are bare of the bear until one lucky stop at a K-Mart of all places, where the Doodle Bear becomes mine. I drew some of my best work all over my blue bear.

I absolutely had no idea what any of my power bead bracelets supposedly meant, but it was cool to have them in a variety of colors, so of course that is exactly what I did.

Butterfly clips honestly weren't all that helpful in my hair, but it was all about the fashion, not the function. These little guys came in neons, sparkles, pastels, you name it. And how cute is it that they're actually butterflies?

It took me a very long time to realize that mood rings aren't actually reading your moods and that it comes down to body temperature. But elementary school me truly believed my mood ring would tell my friends when I was mad at them.

Mini backpacks obviously didn't do us any good for school, but these were key when going to the local DQ or the movie theater. It's not like we had a lot to carry back then. No cell phones, no credit cards. It was basically a backpack with some candy, maybe a Kleenex, and a $5 bill.

We weren't allowed to use pens in elementary school, so I had to reserve my feather pens, à la Cher Horowitz in Clueless, for writing in my journals at home. To be completely honest, I haven't outgrown the feather pens and still use them every day at work.

In the later '90s, when I'd graduated on to junior high, I absolutely couldn't walk out the door for school without a good layer of body glitter. It was the preteen's highlighter of the '90s. If I think hard enough, I can still smell the plastic-like scent of it now.