10 Popular Fad Toys

Some of the toys on this list are simple ideas have become classics still popular with children today, and others are complex ideas that were popular for a short period of time. They all have one thing in common: even if their heydays have passed, you can still find versions of any of them in toy stores today.

Hula Hoop

Hoops have been popular toys for centuries, but in the 1950's, the toy company Wham-O reinvented the hula hoop, creating one of the biggest toy fads of the century. The hula hoop even got its own fictionalized back story in the film The Hudsucker Proxy. It's a great invention: a toy that makes kids do something active, and there have even been hula hoop workout classes created specifically to keep adults in shape.

Frisbee

Like the hula hoop, the Frisbee was a simply designed toy marketed by Wham-O that became incredibly popular. Like the hula hoop, it kept children active, chasing the amazing flying disc around. It doesn't seem like anything special today, but the sport of Ultimate Frisbee has become very popular in the past few years, and children still enjoy tossing these cheap but fun toys around today.

Furby

Unlike the simplistic Frisbee and hula hoop, this toy is highly complex. It is one of the most disappointing toys I ever received for Christmas, however, from an aunt who felt that she had to get me and my sister the most popular fad toy of the year every year. Granted I may have also been a little too old to appreciate this somewhat frightening-looking, gibberish speaking "robot", but I was somehow expecting a little more. You were supposed to be able to teach them English, but I gave up after two or three words. They were just freaky-looking, freaky-sounding, and not the wonderfully fun intelligent toy they were meant to be. I put my Furby down about two weeks after getting him. R.I.P., Gizmo!

Tamagotchi