The 80's were awesome for some REALLY cool fad games and gadgets. These things would completely work today, so let's try to bring them back!

You know when a game or toy is going to be a quick fad, when schools end up banning them. They're so fun and consume all your thoughts as a kid, but then they're gone and it's on to the next toy that comes along.

Fidget Spinner
Milky Way via Amazon.com
loading...

These days they are just more complex and high-tech. Take the fidget spinner for instance - it lasted a while, the entire summer. They were being sold everywhere and every kid had them. Schools started banning them and as soon as that happened they started to die off in popularity, and now it's not 'cool' to have them anymore.

Heely Shoes
Heelys via Amazon.com
loading...

You might event remember in the last few years that the wheelie shoes called "Heelys" were a huge fad that lasted about the same amount of time. These were death traps for adults, and skull breakers for some kids! They were such a distraction with kids in schools speeding down halls and hurting themselves, and others, that schools banned kids from having the wheels in on school grounds. Soon after, the fad went away and so did many E.R. visits!

Let's go back a few years to revisit some of the really cool, awesome, things we had back in the day:

Chinese Jacks
Genius Baby Project via Amazon.com
loading...

You may remember this fad game back from the 80's, called "Chinese Jacks". These were all the rage for nearly every kid and became almost a trading commodity! It was pretty simple - connect different color rings around a main center ring. The game worked a lot like regular jacks, but ended up being a fashion statement, including shoe lace decorations.

I had a ton of these and spent hours making the coolest looking jacks rings. Every school lunch table, at least where I went to school in Bloomington, MN, was filled with kids playing around with these. This is one fad game in the 80's that needs to make a BIG-TIME comeback!

Slap Bands
Super Z Outlet via Amazon.com
loading...

Do you remember "Slap Bands"? Every girl had these, and even some guys too. They stayed straight until you flicked them on your wrist, then they wrapped around your wrist. Tons of stores sold about every design possible, even some designs included a ruler to make it look like you needed them for school, lol.

More From 96.7 The River