As Blockbuster Shuts Down, We Recall Snacks of the 1990s
News that Blockbuster, the video-rental behemoth and mainstay of suburban stay-at-home entertainment, will be closing its remaining 300 stores will hit anyone who grew up in the 1990s hard. Sure, Blockbuster could be expensive—Don't forget to rewind!—and its selection could be slim, but it's impossible to not fondly remember a place that was always there in your time of adolescent need.
In honor of the great blue and yellow chain, we took the opportunity to remember another crucial part of the 1990s—the raddest snack foods known to mankind. Containing enough sugar to power a small city and colors not found in nature, these snacks probably weren't the healthiest options out there, but man, were they perfect for staying in while watching rentals of "Clueless" and "Die Hard: With a Vengeance."
Here are 20 snacks that make us nostalgic for the both Blockbuster and the entire Clinton era. Check out our list and let us know what snacks you miss from the 90s. **
1/20Push Pops
Without question the most unsanitary candy of the '90s, Push Pops came in a lipstick-like tube that theoretically allowed you to save your candy for later. Sadly, the second the candy came in contact with saliva, it glued itself to the inside of the tube, rendering the entire contraption completely useless. This in no way affected our desire for Push Pops
Courtesy Betty Crocker2/20Dunkaroos
Let's be honest: all we cared about was the frosting. The cookies just got in the way.
3/20Doritos 3D
These tasted and looked like the offspring of a Bugel and Dorito, which is to say, they didn't taste as good as a Dorito.
Courtesy Nestlé4/20Butterfinger BBs
With Bart Simpson as its spokescartoon, this bite-size candy tried to appeal to the wannabe prankster in all of us. Ultimately, we only ended up pranking ourselves when the obnoxiously crispity-crunchity-peanut-buttery candy sealed our mouths shut.
5/20Airheads
These chewy, tangy snacks had the consistency of Silly Putty and came in flavors like cherry, lemonade, watermelon, green apple, strawberry, blue raspberry, cola, and the always-prized "white mystery."
Courtesy Nabisco6/20SnackWells Devil's Food Cookies
These dry cakes were dipped in marshmallow and chocolate and tasted like cardboard, but who cared: We could eat an entire box in one sitting because they were fat free. Naturally, we were baffled when we had to shop for clothes in the husky section. We blame genetics.
Courtesy Wrigley's7/20Bubble Tape
The gum for sugar-crazed kids who could never be satisfied with one measly stick. Never mind that it lost its flavor the moment you started chewing it, there was a full six feet of it. The sheer mind boggling length of Bubble Tape (twice your height! Two Fruit by the Foots!) kept us coming back for more.
8/20Pop Qwiz
Artificially colored food is superior to food in its natural-hued state. Fact.
Courtesy OreIda9/20Bagel Bites
"Pizza in the mornin' / pizza in the evenin' / pizza at suppertime...when pizza's on a bagel, you can eat pizza anytime!" We still can't believe our parents let us get away with this.
Courtesy Betty Crocker10/20Gushers
The king of "fruit" snacks. Gushers were so amazing that they didn't even have to take on the shape of an animal, spaceship, or cartoon character. If you had a pack of these in your lunchbox, life was good.
11/20Surge
An "extreme" soft drink that was somehow an even more unnatural yellow color than Mountain Dew. The can looked like something straight out of Nickelodeon's What Would You Do?, which was of course, a major selling point. With an in-your-face tag line like "Feed the Rush," we felt totally hardcore chugging can after can at home on Saturday night watching SNICK. Coca Cola discontinued the drink in 2002. It is truly missed.
Courtesy Post12/20Oreo O's
Eating Oreo O's for breakfast just felt...wrong. Luckily, we got over that feeling pretty quickly. Although Oreo O's (otherwise known as "The Greatest Thing Ever") were discontinued in the U.S. in 2007, they are apparently still being sold in South Korea. Someone book us a flight to Seoul, stat!
13/20Planters P.B. Crisps
We still miss these sweet, peanut-shaped wafers, filled with creamy peanut butter. Apparently we're not alone: There are numerous online petitions and groups dedicated to bringing back P.B. Crisps. Alas, Kraft has no plans to re-release them. Nuts.
14/20Sodalicious
These "fruit snacks" came in Root Beer, Cream Soda, Orange, Cherry, Cherry Cola, Cola, Lemon-Lime, and Grape flavors and were shaped like tiny soda bottles and mugs. That's sort of like calling a Slim Jim a "vegetable snack," but hey, we'll take it.
15/20Orbitz
This short-lived soft drink contained small balls of colored gelatin suspended in fruit-flavored soda. Marketed as a "texturally enhanced alternative beverage" from Planet Orbitz, its cough-syrup taste was too out-of-this-world for most earthlings.
16/20Fruitopia
With hippy dippy flavors like Fruit Integration, Lemonade Love & Hope, Strawberry Passion Awareness, The Grape Beyond, and Pink Lemonade Euphoria, Frutopia was a fruit beverage that stood for peace, love, and uninhibited sugar consumption.
17/20Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza-Crunchabungas
These crackers looked suspiciously like Honeycomb cereal, but there was nothing sweet about their fake pizza taste. But who cared what it tasted like? It was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle product and that was good enough.
18/20Caramel Apple Pops
Tootsie Roll Industries released these caramel-covered green apple lollipops in 1995. Like their real-life counterpart, this 90s treat has stood the test of time and is still being sold today.
19/20Dannon Sprinkl'ins
Nineties kids couldn't be trusted to eat food that was actually good for us. The solution? Cover it in rainbow sprinkles and we'd never know the difference.
20/20Shark Bites
We think that everyone can agree: the great whites definitely tasted the best.
