1990s & 2000s Nostalgia

One of the cool and weird things about social media is that you get to see which experiences are shared by others - and which weren't. What was (or is) a national or even international phenomenon? What seemed to be only of interest to you and a few friends? This is even more interesting looking back to my (pre-social media) childhood, as at the time you had no idea at all what the wider world was interested in. You're little world was the whole world. Anything on TV was big news and the best toys were the ones you or your neighbours had.

Sometimes, I am surprised at the things that stuck out for others too. Sure, much of what I loved as a kid (Bionicle, LEGO, Arthur etc.) are pretty well known toys and shows but even some of the niche items see love online. For example, there was a Fisher Price castle that me and brother loved when we were kids. But I never thought anyone else would know it. Yet only recently it popped up on social media and my brother sent me a Reel of people reacting to it. Turns out there's even a website, This Old Toy, that keeps track and has it listed. Don't get wrong, it's a great toy, but one that I thought had faded into history and out of mind.

Other times, I am surprised at what is lost to time. Things that seemed so cool and relevant to me as a kid but that I have never seen or heard anyone talking about. Maybe the conversation is happening at places I haven't visited. But at the very least you learn that what your younger self thought to be "mainstream" was sometimes pretty niche. At times, it might just be that people's attention drifted elsewhere, such as the greater popularity of Thunderbirds compared to my favourite Gerry Anderson shows: Captain Scarlet and Stingray. With their excellent themes by Barry Gray.

At other times, I question whether the attention was ever there! Dim and distant in my memory is Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension. Back in the days when you could still play Flash games (on sites like Not Doppler that we'd load up on the library computers; or the many LEGO games like Mata Nui, Junkbot and the Johnny Thunder one), this was a TV show of interdimensional travel and cool aliens. My brother and I were fans. We watched the show, we had the toys. There was even a video game which I remember having a brutally hard segment (a timed jumping puzzle which needed the frog's legs) that we could never get past. I wonder if it would seem as hard if I went back to it today?

In any case, despite the brilliance of this show (or at least, the brilliance of my memories of it), I have never heard anyone else mention it. Was it something that passed the rest of the world by? Or is it in the minds of others too, just unspoken?

There's so much more I could write about, and maybe I will in future, but I've already taken enough time writing this. The Flash games I name checked definitely feel like they deserve a write-up of their own. Today though, I was mostly thinking about the old TV shows that captured my imagination. I'm tempted to rewatch a few episodes and see how they hold up. Either way, I'm sure it'd be entertaining to take that trip down memory lane.