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| To do list: 1) Find my slammers. 2) Knock all of these over. |
Yes folks, we’re doing a post on pogs. Get ready to read at the edge of your seats.
I seriously want to meet the inventor of pogs, the game of knocking down towers of milk caps with the ever sought after slammer. That guy was a genius. “Hey kids, throw this plastic disk at a bunch of colored paper wheels. Who knocked the most down? Hey, you’re the winner.” Perfection.
Pogs was a short-lived fad, one that I don’t think lasted longer than a year, but everyone reading this is going to know what I’m talking about. In fact, many of you are probably thinking, “I still have a few slammers, especially that (blank) one. It was sweet.” (We also said sweet in the ‘90s. I’m bringing that back.) And when it was over, it was really over. Pogs were one of those “I played it before it was cool” situations and when it was no longer cool, it was impossible to find a sparring partner.
Because it was short lived, and even shorter lived in my hometown, I didn’t have a chance to get very good at it. This is evidenced by my pathetic scoring during a pog tournament I entered along with my brother Chris and a couple cousins while in Zanesville. My cousin made it through a few rounds I think, but Chris and I were both eliminated early on (he may have beaten his first round partner, I can’t remember). The event did give us the chance to procure a decent stack of milk caps and we convinced our dad that we needed a pog board -- a super rad one with a dragon -- which Chris used for the longest time as a mousepad.
As much as I enjoyed the game, the thrills were really in collecting. There were a number of ways to buy pogs, either in the regular packs or theme decks and everything in between. At the end of the day, people typically had just as many of the “official sanctioned” pieces as they did the Happy Meal incentives with color caricatures of Batman and the Power Rangers, and complete knock offs. There also were the “real” milk cap variety which had staples in the back (the few of which I owned were obtained during the aforementioned tournament). Even more, there a number of machines on the market that helped kids make their own pogs decorated with markers and stickers. And for the true enthusiasts, there were special plastic binder pages to keep them in. Those were the real deal.
Recently pogs have been an ongoing joke to myself, and I get excited when I get to talk about them with friends. For instance, on a trip to Cincinnati to see an old work friend, we very nearly made a trip to an old mall for the sole purpose of seeing if they still had pogs for sale. Sadly the trip was cancelled in order to look at fresh produce and to purchase energy drinks. Priorities.
I also “liked” pogs on Facebook. Sadly there have been no updates as to when the game is becoming popular again. I hope it’s soon.
Apology time: Dear 7-year-old me, I’m sorry we sucked at pogs, but I promise that when people start collecting slammers again, I will at least get us to the second round of tournament play. Hopefully.
Pogs was a short-lived fad, one that I don’t think lasted longer than a year, but everyone reading this is going to know what I’m talking about. In fact, many of you are probably thinking, “I still have a few slammers, especially that (blank) one. It was sweet.” (We also said sweet in the ‘90s. I’m bringing that back.) And when it was over, it was really over. Pogs were one of those “I played it before it was cool” situations and when it was no longer cool, it was impossible to find a sparring partner.
Because it was short lived, and even shorter lived in my hometown, I didn’t have a chance to get very good at it. This is evidenced by my pathetic scoring during a pog tournament I entered along with my brother Chris and a couple cousins while in Zanesville. My cousin made it through a few rounds I think, but Chris and I were both eliminated early on (he may have beaten his first round partner, I can’t remember). The event did give us the chance to procure a decent stack of milk caps and we convinced our dad that we needed a pog board -- a super rad one with a dragon -- which Chris used for the longest time as a mousepad.
As much as I enjoyed the game, the thrills were really in collecting. There were a number of ways to buy pogs, either in the regular packs or theme decks and everything in between. At the end of the day, people typically had just as many of the “official sanctioned” pieces as they did the Happy Meal incentives with color caricatures of Batman and the Power Rangers, and complete knock offs. There also were the “real” milk cap variety which had staples in the back (the few of which I owned were obtained during the aforementioned tournament). Even more, there a number of machines on the market that helped kids make their own pogs decorated with markers and stickers. And for the true enthusiasts, there were special plastic binder pages to keep them in. Those were the real deal.
Recently pogs have been an ongoing joke to myself, and I get excited when I get to talk about them with friends. For instance, on a trip to Cincinnati to see an old work friend, we very nearly made a trip to an old mall for the sole purpose of seeing if they still had pogs for sale. Sadly the trip was cancelled in order to look at fresh produce and to purchase energy drinks. Priorities.
I also “liked” pogs on Facebook. Sadly there have been no updates as to when the game is becoming popular again. I hope it’s soon.
Apology time: Dear 7-year-old me, I’m sorry we sucked at pogs, but I promise that when people start collecting slammers again, I will at least get us to the second round of tournament play. Hopefully.
I definitely played pogs after it was popular. I missed the insanity of trying to get in before it got big, and the insanity of paying $20.00 for an awesome slammer, and instead joined in when you paid $2.50 for a grocery bag full.
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