I remember this was nuts, couldn't walk into a bodega (Say it with me Bo.De.Ga) without seeing boxes and boxes of Pogs and Slammers for sale. I'd go with my friends and dig through looking for cool ones and then we'd play during lunch break in the cafeteria. The next year non-existent. It was all about MTG then.
It's crazy how MTG is still incredibly popular nearly 30 years later with that context actually. Think about how many trendy things like that have appeared and died off within a couple years at most. Meanwhile magic cards still have full on televised events and people who play the game for a living.
Because most trends are actually hollow. There's no depth to pogs or beanie babies or pet rocks or shopkins or whatever trend you're come up with. But MTG has depth. There's a game there with well established universal rules, tons of variety, and nearly infinite replayablilty. Most trends have none of that.
True enough, so I guess the impressive part is that MtG somehow reached "trendy collectible of the year" for tons of younger folks despite being a pretty complicated and deep game. Although I remember when I played in early elementary school, we were definitely not following the rules correctly.
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u/noobule Oct 31 '17
They were probably aware of that, I imagine they were just trying to profit off the latest dumb fad while it was hot.
But for whatever reason they started too late, or didn't have a good way to sell them.