A Thousand and One #FlashbackFriday Things!

…but you’ll probably only make about three things with today’s “As Seen on Nickelodeon” product.

Continuing on with this week’s theme of commercials for products we saw on Nickelodeon that we never knew we needed, and possibly wanted, a toy that was probably better than the String Racer.  In the very least, it didn’t come with a string that got tangled easily.  In fact, this particular product was compatible with something many of already played with.

Like the String Racer of yesterday, today’s product is something I am very familiar with. I owned the better, more well-known counterpart of it, and never really sought out owning this product, as soon as it looked.  I was ten by this point, and would never have made my Halloween costume out of them, or anything for that matter (I am not crafty, and never have been).

Today’s product comes 1993, and was made to work with your Legos, except they had a braggart-type name – Better Blocks.  Why were these better, you ask?

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They did this!

They also could be assembled to do this…

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And came back in an advertisement that used ZOOM effects!

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Oh WOW!  Click play, and see it all look amazing, along with the endorsement of a parent who basically says having Legos alone are not good enough!

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COOL!

Glow in the Dark Better Blocks were the sequel product to Better Blocks, which also competed for advertising space on Nickelodeon in the early 1990s…

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The products boasted compatibility with other building block brands, and even mentioned them by name.  They bragged about how an ordinary Lego-crafted creation couldn’t move or bend…but add Better Blocks and see them make the creation “bedda” (honestly, that’s what it sounds like in the commercial).

Jewelry, rings, football armor, carousels, castles, glasses, Halloween costumes, and in the case original Better Blocks, a dollhouse and a purse for mommy to take to work.  You may stop playing with your Legos, but introducing Better Blocks will cause you to break out the Legos collecting dust once again.

I know plenty of people who had Legos, but no one ever talked about Better Blocks.  I myself owned so many Legos, and trust me, they didn’t have to bend and flex (or glow in the dark) to be fun.  I played with them from the time I was a little kid, until I was thirteen years old.  Being that Lego sets were made with teenagers in mind, this was perfect acceptable (I just didn’t acknowledge it in school).  Today, Legos dominate, and Better Blocks…seemingly are obscure.

A Google search yields both commercials, but not much more.  An eBay search has them listed as “Vintage” (thanks, I was ten or eleven years old in 1993, I’m not “Vintage”), so it is pretty obvious these are not on the market other than on marketplace-type sites.  Sure these looked cool, but obviously they didn’t have the power of the OG “Better Block,” the classic Lego.

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Did kids really do stuff like this?

Did you ever play with Better Blocks, or the Glow in the Dark version?  Does seeing a screen like this elicit the warm and fuzzies?

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I’d love to hear what you know about Better Blocks!

Have a fantastic Flashback Friday, and a great weekend!

 

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