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The spring-loaded battle-toy franchise from Spin Master and Sega Toys (Bakugan Battle Brawlers), tied to an anime series that launched in Japan in 2007 and on Cartoon Network in the U.S. in 2008. The toys were marble-like orbs that popped open into fierce little figures when rolled onto magnetic metal battle cards — a successor to the Pokémon and Beyblade collect-and-battle craze.
Richard Garfield's 1993 creation, Magic: The Gathering invented the collectible card game genre and became a phenomenon that consumed thousands of hours and dollars from basement dwellers and tournament pros alike. Casting spells, summoning creatures, and crushing opponents with clever deck construction, Magic made trading-card games respectable — and obsessive.
The frostbitten 1995 Magic: The Gathering expansion — snow-covered lands, the punishing "cumulative upkeep" mechanic, and 383 cards of an ice-locked world. It was the first Magic expansion you could play with no other product, and it launched the game's first named block.
The third Magic core set — the white-bordered 1994 reprint, famous for its washed-out, pale printing. With around 500 million cards produced, Revised was the set that finally put Magic on shelves everywhere, and the one most early players actually opened.
Trading cards that turned every backpack into a vault and every playground into a market. Pokémon cards hit US schools in 1999 and became instant contraband — the holographic Charizard was the mythical grail, and somehow every kid in your class claimed to have a mint copy.
The second English Pokémon TCG expansion, released June 1999 — the jungle-themed follow-up to Base Set. Home to the Eeveelution holos (Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon) plus Wigglytuff and Scyther, and famous for its no-set-symbol error cards from the unlimited print run.
The magazine that told you what your Magic cards were actually worth. Scrye was the price-guide bible of the trading-card-game boom — the fold-out list of secondary-market values you scoured to see if your rare was your ticket to riches.
Konami's trading card game swept US schoolyards in the early 2000s, rivaling Pokémon for card-game dominance. Players dueled with powerful monsters — Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Dark Magician, and the feared five-piece Exodia combo — and the phrase "It's time to duel!" echoed through lunch periods. Teachers confiscated decks, and schools debated bans.