retro

Bust out your mix tapes and dust off those Walkmans: Cassette tapes are having a comeback. National Audio Company—the last cassette factory in the U...

Unwinding on this magical holiday with some stoner anthems? Here's the story behind one of our favorites: "Puff the Magic Dragon." We'll let Puff's...

Remember Officer Clemmons, the policeman from "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood?" Actor Francois Clemmons was initially reluctant to take the role. Growing...

Remember the childhood hours of fun spent blasting your friends with neon-tinged water cannons? You can thank a NASA scientist for that. In 1982,...

The invention of Silly String was a complete accident that nearly didn't happen. In 1972, inventor Leonard A. Fish and chemist Robert P. Cox set out...

Dreading laundry day? Not these guys. This dedicated community of middle-aged men LOVES washing clothes. Founded in 1984, the group now has 3,000...

You remember POGS. The small, round, cartoon-adorned collectibles that started out as milk bottle caps. In 1991, an elementary school teacher in...

Did you know that Tetris has a Soviet past? The iconic '80s video game is the brainchild of Russian computer programmer, Alexey Pajitnov, who worked...

Do you remember floppy disks? Well, they're still a thing. Sort of. Tom Persky, president of Floppydisk.com continues to acquire and process floppy...

Lisa Frank's signature aesthetic--rainbows, unicorns, puppies--defined childhood for kids in the '90s. But as her empire grew, Lisa Frank withdrew....

Write a sci-fi novel? Check. Sell the rights to Steven Spielberg? Check. Frankenstein a DeLorean into the ultimate throwback machine? Check. Author...

Remember the wall crushing Kool-Aid ads that interrupted your cartoons? Mixing equal parts Van Halen and Barry White, Frank Simms crafted the voice...