pog:

The game of pogs, named for the cardboard discs used to play it, was one of several popular fads that swept the country and much of the world in the early 1990's. Believed to have evolved in Hawaii from the Japanese game Menko, popular since the Edo Period (1603-1867), pogs first appeared in 1927. In 1991 a teacher taught the game as an alternative to violent games at recess, and her students loved it. Played at first with cardboard milk caps from the Haleakala Dairy’s passionfruit, orange, and guava drink (hence: POG), the game swept Hawaii and soon reached the American mainland. Peaking in 1993, the game’s popularity began to fade and it all but disappeared by 1997. The play is simple. Players decide if the game is “for keeps,” meaning winners keep pogs they’ve won, or not. The number of pogs in play is agreed upon, and they’re all placed in a central stack face down. A player throws a “slammer” —a heavier disk, usually plastic or rubber—at the pile and wins the pogs that are tuned face-up by the motion. The ancient game Menko is also credited with inspiring the modern card-collecting hobby, because its printed cards bore images of Samurai warriors and legendary figures. Pogs too were soon decorated with all kinds of imagery from popular culture and commerce. Kids loved the game, and they loved—and collected—the pogs themselves, while the fad survived.