Growing up in the early 2000's was pretty awesome. We had cool TV shows like Danny Phantom and Teen Titans, cool movies like the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy, cool video games like Mario Galaxy and Kingdom Hearts, and of course, cool toys. I don't normally see people talking about that era, so I'm going to right now. These are my top 5 toys from my childhood.

5: Spiderman Web Shooter

"Spiderman's got some new tricks up his sleeve, with the Spiderman Triple Action Web Blaster!" If you remember that quote from the commercials, we had a very similar childhood. Spiderman was a pretty big deal in the early 2000's, with the Ultimate Spiderman comic series, the awesome Spiderman cartoon, and of course, the original Spiderman movies. As such, many web blaster toys were released. These were devices that strapped onto the child's wrist and shot a special can of silly string to imitate Spiderman shooting webs out of his wrists. Some also shot water and Nerf darts. Some even came with masks or gloves. There were many types of web shooters for different Spiderman media. My favourites were the Venom themed ones for Spiderman 3. I think they still make these, but I'm not sure.

4: Massively Mini Media Player

Not many people know about the Mini Media Player. It was a small device made by Hasbro and Tiger electronics that was able to play videos, music, and pictures. It also had an FM tuner so you could listen to the radio, and a second headphone jack so two people could use it at the same time. There was only one problem: the screen was tiny. The resolution was ridiculously small, making it nearly impossible to make out anything bigger than a pixel on screen. The website also had videos available to download, mainly clips from Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network shows. For what it was, it was pretty cool.

3: Bionicle

I've talked about these multiple times before. For those who don't know, Bionicle was a famous Lego set starting in 2001. Rather than using regular Lego bricks, Bionicle used custom Technic pieces to create full size action figures. Another thing that added to Bionicle's success was it's use of a story. There was an online Flash based game that showcased the background and story behind Bionicle, and this was also represented in the comics, novels, video games and movies. Each year, a new line of Bionicle would be released, including new heroes, villains, and side characters. The series ended in 2011, but was revived in 2015, and cancelled again earlier this year. As much as I love the new generation, I gotta admit, the original generation was way better.

2: VuGo

Like the Mini Media Player, the VuGo was made by Hasbro. It was very similar to the Mini Media Player, as it was also able to play videos, music, and pictures. The screen was much bigger, though, and it almost resembled a PSP. The main draw of the VuGo was that if plugged into the AV output of a TV, it could record TV programs like a PVR. I remember recording many movies that played on TV, including the first Pirates of the Caribbean. In fact, the VuGo was how I saw my first Godzilla movie, Godzilla VS Mothra. So if it weren't for the VuGo, my Godzilla Warriors series probably wouldn't exist. You could also buy full episodes of TV shows from the official VuGo website, which you could install onto the device, but it was easier (and cheaper) to just record them. I do remember buying an episode of the Grim Adventure of Billy and Mandy though.

1: Video Now

This thing was my childhood. Also made by Hasbro and Tiger, this line of toys could be considered the precursor to the VuGo and Mini Media Player. It certainly had a longer lifespan. Rather than playing digital media downloaded from the internet, the Video Now played media on discs, similar to CDs, though much smaller. The most common Video Now discs were TV shows from Nickelodeon, like SpongeBob, Drake and Josh, and the Wild Thornberries, but full movies and music videos were also available. The music videos were all from popular artists at the time, like Hillary Duff and Jesse McCartney (the voice of Roxas in Kingdom Hearts, btw). Movies had to be played on multiple discs. The memory in the discs was tiny, and on the first generation of Video Now players, the videos were black and white. Later versions had slightly larger disks, larger screens, and colour videos. Some of my fondest memories come from watching Band Geeks with my sister and cousins on my Video Now player.

Did you remember these toys? Maybe there was another awesome toy from your childhood I didn't know about. Leave a comment below!