Bop It!

When I go to thrift stores (which is pretty often), I occasionally go through the toys they have, mostly to hopefully relive childhood memories, but other times to see what I missed out on through the years. This past visit was a nostalgia trip for sure though.

That up there readers is a Bop It. Introduced in 1996, it was for a time a highly popular toy, enough to create follow-ups like Bop It Extreme (the model I had/have) and related products including Top It (the only of the related products I had). What I ran across at that thrift store was like a mini Bop It collection; 2 original Bop Its, a Bop It Extreme, and a Bop It Extreme 2. There was also a Top It but it was missing the ball. I'll try to give a little rundown of each.

While I never had the original Bop It, I was more than familiar with it between the ads played on the television and simply having the Bop It Extreme.  How to play the Bop It? Well, it tells you which command to do (I DEMAND YOU DO THIS), Bop It! (that is, pressing that nice big button that says 'bop it'), twisting the Twist It crank (akin to a titty twister), or pulling the Pull It knob (as in 'hey, pull my finger, heh heh'). There were two game modes (as far as I can tell by reading on it); Vox Bop and Solo Bop. Vox Bop was a group game where each player did each command they were told to do until the toy said 'Pass It!' to the player on the left (all the while an awesome music beat played). Whenever a player would mess up, they would be called 'out' of the game. Last player standing won. Solo Bop is, as its name implies, the one player game. Rack up the highest score until your game ends, in which you are told your score. Nice start, but it would get better.

Now the Bop It Extreme, that's when shit got intense. Asides from the design overhaul, the toy added two new commands, Flick It! and Spin It!. There were 4 game modes now; Vox Bop, Beat Bop, Vox Bop Solo and Beat Bop Solo. Vox Bop is the same as before, but Beat Bop was a bit different. It was again a group game (same thing as Vox Bop), only instead of the game telling you each command to do, now a sound effect representing each command (bass drum for Bop It, wheel wobbling for Spin It, BOING! for Flick It, slide whistle for Pull It, crank sound for Twist It) 'told' you which command to do (the voice still tells you to Pass It though). I always found it a bit tougher; I would often mistake one sound for a different command...Vox Bop Solo and Beat Bop Solo were the one player versions of both games. Just rack up the highest score, the game tells you your score once you lose. I played the hell out of this thing, one of my favorite childhood toys for sure. I didn't buy the one I saw at the thrift store (but I DID buy Donkey  Kong 64 and Bionic Commando for NES!), cause I still have my old one. Hopefully It just needs batteries.

Bop It Extreme 2, followed, and I never bothered with it. I, for one, thought the new look was a bit ugly, plus it simply didn't add enough to make me interested (oooooo volume controls! WHEEEEEEEEEE). There was one mode added; Vox Bop One on One. Two players, one the 'yellow' and the other the 'green' would take hold of the toy, with the yellow player grabbing the Twist It crank and Pull It knob, the green player grabbing the Flick It lever and the Spin It wheel. The toy calls out the usual commands, with each player only doing the ones they are assigned. However, when it finally calls Bop It, the player who presses it first earns a point. If either player misses they are 'out', and the winner is determined by who has the most points. Meh.

There have been numerous newer Bop It models, such as Bop It Blast, Bop It Bounce, and new versions of the original Bop It with optional inputs like Shout It, but I won't bother with them. There have also been related 'It' toys, and while I won't go into detail on them, I had this one, Top It, so I'll mention it. Another voice command game, in Top It you try (I put a LOT of emphasis on try, for me at least) to do the commands the toy tells you to do, only these ones come with a ball. Top It! by catching the ball in the red cup, Flop It! by catching the ball in one of the cups in the middle, and Flip It! by catching it in the hole on the other side. I'll be blunt, I SUCKED at Top It. I don't think I ever did that well playing the game the way it was intended; catching that ball in any of those holes was too damn difficult for me. Instead I'd cheat by putting the ball in each hole by hand, cause I rule like that. Actually, I could do Flip It pretty easily. *raises middle finger* Fuck you, Top It!

Either way, my disappointment in Top It pretty much turned me off all of the 'It' toys that were to come, so I stopped paying attention to them. I'll never forget the awesomeness of the old Bop It Extreme, and simply the cool factor of the old Bop It games in general. They were a pseudo classic 90s toy, and while its forgotten now (They're still being made now, but do you see anybody giving a shit about Bop It now? Asides from dorks like me of course), but it lives on in the minds of all of those who were brave enough to attempt to Bop It. I'm out.