Nostalgia Box: 2006

Let’s take a look at the media and media related items from ten years ago and see how I remember them! So change the batteries in your Wiimote, this is 2006! Remember that this is entirely my opinion and that I respect yours as well.

Nintendo Wii

When the Wii was announced in 2005, I was skeptical about the name and the idea. How could you go from a controller everyone knows to complete motion controls? I did not own one until Christmas 2007, bundled with Wii Sports. I also received Super Mario Galaxy that Christmas. In High School I heard the stories of people breaking their television screens with the wiimotes. I also heard about a woman who died in a water drinking contest to win a Wii. It was as if the Wii had become a part of everyday culture, and since I was raised on Nintendo, it made me proud.

Sonic 06

Ah, yes. The very game that my friends like to pretend did not exist. The only thing I remember about this game during the time is that people constantly made fun of it on the Internet. The only Sonic game I owned at the time was Sonic Heroes, so I really did not follow the Sonic franchise very well ten years ago.

Cars

While not my favorite Pixar movie, I still have fond memories of going to see this movie in theaters with my mom and my aunt. I was excited to see it because I had a passion for NASCAR as a kid and would collect all of the toy stock cars available. My aunt howled with laughter at Mater, and I was very impressed with how they managed to place all of those fake advertisements on the cars, billboards, and storefronts. I was not surprised when it managed to be a juggernaut in children’s toy sales, only to be surpassed by “Frozen” in a few years.

Ben 10

While I was never a huge fan of the show, I always thought it was cool that Ben Tennyson could transform into all of those creatures, and how each one had a different voice actor and personality. The most vivid memory I have that was associated at the time with the show was that in my Freshman English class there was a kid named Ben and he got annoyed when everyone called him “Ben 10”.

Crocs

I always thought that these shoes looked stupid. I also did not understand the whole purpose of putting the “charms” into the holes of the shoes, let alone how they became a phenomenon. My cousin at the time called the charms “pretties”, and when we went to see Kung Fu Panda two years later, she was kneeling on her chair. The chair seat reclined and she thought it was eating her Crocs, so she shouted “DON’T TAKE MY PRETTIES!” in the middle of the movie. Classic.