You can’t talk about 1990s fads without mentioning Pogs. The trademarked name for the game of Milk Caps. I remember being a teenage rin the 90s and seeing these things everywhere. Once the fad exploded, every company raced to get their logos on a set of pogs. Pogs would come free with various food items, Happy meals and cereal. Pogs were everywhere. As popular as Pogs were, I don’t recall ever actually playing the game. I’m sure I had some, but I don’t think I ever really used them for what they were for. Too bad. Maybe if I did I would have a bunch of cool 1990s NFL Pogs. Recently I found a few Pog sets at a thrift store. One featured a set of NFL running backs, while the other was all Joe Cool.

The history of Milk Caps goes all the way back to the 1920s when the game was played with actual milk caps, presumably. It is thought to have originated on the Island of Hawaii and could be based on a similar Japanese game called Menko, which had been around for hundreds of years. By the late 80s the game of Milk caps was pretty much forgotten, until, it is said, a school teacher on the Island of Oahu introduced the game to her students and eventually spread to the mainland where it blew up. The game exploded when a company trademarked and marketed the game as POG, which was fruit drink that had caps which could be used for the game. After that millions upon millions of Pogs were released. Eventually, as is always the case, the fad faded and the company who owned the name Pog, Canada Games, went out of business. Left behind though, are millions of Pogs and it goes without saying that some of these would be of the sports or football variety.

These reflective Pogs are pretty cool. Although I’d prefer more helmets.

Here is a nice set of NFL Pogs. it even features the never used Jaguars helmet design!

Here are a couple Pog sets that came with tombstone Pizza. I’m a pizza snob, but I would gladly buy a tombstone if it came with these gunslinger Pogs.

Here is a cool Super Bowl Champion Set.

This is Milk cap game set that is dubbed Aikman vs. Young. I’d be Young all day.

More Custom 3D Helmets Ready To Ship

I finished up two more custom 3D helmets. One was 1 967 Saints helmet, the other was the dreaded Pat Patriot helmet. I say dreaded, because Pat is a lot of work and requires some hand painting at this scale. I don’t really consider myself an artist, but I do what i have to do. For Pat I do what I normally do and print out the logo. Cutting each individual piece the best I can. The logo is only about 4.5 inches wide, so there are limitations to how detailed the cuts can be. Normally I try to avoid or at least limit the amount of painting the logo elements, but Pat Patriot is a special case. If you want your own custom wood helmet (hopefully not another Pat) you can order below.