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The 1990s were rad. And that includes this RAD velcro game.

It was impossible to go through the 1990s without playing with one. They would always appear at the beach along with spades, bucket, towels and a bottle of expired sunscreen.

When played properly, the game sounds like this.

Whack! Scritch. Whack! Scritch.

But I was always rubbish this game. My version sounded like this:

"For fuck sake Paul! Not over the neighbour's fence again!"

When I wasn't missing the target by three feet I was failing to catch the ball. It didn't help that the ball didn't stick properly to the pad. Most of the time it would just bounce off, especially if it was a cheap set like the one I had.

Fresh out of the packaging, the velcro it was okay. The ball would stick and good times would be had by all. But after five minutes, the ball would refuse to stick anymore.

Or maybe you had the opposite problem: the pads were too sticky. Getting the ball off the pad would prove to be nigh on impossible. You'd be there like an unworthy peasant trying to pull Excalibur out of the stone. Sometimes if you pulled too hard the Velcro would come off in your hand, thereby destroying the pad.

And even if none of these problems happened to you, the balls would still degrade anyway and the pads would fill up with lint, dog hairs and other shit.

The ball and pads always seemed to come in the same colours: garish green and putrid pink. These were the colours of the 90s, along with neon yellow. They were also the colours of Mr Blobby if you count the fact that his eyes were green, which I do.

Good things about the game

Even though they failed to work most of the time, there were a couple of good things about the game. I will go through these good things now.

They worked when wet

Velcro works even when wet, which means you could play with pads and ball in the sea. That is, until a big wave knocks you over, washes the ball out of your hand and the ball forever sails out to sea.

Exercise

Everything else in the 1990s was either about watching a screen or filling your face with sugar. But this game actually tried to get us to go outside and exercise, for which it earns a few Brownie points.

So for its good intentions and despite its poor quality, I salute you, velcro toss and catch game. You will always remind me of summer holidays that were impossibly long and of accidentally throwing balls over the neighbour's fence.

The velcro toss and catch game is available to buy at Amazon.