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# The ’90s School Supplies We Still Remember
- URL: https://dailyrivet.com/the-90s-school-supplies-we-still-remember/
- Published: 2026-10-23T23:55:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T23:55:30.000Z
- Description: Rainbow folders, patterned pencils, color-changing crayons and matching lunchbox sets—the supplies that made back-to-school shopping feel personal.
- Author: Ryan

Back-to-school shopping in the 1990s came with two lists. There was the one from the teacher, which called for pencils, folders, loose-leaf paper, and something to carry it all. Then there was the list forming in your head as you walked down the aisle: the strange-looking pencils, the folder covered in rainbow animals, the lunchbox with the right characters on the front.

The teacher’s list rarely specified rainbow dolphins or a pencil with a strangely shaped eraser. Those were your decisions, even if an ordinary yellow pencil turned out to write better.

These eight supplies capture different parts of going to school in the 1990s, from a binder chosen after considerable deliberation to a textbook wrapped in whatever grocery bag was available. Some had been around for years, and several can still be found today. The particular designs, habits, and small frustrations are what place them so firmly in the decade.

## 1\. Yikes! pencils

![Patterned Yikes! pencils with ribbed erasers and contrasting colored tips.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-01-yikes-corrected.webp)

A Yikes! pencil could look as though someone had decided that every part of an ordinary pencil needed reconsidering. The colors were loud, the shapes could be unusual, and the eraser might contribute as much to the overall appearance as the barrel. Even sharpening one revealed something different from the familiar pale wood beneath yellow paint.

There was an observation behind the designs. Ken Cooper, who developed the brand for Empire Berol, noticed that children already personalized their pencils with stickers and scratched-in markings. Yikes! offered that sense of ownership straight out of the package, using a compressed wood material that could be produced in unconventional colors. The line became an early-’90s school-supply fad. [Source](https://tedium.co/2021/09/24/yikes-pencil-history/?ref=dailyrivet.com)

Their writing performance has a less affectionate reputation. Accounts of the pencils describe smeary graphite and erasers that struggled to remove it, which helps explain why memories of owning one can be warmer than memories of completing a worksheet with it. The discontinued pencils survive as collectibles, including unopened packages that look remarkably capable of starting the same argument in a school-supply aisle.

## 2\. Lisa Frank folders, notebooks, and stickers

![Rainbow dolphin folder and school stationery](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-02-lisa-frank-1.webp)

A Lisa Frank folder left very little room for a subdued choice. Dolphins, unicorns, kittens, and rainbow-colored backgrounds filled the surface, often with enough happening in one picture to keep you occupied before the lesson began. The animals were recognizable, but the world around them followed its own rules about color.

Once you had the folder, there was a notebook to match—and stickers for whatever still looked too plain. Lisa Frank’s vivid creatures and psychedelic colors became particularly associated with school supplies in the ’80s and ’90s. [Source](https://hyperallergic.com/lisa-frank-and-our-school-supplies-nostalgia/?ref=dailyrivet.com)

That folder would sit on your desk and travel between classes for months. You could know every detail of the picture by October, including the crease running through a dolphin or the corner starting to peel.

## 3\. Trapper Keepers with ’90s cover designs

![A patterned Trapper Keeper binder on a desk](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-03-trapper-keeper.webp)

The cover was the first decision. An animal picture, a dramatic scene, or an abstract design could make two versions of the same organizer feel like completely different purchases. Inside, the Trapper Keeper promised a place for the papers that otherwise accumulated at the bottom of a backpack.

Mead’s Designer Series, introduced in 1988 and continued into 1995, helped give the binders their connection to the period. Elaborate patterns and imagery turned a practical organizer into something worth displaying. The folders were part of the attraction, but so was the wraparound flap and, on familiar versions, the unmistakable sound of pulling its fastener apart. [Source](https://www.mentalfloss.com/culture/education/history-trapper-keeper?ref=dailyrivet.com)

Buying a Trapper Keeper offered a fresh start in organization. For a while, each subject might have its proper folder and every sheet its intended destination. By later in the year, the flap could be holding together a more ambitious collection of worksheets, notes, and papers awaiting a decision.

Trapper Keepers remain available, with Mead explicitly drawing on their retro appeal. The old cover designs still do much of the work of making them recognizable. [Source](https://www.mead.com/trapper-keeper-details/?ref=dailyrivet.com)

## 4\. Troll pencil toppers

![Troll pencil toppers with brightly colored hair](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-04-troll-toppers.webp)

A troll pencil topper brought a miniature toy to the desk, complete with a shock of brightly colored hair. Choosing one meant deciding which little face would sit above your schoolwork.

The hair was much of the attraction, although it also put something distracting close to your face while you wrote. Covering the pencil’s eraser introduced another inconvenience when you needed to correct a mistake. Neither problem did much to diminish the appeal of putting a tiny, wildly coiffed character on an otherwise ordinary pencil. [Source](https://www.glamour.com/story/90s-school-supplies?ref=dailyrivet.com)

## 5\. Pop-a-point pencils (Bensia)

![Fruit-patterned Bensia pop-a-point pencils with removable caps.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-05-pop-a-point-corrected.webp)

Pop-a-point pencils replaced the trip to the sharpener with a small mechanical ritual. When a point wore down, you pulled its little plastic cartridge out of the front and inserted it into the back. That pushed the next point into position, ready to write.

On transparent versions, you could see the spare points lined up inside. Pulling one out and feeding it into the back was part of the attraction. The same design created its best-remembered weakness: the cartridges depended on one another to stay in position. Lose a piece and the pencil could become much less cooperative. [Source](https://www.mentalfloss.com/smart-shopping/12-vintage-school-supplies-you-can-still-buy?ref=dailyrivet.com)

The design predates the 1990s by decades, and non-sharpening pencils remain in production. Bensia traces its manufacturing history to 1967\. For children who encountered them in the ’90s, though, that history was beside the point. The important question was whether the missing little cartridge was somewhere on the floor or gone for good. [Source](https://www.bensia.com.tw/pages/brief-history-1?ref=dailyrivet.com)

## 6\. Crayola Changeables crayons

![Crayola Changeables box with red and color-changing crayons.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-06-changeables-corrected.webp)

Crayola Changeables gave coloring an extra stage. First you put down a color, then you went over it with a special color-changing crayon and watched the mark become something else. A patch of red could become blue; orange could turn black.

The original eight-count sets contained six colored crayons and two color changers. Other combinations included yellow changing to green and blue changing to magenta, giving children a reason to test the contents before committing to a picture. Surviving mid-’90s boxes and crayons document the unusually specific promise on which the set depended. [Source](https://www.jennyscrayoncollection.com/2017/01/crayola-changeable-crayons.html?ref=dailyrivet.com)

Before coloring anything properly, there was testing to do: a red stripe, a pass with the changer, then another combination. The test sheet could end up more interesting than the picture you had planned to color.

## 7\. Brown-paper-bag textbook covers

![Math, science and history textbooks covered with brown paper grocery bags.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-07-textbook-covers-v2.webp)

The cheapest item on this list required some work before it was ready for school. A paper grocery bag had to be opened out, cut down, folded to the height of the textbook, and tucked around the front and back covers.

A good fit mattered. Too loose and the cover shifted around; too tight and opening the book pulled at the folds. The process could turn a kitchen table into a temporary book-covering station, with several textbooks waiting for their turn. Teachers have described both growing up making these covers and later teaching students to make them. [Source](https://www.controllingmychaos.com/2012/07/durable-textbook-covers.html?ref=dailyrivet.com)

The paper protected a school-owned book while providing a surface you could write on. A subject name along the spine made it easier to find the right one. The front might gradually collect names, band logos, and repeated attempts at that pointed “S” made from two rows of three lines.

Unlike a decorated folder, the cover arrived blank. Its appearance at the end of the year depended on the person carrying it, the durability of the folds, and how much time there had been to draw during class.

## 8\. Character lunchbox-and-Thermos sets

![Character lunchbox with a matching Thermos bottle](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c9/ec/c9ec014c-a651-451c-83d1-b614edbd1640/content/images/2026/10/90s-school-supplies-08-lunchbox-thermos.webp)

Choosing a character lunchbox put a favorite film or television show into the middle of the school day. The rigid plastic box had a handle, a clasp, and a picture large enough to make the choice obvious across the lunch table. The same character loyalty ran through the [Christmas toys of the 1990s](https://dailyrivet.com/hottest-christmas-toy-every-year-1990s/).

The matching Thermos bottle completed the set. The bottle took up its allotted space inside, leaving the rest for lunch. Its screw-on cup was another piece to keep track of. Early-’90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets survive with both box and bottle; the Smithsonian also holds a hard plastic Disney’s Aladdin lunchbox made in 1993\. [Sources](https://www.ebay.com/itm/127969632355?ref=dailyrivet.com) · [Smithsonian collection](https://www.si.edu/object/aladdin-lunch-box%3Anmah%5F1250118?ref=dailyrivet.com)

Getting everything back inside after lunch could take some rearranging. The bottle had its place, the clasp had to close, and the character on the front stayed with you all year—even when a different show had become your favorite.

Still remember the rest of the decade? Try our [Ultimate ’90s Quiz](https://dailyrivet.com/ultimate-90s-quiz/).