The story behind Pogs involves a game that might look familiar to
fans of a show called Squid Game.
Known as ddakji chigi, the game involves light, colorful pieces of paper.
It shares its name with how it's played — ddakji refers to a game piece folded
out of paper, and chigi means to hit.
Likewise, the rules seen in Squid Game involve two players deciding who goes
first with a round of rock-paper-scissors.
The one who loses has to put their ddakji on the ground, while
the other player throws their ddakji at it and tries to flip it.
If they fail, players take turns to try and hit each other's ddakji.
The first player to succeed wins, and gets to take the ddakji.
But like many gamesmanship, there’s more than one set of rules.
There’s one where players try to throw their ddakji the furthest, another where
players throw their ddakjii at a wall and have it bounce back the furthest,
and one where players draw a circle and try to push each other’s ddakji out.
Ddakji chigi became popular amongst kids who would gather in
yards or empty lots to play games.
Not only did they have ddakji that they made themselves, but stationary stores
also sold round ddakji, often with popular cartoon characters drawn on them.
With such a low barrier to entry, the game became more and more
popular, and kids grew obsessed with playing and collecting ddakji.
Some kids in North Korea even committed crimes against the state by tearing
out pages of government-issued manifestos to make ddakji.
But as time went on and the value of paper fell, paper ddakji became
less popular, with plastic and metal ddakji taking their place — resembling
a different game even more.
Menko.
Attributed as the ancestor of ddakji chigi, Menko is a traditional
Japanese game similar in nature.
While ddakji chigi was played with light pieces of paper, menko used
wooden, clay, or ceramic pieces, and later, thick paper cards.
Players would put their cards on a table, then try to flip
them by throwing another card.
Any pieces that players flipped, they got to keep.
Centuries later, Japanese immigrants brought Menko to Hawaii.
There, kids played the game using caps from milk and juice bottles
from Haleakala Dairy products.
Coincidentally, they were roughly the same size as the wooden, clay
and ceramic pieces used in the past, making them the perfect replacement.
In Hawaii, Menko was played by stacking up a pile of caps face down, then
throwing another cap at the stack.
Like the traditional way, any caps that players flipped, they got to keep.
Years later, milk cartons replaced milk bottles, and made it difficult
to find caps to play Menko.
However, the game remained so popular that the Haleakala Dairy began to sell
rolls of 500 caps for a few dollars.
As the decades rolled on, the Haleakala Dairy introduced a new product that would
turn the game into a worldwide phenomenon.
It was a passion-fruit-orange-guava drink, otherwise known…
As Pog.
Decades after Haleakala Dairy expanded into selling caps for the Menko game, they
began to sell a new juice made by Orchards Hawaii that would catapult the craze: Pog.
It all began when Haleakala Dairy manager, Charlie Nalepa, went on a
marketing spree for the new drink.
He consulted with a Walt Disney Co.
designer to create a mascot called, Poglodyte, and had the
logo printed on windsurfing sails, race cars, and racing speedboats.
Later, Charlie attended a trade fair in Honolulu and freely handed out
the juice caps, calling them Pogs.
It wasn’t long until kids snatched them up to play Menko and began
calling the game Pogs instead.
Around this time, Waialua Elementary School teacher, Blossom Galbiso, taught
her fifth-grade students how to play Pogs — hoping it would help them learn math.
She also encouraged students to play outside of class since it didn’t
involve any type of potentially dangerous play, like dodgeball.
Blossom’s students embraced the game and ended up playing on their own.
Soon after, many kids began playing Pogs daily since they were inexpensive, easy to
play, and collectable, like sports cards.
And as the craze spread across the U.S., the Haleakala Dairy could
no longer keep up with the demand.
They had to hire more employees to handle, on average, a million requests each week.
Meanwhile, other companies began making their own version of Pogs
to get their own piece of the pie.
This led to the Haleakala Dairy pricing their Pogs from a few
dollars for 500 to $25 a piece.
Recognizing the potential for Pogs to become a worldwide phenomenon,
entrepreneur, Alan Rypinski, bought the trademark from Orchards Hawaii.
Afterward, Alan founded the World Pog Federation with the goal of
licensing products beyond caps, like game accessories and gear.
The WPF then built on the Pog craze by starting tournaments and decorating
caps with snazzy graphics, often featuring relevant pop culture images.
At some point, the WPF also released their own ruleset for Pogs, where each
player stacks the same number of Pogs face down, and then plays rock-paper-scissors
to determine who goes first.
Then, the first player takes a heavier Pog, known as a kini or
slammer, and throws it at the stack.
Any Pogs that land face up are theirs to keep.
Afterward, the Pogs are restacked for the next player and players take
turns until all the Pogs are flipped.
The player with the most flipped pogs wins.
In less than 18 months, the WPF’s efforts had already begun to pay off.
The company made more than $22 million in sales, and even
spurred an official fan club.
Pogs became so popular that even toy companies struggled to find more.
What they could have never predicated was that by the time they could
get their hands on them, the future of Pogs would fall short.
Coming from unexpected origins, Pogs had made it big.
Hundreds of millions of caps were starting to be sold worldwide, and some toy
stores began to struggle to find more.
And while kids simply saw Pogs as a different and fun game, companies,
organizations and political parties saw the tiny caps as a huge opportunity
to promote their brand or message.
The WPF even capitalized on the trend by introducing a device that would allow
people to make Pogs using any image.
POGs’ effectiveness as marketing was thanks to their core design.
Not only were they easy and cheap to manufacture, they were also
easy to spread, and understand.
Of course, the success of Pogs and their ease to make led to a number of businesses
selling their own versions as well.
While the Pog trademark was owned by the WPF, other companies
released their own versions.
Copycats flooding the market wasn’t the only obstacle that WPF faced.
There was another threat emerging at schoolyards across the world.
School officials found the game similar to gambling since part
of Pogs was playing for keeps.
When you flipped one of the caps, it was yours after the game ended.
Not helping matters was the fact that some students didn’t understand
that part of the game — leading to arguments and accusations of theft.
And in some cases, some students were actually gambling
or stealing others’ Pogs.
Soon after, schools across the world began banning Pogs.
And while some students protested and drew up petitions, others found new things to
play like video and trading-card games.
Around this time, the WPF began to deal with declining sales, unsold merchandise,
and having to cut its workforce.
And not long after, the WPF almost went bankrupt from not setting aside
enough cash to weather market downturns.
The company’s founder, Alan Rypinski, then decided to sell his controlling
interest to Pacific Capital Group in exchange for an investment.
However, it wasn’t enough to save the company or Pogs, which became more
and more unpopular — until making a comeback in an unexpected way.
Years after Pogs had seemingly come to an end, the tiny caps found its way to U.S.
military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
At the time, the Army Air Force Exchange Services were looking for a form of
currency to replace cash since metal coins were heavy, and shipments to bases
were limited to equipment and supplies.
As a solution, the AAFES wound up creating their own version of Pogs
as gift certificates, which soldiers could use to buy items at AAFES stores
or select retail and food chains.
While the U.S.
military turned Pogs into a commodity, others thought of ways to revive the game.
First, a manufacturing and distribution company called Funrise purchased a Pog
license to create new products, and then hosted tournaments to stir up buzz.
Unfortunately, Funrise’s plans failed and the company discontinued
its products within a year.
Over a decade later, a mobile games developer called Compton
Technology also purchased a license to create an augmented reality
game for Apple and Android devices.
The game was intended to be similar to Pokemon GO, where players could
compete against others, scan real-world items to unlock Pogs and new content,
and participate in tournaments where winners would be granted upgrades.
Unfortunately, the game never made it to app stores since Compton only
managed to raise around $15,000 of its $50,000 goal on Indiegogo.
Today, Pogs exist more as a pop culture oddity or a source of
nostalgia, rather than something that has a devoted following.
Few Pogs have kept any value as collector’s items since there were so
many made at the height of its craze.
In fact, $15 is enough to buy dozens on eBay or Etsy.
However, there are a few exceptions.
Some of the branded Pogs have gone on sale for hundreds, thousands,
or in one case, a million dollars.
The AAFES Pogs, which were used for 20 years before being phased
out, have also gone on sale for multiple times their original value.
While Pogs has yet to be revived like other trends from the 90s, ddakji
chigi has become even more popular since the airing of Squid Game.
In fact, it’s been played in a real-life Squid Game event
run by the famous YouTuber, Mr.
Beast.
There are also plenty of tutorials online explaining how to make
your own ddakji and play the game.
As for the WPF, the company still exists and is active on social
media — giving hope that a Pogs revival could still be in the cards.
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