The Museum of Failure is just what it sounds like. Dozens of failed products, cars, video games, food items and so much more. The great thing is, most of them are fairly recent so you'll remember a lot of these. Some are older (New Coke, the DeLorean, and Aydes Diet Candy) so there's something for everyone.
You do have to buy tickets in advance. They're about 18 bucks and so worth it. Buy tickets here.
Allow about an hour to go through and you'll need to be patient as you have to get up close to the displays to read the information about them so you'll be waiting for people in front of you. But there was almost always another display with no one waiting, so it was no problem.
Here are some highlights. How many do you remember?
Oh I wanted one of these so bad! The Nokia N Gage was part phone, part gaming device. Looked super cool but apparently sucked.
The Fyre Festival got mentioned at the museum. This is the "gourmet food" served to concert-goers who paid thousands of dollars to be there.
I had one of these! It's the Nintendo Virtual Boy! A 3D gaming system that seemed really cool at first, but you could only play it by setting it on a table and putting your face up to it. And the games just weren't that fun. I gave mine to my nephew after a few weeks.
This was before my time, but it's called "Little Miss No Name" a doll that was meant to compete with Barbie in the 1960's. It was designed to teach compassion to those less fortunate. But it was a bomb. I'm guessing because it looks scary AF and no matter how much you consoled it, it was still sad and scary looking!
Remember pets.com? It was one of the first online stores and sold pet food and pet supplies. They spent millions in advertising and it never caught on. This was the pets.com sock puppet who starred in their TV commercials. Well, not the actual puppet, but a doll they sold.
These are called Thumps. Sunglasses with a built-in mp3 player. I had a pair and actually loved them. But they only held a couple dozen songs and were also kind of ugly. FAIL!
BTW, I didn't get paid to talk about the Failure Museum and paid my own way to get in so this recommendation is totally sincere when I say it's worth it. I don't know that I'd plan a special trip to MOA to see it, but if you're going anyway, I think you'll love it!
-Dave