Hacker News Reader

I remember having things exactly the same at my school in the early 90s

Those were most probably Galt Octons, which are still sold today.

Weird how the article doesn't mention those, while it talks about being ripped off...

I've never personally used them, but there were many products like it back in the day. Specifically a quick search brought up this from the 90's: https://www.amazon.ca/First-Octons-48-pcs-Building/dp/B00000... I thought of ZAKS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaks