The Spin Pop was the brainchild of two postal workers, Tom Coleman and Bill Schlotter, living in a mobile home park in Virginia. The two men had been friends since 1965, and had tried several other ideas before conceiving the idea of a novelty candy on Halloween 1987. The idea was to make a glow-in-the-dark candy. What emerged was Glow Pops, a cylindrical pop attached to a lighted handle. With this idea the two couples Tom and Ann Coleman and Bill and Ann Schlotter formed BAAT (Bill, Ann, Ann, Tom) Enterprises. Ann Coleman was the Treasurer, Ann Schlotter the Secretary and Bill and Tom the Inventors. They spent the next four years trying to sell the idea. In 1991 they met Russell Gold, an engineer from Cap Toys, at the Impact Invention show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They showed him the Sci-Fi candy treats and Russell knew they had a hit on their hands. Cap Toys flew the couples to Cleveland. They signed a deal on the spot. Glow pops were renamed Lazer Pops and did well, but it was their next idea that was the daddy of all interactive candy, "the lazy mans lollipop", the Spin Pop. Cap Toys created a division called CT Gifts, which later became Cap Candies to handle Spin Pops. The largest hurdle for spin pops was convincing retailers that consumers would shell out $2.99 a pop (sorry I couldn't resist), an unheard of price for a lollipop. But buy they did.

Cap Toys was able to acquire their first licenses in 1993 for The Flintstones and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The first themed Spin Pops simply had the images printed on labels of the original Spin Pop. In 1994 Bat Man became the first three dimensional sculpted handle. In 1994 Cap Toys was bought by The Russ Berry Company and then again by Hasbro in 1997, which still owns it. As of 1999 more than 60 million Spin Pops had been sold.