I'm an 80s kid not a 2000s kid, but I found these while cleaning out a closet and thought you guys would appreciate them. These Magnetix toys came out around 2004/5 I think and were very popular until they were recalled in 2006 after a few kids ended up swallowing some of them. Apparently having multiple neodymium magnets coursing through your intestines is really bad... I don't remember why I bought them as I was like 24 in 2005 lol I'm sure I had a good reason though
I still have some of these too! Fun times. I didn't recognise the name "Magnetix" because mine are called GeoMag, so I looked it up. According to Wikipedia, GeoMag was the original, of which Magnetix was designed to be a cheaper-to-manufacture spin off.
The Magnetix recall apparently happened because of a design flaw where the magnet could become detached. That didn't affect GeoMag, so GeoMag was never recalled.
For anyone who doesn't own this and is wondering, the magnetic part is the bars, not the balls!
Looking on Amazon now it seems that GeoMag is still sold, but they have lengthened the bars to make them less swallowable. And there's a bunch of clones being sold too.
So if you want to play with fun magnet toys, you still can! :)