Would you know what the answer was if I asked you what a gonk is?!

[Fiftyandmore]

My dc have just fallen about laughing, and assured me they've never heard of these. Maybe it's an age think. Anyone know what I mean?

Early 60's. I collected them when I was a child :)

Picture

Yes I'm 52 and of course I know what a gonk is.

I had several of the things @woodhill has posted a picture of and they were definitely gonks but we called them glooks (maybe a brand name or something?).

I think they had strings on them. I remember hanging them up

Ooer - I never thought this thread would go like this! Lengthy, controversial, nostalgic, unifying yet divisive, colourful, soul searching (well, ok, maybe not soul searching)! 😄

I remember having a couple of these when I was about 6 or 7 (early 1970s).

@Jeremyironseverything

Op, I am 100% with you. Also in my 50's and my friends and I had plenty of the things in your picture, which we definitely called gonks. Also had them on the end of our pencils.

The majority of posters on this thread are wrong. We are obviously right.

And humpty from play school is not, and was never, a gonk.

@Jeremyironseverything I just saw your post! Yay - I think that makes 3 of us! There's you, me and @Changi.

@LostInTheColonies

I'm with you OP! I had a gonk in the early '70s that looked just like your pic but with long blue hair that stood up vertically. I'm 52. There are things around now that look very similar, marketed as trolls.

I do rather like the look of those elfy things with big hats though...

Oh I beg your pardon @LostInTheColonies - 4 of us!

@CeeceeBloomingdale

Mid 40s, a gonk is the plastic naked trolls with coloured hair to me (as per picture OP posted)

@CeeceeBloomingdale makes 5 :)

Wikipedia says

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonk

It makes me think of Neil and the Young Ones!

Gonks looked like Humpty - I rest my case - though it was the 1960s, not 1970s.
adelebeeannpatterns.tumblr.com/post/131563774916/1960s-simplicity-5943-sewing-pattern-vintage