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?

I had a collection of gonks in the 80s. They were hideous hard plastic bodied things with bright hair.

I do recall an episode of something Glaswegian (Chewing The Fat perhaps, or Rab C Nesbitt?) where someone shouted

“gie us a gonk ya dobber”.

Translated into English it means ‘give me a gonk , you dick’.

Were they at the shows and the person was talking to the stall holder, can’t remember, but clearly the word was in use in Glasgow at the time!

I don't want to RFTF on this occasion as I might be wrong but isn't it a nose?

@AlwaysLatte

I don't want to RFTF on this occasion as I might be wrong but isn't it a nose?

That's a conk

@fiftyandmore
That's a troll not a gonk!

@Fiftyandmore

The pic you posted has always been called a Troll, plastic body and the long colourful hair was their selling point, mainly made by firm called Dam.

Gonks had soft bodies and were more like this folksy.com/items/2650561-Cuthbert-Gonk

The nordic gnomes are a different thing entirely.

They were popular when I was a kid. Often gold ball sized stuck to a ribbon with a ‘snappy’ phrase printed on it. Daft things...

The pic you posted has always been called a Troll

Not by everybody. That is obvious from this thread.

Gonk...

I get that I'm wrong and the pic I posted is a troll. But when I was little we called them gonks!

I think some people did call them gonks - we called them trolls though (they game me the creeps).

@Fiftyandmore

This is what I mean

That's not a gonk, it's a troll.

I know. But my DAd was scottish. We had a few on the mantel, lined up in their kilts with spears

@Joolsin

I'm also early 50s and I know what a honk is - I got one for Christmas in 1970something - like this (only mine was neon orange with white fur underneath). I called mine Geoffrey Gonk!!

My god I had one of those! No ideas what the hell they are exactly as the body seems to have been made from a drainpipe.

@ThatIsNotMyUsername

Gonk...

Yes-this is a gonk.

Gonks are not the trolls posted earlier.

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/356910339196175294/?%24ios_deeplink_path=pinterest%3A%2F%2Fpin%2F356910339196175294&%24android_deeplink_path=pinterest%3A%2F%2Fpin%2F356910339196175294&amp_client_id=YJLVxOPEeK9gDdUNdXwFwpCW41G-EGlPycLLnSxdb3kmnSSo3DpEiRihlaeIKOGS&utm_source=168&utm_medium=2160&current_page_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.co.uk%2Famp%2Fpin%2F561472278524114624%2F&install_id=3ea8c98a&%24fallback_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.co.uk%2Fpin%2F356910339196175294%2F&amp_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.co.uk%2Famp%2Fpin%2F561472278524114624%2F&_branch_match_id=805868252155537763

This is a gonk as I remember them from the late 60s/early 70s.

Yes! I had a blue one with yellow hair and a big hole that fitted on top of my school pencil. Circa 1965- 66

@MiniTheMinx

This is a gonk

ah yes, that is a gonk. The only one on the thread.

Surprised so many people think that trolls are gonks.

This is what I would call a Gonk (I'm 50) my granddad made some for me.

@Fiftyandmore

This is what I mean

No, that is a troll.

I am mid 60's and to me a gonk is certainly not plastic but material and more like a fat gnome although with a much fatter round face than a gnome would usually have. Difficult to describe

These are gonks.

This is similar to the gonk I had in the late 1960's. Mine was bright pink. I'm almost 60.

www.classictroll.com/eu/history

I’m a similar age to @Erictheavocado and had a blue gone very much like the one in the picture.
Gonks were furry or made of fabric, but never plastic.

I agree with Captain, that's what I think of as a gonk. They were often home made, often found at school fairs, so they were folksy as someone mentioned.
Having got handy sewing gonks, we were all ready to sew the home made version of the next craze, the Wombles!