Weird shit from an 80s childhood

[CandidFruit]

Reading through the retro sweets thread reminded me of some other random stuff from growing up in the early 80s.

Who else remembers the garbage pail kids? (I mean, Cabbage patch kids was bad enough!)
Now that is some seriously weird shit!

Mind you, I bet anything if you have the full set, you’ll probably be able to pay off your mortgage 😂

Sweetie cigarettes! And people smoking indoors just seems unthinkable now. Ceilings and walls and skirting boards that were meant to be white just turned yellow with it.
Baby car seats that were literally just a plastic bucket seat with a strap.
Cremola foam!

And the rubbers never got used ( not even sure they worked). I had things like hamburgers you could dismantle and an ice cream that you could peel off the topping and put a different one. Lots of 3d animals with weird texture skins to represent “ fur.” We all carried them to school in a plastic lunchbox ir fishing tackle box with the lift out layers and would show each other what we had. 😀

@SoundTheSirens I had a Caroline's Home! I recently bought one second hand to restore, complete with all 70s furniture (as that was what I had as a kid).

I got a bedroom redecorated as a birthday present lol. I know I did get things to open also but the bedroom was my main present.

I picked it all out. Pink walls and pink carpet and and a faux-satin very shiny, pink eiderdown with attached valance that went over the duvet. With a faux-satin pink pillowcase with flounces.

And a massive framed picture of a ballerina with pink tutu and pink ballet shoes. I neither did ballet nor had any interest in it.

Looking back, it was hideous and I commend my parents for doing that to a room in their house for my sake.

Does anyone remember Little Miss Emma? It was a doll that walked (well shuffled) and you put plastic records in her back and she talked. She had a smart red jumpsuit. I LOVED her.

also the Purple People Eater game…

I collected soaps and had some really beautiful, very elaborate ones which I regret chucking out when I felt I was too old for such childish things lol.

But remember also having some lovely smelly rubbers but not as many as the rubber -collectors.

I vividly remember a pencil sharpener I had in the shape of a piece of cake and it had a removable rubber on the top to represent a blob of icing.

I have to admit I was very excited when I saw Smiggle and their stationery/tiny things become massive in the last few years. Brought back lots of lovely memories of similar.

Does anyone remember a candy called Niblic (sp?) from the early 80s? It was a small plastic ice cream "cone" filled with sherbet and the "ice cream" lid was like the fizzy swizzles double lollies you still get now.

Also when TV for schools used to be on every morning between 9-12 ish, I used to be bored rigid by "How We Used to Live."

The ultimate in creepiness was Picture Box... definitely weird shit from the 80s!

@Bowlercoaster Oh god yes, ski pants, we used to buy them at the market, they came with a bright coloured shirt and a string of cheap beads. The knees went baggy after 5 minutes wear.
I remember having a 'best' pair, I think my aunt bought them, they weren't the usual fabric and didn't go baggy at the knees - because you couldn't bend your knees in them!! Behind my knees used to red raw from them cutting in to me if I did anything other than stand up straight 🤣

Playing marbles on the drain tops in the playground, and every so often some poor unfortunate would trip and drop all their marbles, provoking a shout of “BUNDLE” whereupon everyone would race to grab a few marbles off the floor.

I loved the choose your own adventure books.
I used to collect rubbers.
Played with my little pony and flower fairies.
When older had jem dolls
I had a sticker book of neighbours(the TV show)
Read smash hits and bunty magazines.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Sun In. You sprayed it in your hair and either used a hair dryer or went in the sun and it would lighten your hair. It worked a bit too well.
Then you used Shockwaves gel to style your newly fried lightened hair.

What WERE these ski pants? I don’t remember them … maybe amnesia setting in.

I had my barbie and sindy dolls house i liked playing with on my front garden

I was fascinated by nature and insects, particularly ants and yellow and black patterned caterpillars,
not sure what there proper names for them,
so i sometimes have a bowl of sugar out on the garden to see how 🤔 the ants would react to sugar
they would go crazy for it..

I also liked my raggy floppy material doll with long plaits whats the name of that kind of doll then?

I do remember those pick a path adventure books and if I didnt like where my ending was headed I’d try to fool myself Id really meant to choose a different one.

Rag doll? My friends older sister had a Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. I think they were more 70’s? And came from the US.

Slim cut trousers with an elasticated stirrup of the fabric that went under each foot and kept them unnaturally straight / rigid on your legs. Made it very uncomfortable to bend your legs.

I went on the very first date with my now-husband in the early 90s wearing a pair of black ski pants and a red sweater #forever80s 😂

Oh yeah, yeah I do remember. My friends and I called them stirrup pants.

I still have my popple 😊

Oh god, I ended up looking like a coir doormat! I had almost black hair and my delicate sun kissed self-administered highlights were a shocking orange 😮
I've often contemplated burning a lot of the photographic evidence of my fashion journey from the 80s but it's too funny to bin!

Does anyone remember colouring your hair with henna from the Body Shop? It smelled disgusting and if you accidentally dropped a blob on the bath or sink it stained it orange and was a nightmare to clean off.

I was a late 80s kid so my childhood was more the 90s but the big fad I remember (was a fad TWICE about 2 years apart) that no one else I speak to seems to remember was GoGos/CrazyBones. They came just after the POG craze (I had a pog making machine, if anyone else remembers that).

I so desperately wanted GoGos/Crazybones but my mam said they where a fad and a waste of money. They where little plastic figures that you yeeted with a flick across the table at the opponents figures kind of like bowling and you kept the ones you knocked down etc... By the nature you could lose all of them during a game (child gambling much lol).

They definitely existed (easily googlable and I even have 1 random one somewhere) so I know I'm not crazy, I'm just always surprised no one else seems to remember them.

My mam just used lemon juice then made us sit in the sun.

Get eaten alive by bugs.

Boglins that stank of rubber, Dolly Surprise cranking back her arm so her hair grew or got shorter, The iconic yellow teapot that had a house inside, pogo ball that was just impossible to use, enormous gobstoppers and aniseed balls that were total chocking hazards! We slice grapes now!

Oooh yeah! Ski pants. Mine were quite thick and almost wooly, with a stitched front seam. I thought I looked so jazzzzy (with my Frankie Says t-shirt, black patent belt and tasselled pixie boots) but I'm rather chunky-sausaged of leg so probably not the most flattering 😬
Also quite sweaty and if the foot elastic was too short, they'd start working themselves down over your bum. Definitely couldn't bend my legs properly in them.