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Original poster

Weird shit from an 80s childhood

824 replies

CandidFruit · 07/04/2024 21:56

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 😂

OP posts:
Thread gallery
54
Threewheeler1 · 08/04/2024 13:14

SoundTheSirens · 08/04/2024 13:00

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.

Did this too. It stank! Mixing up the powder with water, pasting it on. Used to wrap our heads in plastic bags. Usually had orange hands, ears, necks and foreheads for a while.
I got some on the carpet and Mum went mad. It was permanently poo-stained.

Toddlerteaplease · 08/04/2024 13:17

How dare you insult cabbage patch kids OP!! I live them. I had loads.

Weird shit from an 80s childhood
chaosmaker · 08/04/2024 13:18

OutOfTheHouse · 07/04/2024 22:52

They still make them. I have some in my class library. I taught a few of the kids how to use them and they were amazed.

Show quote history

you had to teach kids to follow the page numbers?

Toddlerteaplease · 08/04/2024 13:18

I don't remember garbage pail kids at all though

Scorchio84 · 08/04/2024 13:19

SmallIslander · 07/04/2024 22:34

Oh I loved Garbage Pail kids, thanks for the flashback OP!

I also remember me and my brother being obsessed with a Mexico World Cup sticker album (1986!).

Did anyone else's family have a complete disregard for certificates on films? My brother was in high school and used to bring VHS videos home and we would all watch them no matter how gory and voilent. I remember telling my primary school teacher that the Running Man was my favourite film. A friend's parents used to let us watch Police Academy, An American Werewolf in London And Freddy Kruger films!

My family were exactly the same.. some of the best films I've ever seen I had no business seeing when I was so young 😄

Toddlerteaplease · 08/04/2024 13:19

@YesYesAllGood I had a Boglin!

AddictedToBooks · 08/04/2024 13:20

Does anyone remember those weird toys that looked like ice-creams and you pressed a switch on the cone and the foam ice-cream would pop up? They got banned at our school because there was a plastic bit inside the foam "ice-cream".
Also collecting yoyos with brands like Coca-Cola, 7Up, Fanta, Sprite etc on them and the yoyos that lit up and played a tune.

MarkWithaC · 08/04/2024 14:02

Bowlercoaster · 08/04/2024 11:14

Good God, only this week I have, for the first time ever at the age of 46, attempted to deep-fry something. And felt anxious while doing so AND had a soaked tea-towel at the ready to throw over the ensuing flames.

Because chip-fan fire adverts were absolutely terrifying in the 80s.

My 68 year old Mum took the piss and reminded me she successfully fried hundreds of portions of chips in a chip-pan in the 80s without burning the house down.

Though this is the same woman who switches off the fairy lights on her Christmas tree if she pops to the local shop for 10 minutes because of all the decades-ago TV public adverts of flaming Xmas tree fires caused by shitty old fairy lights 😄

Show quote history

Ah yes, chip-pan fires.
I don't think I was scared of those, probably because I don't remember us having a deep-fat fryer type contraption. I think my nan did.

I'd forgotten the ads about fairy lights but now I'll be twitchy about them all over again. And I have LOTS of fairy lights in my house Grin

Scorchio84 · 08/04/2024 14:13

RoundsRobin · 08/04/2024 03:55

And the ‘Simon Says’ game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)

My big sister had one of these called "Einstein" she was savage at it, I froze when it got too fast.. like Pac Man, the stress!!!

Sceptic1234 · 08/04/2024 14:14

Bowlercoaster · 08/04/2024 11:14

Good God, only this week I have, for the first time ever at the age of 46, attempted to deep-fry something. And felt anxious while doing so AND had a soaked tea-towel at the ready to throw over the ensuing flames.

Because chip-fan fire adverts were absolutely terrifying in the 80s.

My 68 year old Mum took the piss and reminded me she successfully fried hundreds of portions of chips in a chip-pan in the 80s without burning the house down.

Though this is the same woman who switches off the fairy lights on her Christmas tree if she pops to the local shop for 10 minutes because of all the decades-ago TV public adverts of flaming Xmas tree fires caused by shitty old fairy lights 😄

Show quote history

In my student days I set fire to then kitchen with a chip pan on a gas cooker. Probably 1980.....

The thing that people find hardest to relate to these days is the fact that i had to run along the road to use pay phone in local pub to call the fire brigade!

Sceptic1234 · 08/04/2024 14:14

Bowlercoaster · 08/04/2024 11:14

Good God, only this week I have, for the first time ever at the age of 46, attempted to deep-fry something. And felt anxious while doing so AND had a soaked tea-towel at the ready to throw over the ensuing flames.

Because chip-fan fire adverts were absolutely terrifying in the 80s.

My 68 year old Mum took the piss and reminded me she successfully fried hundreds of portions of chips in a chip-pan in the 80s without burning the house down.

Though this is the same woman who switches off the fairy lights on her Christmas tree if she pops to the local shop for 10 minutes because of all the decades-ago TV public adverts of flaming Xmas tree fires caused by shitty old fairy lights 😄

Show quote history

In my student days I set fire to then kitchen with a chip pan on a gas cooker. Probably 1980.....

The thing that people find hardest to relate to these days is the fact that i had to run along the road to use pay phone in local pub to call the fire brigade!

Sceptic1234 · 08/04/2024 14:14

Bowlercoaster · 08/04/2024 11:14

Good God, only this week I have, for the first time ever at the age of 46, attempted to deep-fry something. And felt anxious while doing so AND had a soaked tea-towel at the ready to throw over the ensuing flames.

Because chip-fan fire adverts were absolutely terrifying in the 80s.

My 68 year old Mum took the piss and reminded me she successfully fried hundreds of portions of chips in a chip-pan in the 80s without burning the house down.

Though this is the same woman who switches off the fairy lights on her Christmas tree if she pops to the local shop for 10 minutes because of all the decades-ago TV public adverts of flaming Xmas tree fires caused by shitty old fairy lights 😄

Show quote history

In my student days I set fire to then kitchen with a chip pan on a gas cooker. Probably 1980.....

The thing that people find hardest to relate to these days is the fact that i had to run along the road to use pay phone in local pub to call the fire brigade!

donkeydo · 08/04/2024 14:19

I absolutely loved the garbage pail kids, they do a kids cookbook. Check it out on Amazon. You can probably still get the cards. Such fun 🤩

Slightlylostalongtheway · 08/04/2024 14:19

I loved the Athena posters...I had the man with the baby as a clock in my room! Then moved into stars and moons everything ✨️
We also had the video man who had a boot full of videos to rent and the pop man who had all different flavours of fizzy drinks.
My little sister was obsessed with polly pockets

BrownTroutBlues · 08/04/2024 14:21

SmallIslander · 07/04/2024 22:48

Did anyone have those books that you had to make a decision on the plot and then turn to a page number to find out if it was the right choice or if you had been eaten by an angry ogre or some such thing? Do they still make those?

Yes
I bought them for my kids🤣in 2005/10

CoolShoeshine · 08/04/2024 14:23

Does anyone remember watching Mini Pops? Where little kids got extravagantly tarted up and posed around singing.
i must have been about the same age as the kids and thought it was totally cool, but it was pretty wrong looking back as very sexualised.

DraftPunk · 08/04/2024 14:25

Isn’t it an A La Cart Kitchen (because it’s on a cart)?

I always wanted one.

Prunesqualler · 08/04/2024 14:26

Sceptic1234 · 08/04/2024 14:14

In my student days I set fire to then kitchen with a chip pan on a gas cooker. Probably 1980.....

The thing that people find hardest to relate to these days is the fact that i had to run along the road to use pay phone in local pub to call the fire brigade!

Show quote history

Agree.
As a student we didn’t have a phone or tv in any house I lived in. 1985 onwards.
In fact I didn’t have a tv from age 18 to age 26ish.

My parents didn’t get one till I was about 7 in the early 70s as they couldn’t afford the rental and they only got a colour rental tv ( more expensive than the black and white ones) for Charles and Diana’s wedding.

My kids just cannot comprehend what we did with our time!

BrownTroutBlues · 08/04/2024 14:29

Threewheeler1 · 08/04/2024 13:14

Did this too. It stank! Mixing up the powder with water, pasting it on. Used to wrap our heads in plastic bags. Usually had orange hands, ears, necks and foreheads for a while.
I got some on the carpet and Mum went mad. It was permanently poo-stained.

Show quote history

As a student I did this.
I was a Bit of a Goth.
Ive never coloured my hair since, but I would consider henna again I think.

EBearhug · 08/04/2024 14:35

The only time I've ever tried dyeing my hair was from a Toners and Shaders sachet, which was free with Blue Jeans. My sister henna'ed her hair quite a bit, though.

(My cat wrecked my Blue Jeans collection by shredding them to make a nest to have kittens in. Fortunately, my earlier Mandys remained intact.)

Scorchio84 · 08/04/2024 14:36

Bowlercoaster · 08/04/2024 08:29

So many of my fave 80s are in hindsight, extremely problematic.

I had a massive crush on Steve Gutenberg in the 80s and recently rewatched Police Academy and Cocoon and in both, he was a peeper spying on undressing women. Luckily he got his comeuppance in Cocoon when the woman he was peeping on peeled her entire skin off, revealing she was an alien. Hopefully he learned his lesson 🤣

Show quote history

😆😆
I still love Police Academy though

MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT!!

CoraPirbright · 08/04/2024 14:37

Ooh great thread!! I remember:
Sindy
Pippa (about half the size of Sindy and better joints. Used to pretend she was a fairy)
Victoria Plum
Sweet William (a tiny baby with a bean bag body)
Glooks
Deely-boppers
fruit salad and black jack sweets

Aaah. Good times!

CoraPirbright · 08/04/2024 14:39

Oh! And the little cartoons that they used to show in the 10 minute run-up to the 6pm news: The Perishers or Willo the Wisp!

CoraPirbright · 08/04/2024 14:40

And Saturday Morning Multi-coloured Swap Shop (I found Tiswas too anarchic 😆)

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