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 😂

Pez,
Baby Williams dolls, ( came in a little matchbox),
Clackers,
Luminous socks,
Sticky octopuses,
Mr Fruits, ( fruit shaped plastic containers filled with sherbert),
PacMan stickers / cards,
I do remember buying a couple of packs of Garbage Pail kids cards but I was about 15 by then.

I had stories on a tape with a book, I loved them, especially one about a cat called Tim Catch-a-mouse!

I also used to keep little trinkets and bits & bobs in an empty Benson & Hedges cigarette packet!

In the early 80's we used to rent our tv from Rumbelows.
It was a black and white with 4 buttons and had a wooden surround.
You had to get up to change the channel and we used to use that as an excuse to wind each other up as kids, either running in and changing the channel then running away, or refusing to do it when it was your 'turn'.
I remember watching the white dot as the tv 'warmed up' and 'cooled down'...
Always associate that tv with some dull western cowboy series on a Saturday when there was nothing else on. 'Bonanza' I think. Yawn.
Was amazing when we got a colour tv and watched ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind on it.
By the end of the 80's Mum had a Fiat Uno with fabric seats instead of the lilac Maxi with melt-your-skin-off polyvinyl seats (always remind me of boiling hot car journeys) - felt really modern!
Loved the dinosaur on Swap Shop, always wanted one.
Anyone remember the Timotei advert? I loved the smell of that shampoo! Wish they still made it.

Does anyone remember Number 73 the TV programme. Apparently a young Sandy Toksvig was on it.

I loved Chambourcy mousse and the hippos on the advert.

And fiendish feet.

I remember Moonshine.

Was Kia Ora questionable or ok? Not sure. It's only available apparently now in Ireland.

Timotei shampoo is still available in Superdrug.

Yep. In my memory, too, the Moonshine lot were all swivel-eyed hillbilly stereotypes with buck teeth.

Yes! It was in the old Swap Shop / Saturday Superstore Saturday morning slot I think, and the theme tune ended with something like "...round at 73". Did different celebs of the day drop in, a bit like an earlier forerunner of Noel's House Party?

As my schoolfriend and I both had chickenpox at the same time I went round to hers so my parents could go to work.

We watched Roadhouse....We were 8!!!

"Way down deep in the middle of the Congo
A monkey (?) took an apricot, a guava and a mango
He stuck it with the others and they danced a dainty tango
The ??? said, "wonderful (?), we'll call it Um Bongo"

Um Bongo, Um Bongo, they drink it in the Congo

The python picked the passion fruit
The marmoset (?) the mandarin
The ??? painted cartons that the whole caboodle landed in
So when it comes to sun and fun and goodness in the Congo
We all prefer the sunny, funny one they call Um Bongo!"

I'm embarrassed to say I dredged that up from memory...I might not have all the animals right and there's a couple of gaps altogether but blimey, the unimportant/borderline inappropriate things you can remember from decades ago!

My Dd has Um bongos a few times a month for lunches/picnics 😂 8 fruits, I still like it

😮 I need to buy some now, that's cheered me right up!

I remember Chambourcy mousse. Was it is exotic because it was French or something?

There were 80s brasseries all over London and the whole of the UK at that time with names like Pollyannas or Just Williams (Battersea) which sold French Onion soup, frites, crepes suzette and other French food with the obligatory Beaujolais Nouveau. It was very cool to be French then or to be thought of as being French. Cross channel ferry trips to stock up on Xmas booze, fags, camembert and brie cheeses and perfume, plus going to Etam if you were a girl.

I remember it too! I think it's 'a hippo took an apricot', and 'The lion (?) said, "I know, we'll call it Um Bongo"

Oh, and 'The parrot painted packets that the whole caboodle landed in.'

I couldn't tell you the dates of the Boer War or where titanium is on the periodic table, but I can recite you this

Does anyone remember knightmare?

I remember watching this on tv as a very young child. Think it was late 80s or early 90s. I used to love it, but it seems so weird now! 😂

She was! She played the landlady of no. 73 called Ethel. There was a small meltdown on the Look-In letters page when she left.

@MarkWithaC I remember Quick Draw McGraw. Undercover Elephant rings a vague bell but I can't call it to mind. I also remember a cartoon called Batfink, a parody of Batman. The characters were Bat Bat and his sidekick the Bug Wonder. You're right about the adverts though. I was thinking about Um Bongo in Sainsburys the other day and it'd never get made today. That cheeky lad on the Coco Pops ad was treading a very thin line at times too.

I also loved The Trap Door, a pre-Wallace and Gromit plasticine-based show with Willie Rushton doing the narration and the voice of Berk.

I had a Sweet Williams doll too - I've lost the box but found the doll the other day in a sort out. Terrifying.

Yes. It was a bit weird, almost Dungeons and Dragons-esque. All the early computer games were a bit like that though with knights, wizards and potions, we had one.

Willy Fog! How could I forget?? Did anyone even know what TAF The Mysterious Cities of Gold was about?

Unlike Dungeons & dragons

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Anyone remember The Adventure Game? It was genius because it was on at 5.30/6-6.30 so the magic hour (witching hour) between dinner being ready and being prepared or you'd had dinner but the good programmes were yet to come. It kept me and DB quiet, was vaguely education and not rude and you had celebs on it too, plus dragons or dragons with drognas:

I don't remember that one. I do remember R. White's lemonade though: I'm a secret White's lemonade drinker...'.

Oh thank God!
Yes, I remember Batfink too.

The bath balls from the Body Shop were lethal in the bath, if it wasn't washed/rinsed properly afterwards, of course pre-teen me never washed the bath out after I had used two or three of those little oil balls, so my poor mum or step-dad nearly went flying when stepping into the bath, I'm trying not to laugh as I type this 😂

For your viewing pleasure...!

It was one of my school friends (Stuart) who used to remember and chant all of catchy ones :

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@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain I remember The Adventure Game! Wasn't Moira Stuart on it as well?

I also liked On Safari with Christopher Biggins. "Safari...? So goody!"

Knightmare was odd, with that beardy guy and the huge helmet (sorry). I once had a Choose Your Own Adventure book ("If you want to talk to the dragon turn to page 124, if you want to run away turn to page 78", etc.) based on Knightmare. My parents confiscated it because they thought it was evil.