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 😂

I remember Oink. It was like a kids version of Viz.

I had no idea how messed up Grease was until I watched it with my son again recently. All these things were fine and normal to me as a little kid 🤷‍♀️😆.

Tales of the unexpected was the creepiest intro and music and I had nightmares for years over that.
Predator was the best. Love the cheesy 80s horrors and sci fi films, they're fab even now

@YesYesAllGood was that a monster puppet thing? If so, yes we had one!

@Neodymium I was 10 when my mum let me watch Dirty Dancing with the whole back alley abortion story line. My kids are 9 and 11 now and no way would I let them watch that now. Although they wouldn't anyway because they're boys and would declare that 'Dancing is for smelly girls!'.

Continuing the garbage theme I’m sure I remember buying a brand of sweets which came in a miniature plastic dustbin and were shaped like tin cans and fish heads and general trash.

Also candy cigarettes 😬

Ooh yes we had those dustbin sweets!

Yes, that's the one!

“I think the 80s was a great time to be a kid.”

@Branleuse absolutely! So much was so wrong but oh so damn good for that very reason 😆

Oh yes to Grease and Dirty Dancing.
My best friend and I watched both countless times. We were obsessed.

Yes to the GP stickers and Lil babies or whatever they were called, all frozen in a pose so you could look up their name on the sheet! I remember those yoghurt with feet and dracula faces (never allowed them sadly), Glow Worms (always wanted), Polly Pocket and A La Carte Kitchen. I also had the giant square full of crayola crayons because my mum wanted me to be arty. They always got knocked over and took ages to stand them all back up! Oh and Buckaroo and Scuple Scramble! Something that was a black screen and you had shapes on either side you'd take off, push into the screen and lights would be in the shape? No idea what that was all about.

Pink ballet shoes soap.

Oh and the cards with the mini keyboards with "do ray me da so la te da" and lollies from the chemist with the whistle!

I must have the Garbage Pail cards somewhere still.
I have a Ghost Castle game somewhere - I wish I knew where as I'd like to see that again. If my folks have given it away, I'll not be happy.
What else was weird... I would say that Teddy Ruxpin was slightly creepy.
That very long gymnastics ribbon on a plastic rod that was called "Get in Shape, Girl."
Keypers were pretty good though.

Even though I was in my 20s in the 80s, I loved Oink and bought it religiously. They had some membership thing, I think I was a Pig Pal. I had a mate at work who also lived it and we'd get together to go through it.

Another 80s obsession in our house, who could complete Rubiks Magic or Rubiks Clock in the fastest time. I never did learn how to do the Cube.

I remember those, they were banned at my primary where we spent a lot of break times swapping stickers, which made them extra desirable!

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?

Ooh what are the mini keyboard things?? They ring a bell!!!

Yes to the whsitle pop things. I only ever had one after I'd been to the doctor and needed to collect a prescription.

What about those weird sticky hands that you sort of slapped onto a window?! They got covered in fluff and it was completely disgusting 🤢

There's a YouTube guy who makes flip books up from the garbage pail kids cards - the flip books pages are on the back of each one - and he eats an original 80s chewing gum each video. My ds is obsessed. I didn't know them as a kid.

I remember penny sweets pick and mix that were actually a penny each, or even several for a penny. I used to get them every week with a copy of the beano and then lie on my bed eating them all.

I had the bin container sweets and kept one of the bins for years into adulthood cos I found the smell of it so nostalgic

Ooh yes - I had those.

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.

Anyone remember the get along gang?

@SmallIslander Choose Your Own Adventure books! I had one called The Horror of High Ridge where you got fucked up by ghostly cowboys and Indians if you chose page 84 but got to escape town if you picked page 37

Garbage Pail stickers definitely came with a stick of gum. Looking at that picture of one up thread suddenly brought the memories and the smell of the stickers flooding back!

Anyone else collect Nikki, Mandy, Blue Jeans or Smash Hits magazines?

The dustbin sweets are called Garbage Can-dy, apparently. Weirdly still big in Canada

@SmallIslander do you mean these?

bookbubble.co.uk/products/fighting-fantasy-warlock-of-firetop-mountain-citadel-of-chaos-deathtrap-dungeon-creature-of-havoc-ian-livingstone-steve-jackson

My friend and I used to read them together and decide on what to do!