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 😂

Don't get the started on capo. Awful. Nor Lladro

I liked Eternal Beau it is pretty.

@SinnerBoy That's the stuff! You could also get saucepans, breadbins, cutlery, etc., Endless. My mum and granny used to love Portmeirion Botanic Garden stuff a bit later on. We still use some of it now - woe betide the one who gets the Venus Flytrap dinner placemat, 'tis a curse upon ye...

I was VERY overinvested in a TV serial in the 1980's - John Silver's Return to Treasure Island (a sequel set 10 years after the book). Brian Blessed was Long John Silver and I was utterly in love with Christopher Guard as Jim Hawkins. I got the book, tracked down the videos (happily also available on DVD) in later life. Good storylines and some great actors involved. I think it's one of Brian Blessed's best roles - definitely born to play the part - and has stood the test of time very well. (Theme tune, preceded by a trailer for a Frank Bruno doc: )

Ooh, London Weekend Television, Granada, Tyne Tees Television, Granada - whatever happened to them?

I think they gradually merged/got bought up by bigger firms/went regional. We had TVS which became Meridian. Some of them went digital - I recall the Granada Men and Motors channel on Sky - they showed Dempsey and Makepeace for a while, along with some more dubious content.

My grampy's West Country region had TSW. For anyone who remembers THAT region - I now throw into the ring for (I think) the first time...

Gus Honeybun's Magic Birthdays. 🐰

(Bunny-hops quietly backwards out of the room)...

@EBearhug how and why??! I didn’t realise she was autograph-worthy famous! 😂

@justasking111 Yes! DH had that poster (of course he did!) and I had the man and baby one, think I put the image up earlier on in the thread. Athena posters were the best. I also had a train station one.

Who remembers the forever friends bear? I had so many of those cards (just because mind, NOT for sending to anyone 🤣)
That’s another things, collecting stationery. Scented erasers, pens, pencils, notebooks etc. Well that’s come round and bitten me on the butt because all three DCs are stationery obsessed 😂

@LoreleiG yes I agree Wordy is a bit creepy.

Laughing at the ‘Eternal Beau’ love.
Did anyone else flick through Argos catalogues endlessly and “furnish” their future homes? 🙈🤭

(Sad geek alert!) I love the old ITV idents. This is an amazing video imagining what might have happened to the ATV ident if ATV had not become Central in 1982. We received ATV/Central so these idents have always been particularly nostalgic for me.

@EBearhug how and why??! I didn’t realise she was autograph-worthy famous! 😂

I grew up in Dorset, as I think she did, so a local celebrity. There was some sort of day to celebrate the end of the Falklands War (possibly because Portland naval base wasn't that far away.) So she was there as some sort of attraction and someone pushed me forward to go and get her autograph- I wasn't keen on this, as I wasn't keen on talking to unknown adults in any case, and also, I didn't really know who she was - we didn't have a TV. I don't really remember- I was just 10.

https://www.tiktok.com/@huffystorm/video/7358596233344142624?_t=8lparRAhuwD&_r=1

Party songs from the 80s!

Another thing...Lolo Balls. Santa brought one the year we 'heard him' downstairs in the locked living room.

Does anyone remember the cartoon Snorks? Nobody I work with knows it. I loved it along with Super Ted, Wuzzels and Gummi Bears. My childhood was a mix of cute cartoons and stuff that scared the shit out of me like Howard the Duck, China Beach and the Dark Crystal (I was allowed watch these but not Dirty Dancing!).

Yes! The snorks loved that and The Racoons...can still hear Cyril Snyd's (I think) voice, the purple, cigar smoking, gold toothed baddie.
What about trap door, fraggle rock and when I was older Going Round The Twist. Our childhood's were definitely filled with contrasts

I remember the Snorks - like Aardvarks on acid, I think. And The Raccoons (Cyril Sneer and his unfortunate son) - I remember being slightly unsettled by the lady raccoon's noticeable human-like cleavage. Great music though. Bert was a liability.

@Slightlylostalongtheway Had a good laugh watching that, some I had totally forgotten about. Thanks 😃

oooh I don’t remember The Snorks, but do remember The Raccoons.

@REP22 omg I haven’t seen that LWT image since forever. That’s so weird, it took me right back.

This thread has been a revelation. There are SO many things I had not thought about until reading about it here.

Duck Tales and Count Duckula, also weren't the 80's when we had all the John Hughes? movies like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 16 candles (didn't see that as thought Molly Ringwald was an arse), Breakfast Club and all of those films? All the teen angst films lol

Count Duckula 1988

I loved koosh balls, I was reminded of them earlier, I asked my other half if he had one, but he didn't remember them.

My sister has finally! read the thread and wants to know if anyone ever sent in a piece of artwork to Tony Hart, or later, Art Attack?

And does anyone remember the plasticine Morph lol.
There were other characters but we can only recall a thing that scuttled around and a lamp? 🤔

ooooh i'm part way through some kind of flashback to these but can't remember.....

TattoedLady · Yesterday 00:35

It's 1973, but seems sort of appropriate...

Supergran!! I was walking my dog and the theme tune popped into my head. Stand back Superman, ice(?) Man, spiderman, Batman and Robin too... something something B A baracus... etc.

It's now been reinstated in my brain beside the Muskahounds and Sharky and George.

Alalalalalongalalalalalonglonglilong · Today 15:42

Supergran!!

Hell yeah! And I live in Whitley Bay, where it was filmed.

Super gran!! Oh my god, another thing I’d totally forgotten!

Which brings us to BananaMan? Was he called Eric and lived on Acacia Avenue lol?! 😆

Yeah I sent one into Hartbeat! I bloody loved that show. It was shown on the little art gallery section...I was soooooo proud.
SuperGran was ace. Do you remember the Family Ness? You can rock em you can roll em you can go to Timbukto but you'll never find a nessie in the zoo 🎵🎵🎵

CandidFruit · Today 15:58

Which brings us to BananaMan? Was he called Eric and lived on Acacia Avenue lol?!

He started off in The Dandy and moved to The Beano.

https://www.returnofthe80s.com/theshop/prod_2996689-Dandy-Comic-Library-Issue-63-Bananaman-Nanational-Hero.html

https://www.nigelsmithbooks.co.uk/product/26182/Beano-Comic-Library-No8-Bananaman-Football-Fever

Yes I had my shit beautiful picture of a wonky tiger featured in the Hartbeat gallery. Highlight of my childhood.

I was a member of the Desperate Dan pie eaters club :)