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 😂

Omg I loved Oink

@Thepeppapigfanclub I was desperate to be a Mini Pop! Even had the album which is possibly still in my loft!

Yup view master! One of my dcs wants a vr headset and DH suggested one of these! 🤣 He’s a creature of another era.

Born 71 but a teenager in 80s.

Garfield everything. The Pink Panther (we got sent a pink panther bendy toy).
Pierrot dolls, posters and postcards of everything.
Holly Hobbie and Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
Athena posters, kitten in a champagne glass, muscle man holding a baby, tennis player scratching her bum.
Pastel pencil cases and boxes. Scented pens, rubbers and in ones like orange made to look like an orange slice or a banana. Pastel notepaper.
Journals and recipe and address books with anything on it from Holly Hobbie to Winnie the Pooh on them.

My GP used to eat gum and smoke a cigar while seeing his patients. The room was always full of really thick smoke.

Another one who was allowed to watch inappropriate films - Full Metal Jacket and Howard the Duck spring to mind.

Anyone remember Ulysses 31?

Omg I had forgotten about this

OMG! How my heart leapt when I saw that! I LOVED it! And hand held snoopy tennis. But the speak and spell seemed next level modern to me! It was such a success my DF found a speak and math. It was grey and blue and I hated it…

This was very early 80’s but does anyone else remember Peep Peep? This little git scared me to death!

Aww I was a kid of the 80’s, teen of the 90’s, I honestly think it was the best time.
I loved the garbage pail ones too, I had an actual cabbage patch doll when little with the certificate, I loved it.
I remember lots of sticker albums, I had ‘Love is’ and E.T.
I loved going to the corner shop, walked on my own across two roads and got a 10p mix or does anyone remember those bubblegums with writing/cartoon/jokes inside?
I also loved Smash hits magazine at that age and stuck posters of A-ha everywhere. Looking back, it felt like such a free childhood, we’d just get on a bike and head out, feel sad things are a bit different for my Dd

Nice! I’d like that now!

Speaking of gum and smoking does anyone remember those cigarette sweets? White sticks with a red “ glowing” end in a mock cigarette packet. Imagine that getting approved now!

We all watched horror films when we were about 13/14 and possibly younger. We had competitions to see who got the most scared by eg Freddie and the one film we all didn’t watch (only my DB or his best mate did, was The Exorcist), we also talked about seeing snuff films and the Porky series of films. Tie that into messing about with Ouija boards and trying to find out anything scary including ghosts and it’s a wonder our minds are ok now.

At 12/13 when Thriller came out we could all do the werewolf dance, either that or Chaka Khan dancing. Then gyrating and thrusting our hips to Push It memories of doing that at 14/15 with my best friend Carole at the disco on Hastings Pier when I was on holiday in Dymchurch nearby and dancing wildly outside the main pub on the seafront in Hastings to a DJ in the open air playing La Bamba. God knows where my parents were, think we lost them! Happy times!

Yes I thought I was very sophisticated pretending to smoke them. They used to come with little collectable cards.

Attitudes were very different too... I remember the couple over the road splitting up because he'd been having an affair with the 16 year old neighbour who babysat their kids. Much sympathy for him from everyone because she was "tarty" and always hanging around him wearing shorts and lots of make-up!

Despite living in the W Mids and attending a v multicultural school, it would still have been shocking to my (and my friend's) parents to have a black boyfriend,or even close friend.

I had a Winnie the Pooh pencil tin , and all the strawberry shortcake dolls ( each with little animal!) except for that pieman and the sour grapes woman because my mum thought they were horrible. Also had a strawberry Shortcake bakery with a strawberrry patch that you pushed down and they would “ grow” when it pooped up, plus the Escargot Snail which pulled a cart. Played for hours with all that.

I can still taste the bubblegum that came with the cards

My DM who wasn’t keen on sweets for us generally always let us have a whistle pop sweet, bought mostly at the chemists of all places!

My friends dad had that bum scratcher poster in his study. We used to creep in and snicker 🤭

Yes go watching horror films, Friday 13th, Chucky, IT, Poltergeist etc.
Also for my 11th (I think) birthday, I had a huge sleepover with all the girls from my class and my mum rented Dirty dancing from the video shop

Omg I can remember watching one episode of this when I was home ill from school. Never watched it again. I've asked loads of people about a blonde haired boy in a space suit in the middle of a field, lost, and not one person had the slightest clue what I was on about 🤣

On another note, does anyone remember Puff crisps? They were my absolute favourites, gutted they were discontinued x

Yes to all.

And a 10p mix-up could get you 20 sweets as some cost half a penny!

And some of those bubblies had temporary tattoos. You wet them (by licking them if you were me 🤢) and stuck them on your skin somewhere and usually ended up with an inky smudge your Mum was annoyed about having to scrub off.

There's an 80s photo of me looking like an early Amy Winehouse with ratty hair (it was brushed several times a day but just quickly returned to that state), multiple temporary tattoos and a candy cigarette in my mouth.

Yes to all the magazines. Including Mizz and Just 17 and Jackie and Patch.

Bought mostly for teenage love advice (?!)) but also to see if Wham! George Michael was in them or Duran Duran (John Taylor).

I had beige cord knickerbockers, a black velour pair ( very fancy!) and several velvet dresses with lace collars. Many of my childhood photos are of me in these.

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain had forgotten about Pierrot dolls. Adored them, collected them and still secretly covet them!!

edited to add… just remembered I had a pierrot duvet cover set too 🤦🏽‍♀️

I always had velvet dresses with a collar in my early birthday party pics, then when a bit older it was Lycra cycling shorts with a neon stripe down or leggings with a skirt over and a neon crop top 🙈At 11, we all wanted the baby (DD) perm, but I ended up with an awful corkscrew short perm that ruined my lovely hair 😂