Not really something that old but those watches that worked as a TV remote were great for trolling people with. Changed the channel a few times on goal runs while footy was on in the pub, sure I’d have got lynched if the people in there had’ve known it was me doing it :))
Remember you could set them to beep on the hour? I remember being in an exam at school around 1989/90 in the big gym with hundreds of other students and on the hour there was an absolute tsunami of beeps! The teachers weren't happy! :))
My mate and I both had Evil Knievel's and still, to this day, when I wind in the garden hose I still secretly think I'm winding up Evil to see him trundle forward and fall over.
This pen. If you were in school in Spain in the 80's you surely had one of those at least once.
In Italy, it was the same with Uni Posca markers and Invicta backpacks. Almost everyone had them, including yours truly - I had a red and a gold Uni Posca marker and a backpack like the one shown in the second picture.
Round my way, Leatherette Nike sports bags were a must have. Really bad for one's back, especially when containing wet swimming stuff.
Nike, Head, Adidas, Puma, and Rebock were the brands that were acceptable. Hi-Tek and Pony were on the wire, and Gola or Dunlop were laughed at.
and if you dared get a sports bag with an odd brand from the local market, then you were a target for some savagery. It is horrid in a Lord of the Flies type way how pre-teens and young teens can be.
Back in the 80s there used to be non-branded sports shoes with stripes, mimicing those of Adidas shoes, but the catch was, they only had 2 instead of the 3 stripes. This was highly frowned upon and we called them "Sparstreifen" (streifen = stripes, Spar = in this case "budget version" because it meant you were too poor for 3 stripes). I had to run around with such shoes for quite a bit ...
Oh, and for whatever reason there was some kind of unwritten "initiation ritual" in the 80s/90s, that when you came into school with brand new shoes, there were always a bunch of peeps who'd then stomp on your shoes with their dirty soles to initiate them. Not sure if it happened all across the country, I lived in a somewhat rough area when I went to school.
It happened in my school too, especially if you had nagged your mother in to buying a very nice pair of trainers. I remember having a pair of LA Gear which at the time had not yet caught on (but would do). The kids stamped all over them, to which my mother was furious that I should ruin some £60 shoes on their first day worn. In the 80s 60 was lot for shoes.
This pen. If you were in school in Spain in the 80's you surely had one of those at least once.
In Italy, it was the same with Uni Posca markers and Invicta backpacks. Almost everyone had them, including yours truly - I had a red and a gold Uni Posca marker and a backpack like the one shown in the second picture.
My wife bought a bunch of those markers last year. It seems that they're not forgotten... many youtubers use them to draw.
OTOH, some background from the ballpens I posted. Inoxcrom was a ballpen manufacturer from Barcelona (Spain). On the 80's they had many lines of products, from cheap to luxury pens, and they launched the Inoxcrom Rocky (the pictured pen) at a price of about 100 pesetas, about five times the cost of a humble Bic.
They were comfortable (for a kid), and they used standard refills (there is an ISO document that describes them) so you can re-use it. Although the original ones were black with yellow/red/greed/blue details (as pictured), they were so popular that were manufactured in many colours (body and details), even decorating the body with graffittis and any other fashion thing at the time. Also, they made mechanical pencils with the same body.
I don't know when did they stop producing that pens, but I guess it was in late 90's or first 2000's. On 2009, Inoxcrom went bankrupt and later re-born as a cooperative, but they don't make that pens anymore.
P.S.: I guess they went bankrupt because their pens could not be used to rewind a tape.
Post edited by Zup on
I was there, too
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
I remember them but always thought such things unnecessary. I did not have requirement to rewind a tape, whilst watching another one. Also, my 90s Sony VCR, was so fast, it would actually be slower to use one of those.
I still have the Sony VCR and it still works. I took it to the US with me as it plays NTSC tapes as well as Pal.
Er, don't you simply press the rewind button on the VCR?
The device manufactures (not the VCR manufacturers!) said that rewinding tapes would put too much strain on VCRs mechanism, so you needed one of those to prevent failures (as I said earlier, my VHS lasted until 2000s... and it played many, many tapes).
I guess they were popular on video rental stores, where they rewinded many tapes and buying a 20€ device would save them buying a full video recorder (mine costed about 500€ in 1985, the last VCRs I've seen were sold at 100€).
They were so amazingly useless that years later we could buy DVD rewinders!
Post edited by Zup on
I was there, too
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
Comments
You're not suggesting the late great Mr K took a tumble every now and then are you? :))
Use the calculator, play the game, or even tell the time.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
Actually, which one was it that had the game, C80?
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
Never had one myself, but played with a friend's Evel Knievel a fair bit.
Something I did own back then was an Air Blaster (thread is long so not sure if it was mentioned)
The one I had, had a black air tank, rather than the clear one.
If you watch the repeats on BBC4 Fridays, its just got to that point where it changed and got shite.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
This pen. If you were in school in Spain in the 80's you surely had one of those at least once.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
In Italy, it was the same with Uni Posca markers and Invicta backpacks. Almost everyone had them, including yours truly - I had a red and a gold Uni Posca marker and a backpack like the one shown in the second picture.
Nike, Head, Adidas, Puma, and Rebock were the brands that were acceptable. Hi-Tek and Pony were on the wire, and Gola or Dunlop were laughed at.
and if you dared get a sports bag with an odd brand from the local market, then you were a target for some savagery. It is horrid in a Lord of the Flies type way how pre-teens and young teens can be.
Oh, and for whatever reason there was some kind of unwritten "initiation ritual" in the 80s/90s, that when you came into school with brand new shoes, there were always a bunch of peeps who'd then stomp on your shoes with their dirty soles to initiate them. Not sure if it happened all across the country, I lived in a somewhat rough area when I went to school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Stomping_Rituals_Of_The_90s
OTOH, some background from the ballpens I posted. Inoxcrom was a ballpen manufacturer from Barcelona (Spain). On the 80's they had many lines of products, from cheap to luxury pens, and they launched the Inoxcrom Rocky (the pictured pen) at a price of about 100 pesetas, about five times the cost of a humble Bic.
They were comfortable (for a kid), and they used standard refills (there is an ISO document that describes them) so you can re-use it. Although the original ones were black with yellow/red/greed/blue details (as pictured), they were so popular that were manufactured in many colours (body and details), even decorating the body with graffittis and any other fashion thing at the time. Also, they made mechanical pencils with the same body.
I don't know when did they stop producing that pens, but I guess it was in late 90's or first 2000's. On 2009, Inoxcrom went bankrupt and later re-born as a cooperative, but they don't make that pens anymore.
P.S.: I guess they went bankrupt because their pens could not be used to rewind a tape.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
Did anyone had one of those things? I don't think any video died from rewinding tapes... mine died years into the DVD age and rewinded a lot of tapes.
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!
I still have the Sony VCR and it still works. I took it to the US with me as it plays NTSC tapes as well as Pal.
@luny@mstdn.games
https://www.luny.co.uk
I guess they were popular on video rental stores, where they rewinded many tapes and buying a 20€ device would save them buying a full video recorder (mine costed about 500€ in 1985, the last VCRs I've seen were sold at 100€).
They were so amazingly useless that years later we could buy DVD rewinders!
An' you know what they said?
Well, some of it was true!