Things that people >= 40 (ish) would recognize (and others would likely not)

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  • edited October 2021
    As a kid I recall mega blocks first arriving as poor Lego knockoff. Like you are saying, they would not often stick together because their was no tubes on the bottom underside, presumably to avoid patent infringement.
    Post edited by Scottie_uk on
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  • Something you don't see anymore is those adventure multiple choice books. For example 'if you turn right go to page 10. If you turn left go to page 13'. etc. I used to like them.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • Again, with the small person in rural Essex in mind, every time I'd go into the local branch of Wilko (when such a thing was practical as well as possible), I'd be eyeing up the Wilko Blox that proudly trumpeted how they were "compatible with other construction sets". And they had a pick n' mix style "fill a pint tub with Blox for four quid" (it's probably more by now). Are they any good? It will be several more years before I'll be able to find out, at least until the small person has moved on from Duplo and can be just about trusted not to swallow the tiny 1×1 and 2×1 bricks.
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Something you don't see anymore is those adventure multiple choice books. For example 'if you turn right go to page 10. If you turn left go to page 13'. etc. I used to like them.
    They made a return in recent years. Some of the old ones have been converted to digital/app format too, so you can play them more like a game.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=fighting+fantasy&i=stripbooks&sprefix=fighting,stripbooks,154&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_8
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Something you don't see anymore is those adventure multiple choice books. For example 'if you turn right go to page 10. If you turn left go to page 13'. etc. I used to like them.

    Well you ought to love my game if and when I ever get it finished.
  • Not that I ever saw any, but there were some knockoff lego bricks made by a company called "0937", which was printed on each brick.
    It just looked like a number, unless you looked at it the other way up....
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Something you don't see anymore is those adventure multiple choice books. For example 'if you turn right go to page 10. If you turn left go to page 13'. etc. I used to like them.

    Actually there are some very funny ones that have recently appeared on the shelves.
    For instance;

    Choose your own Apocolypse
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • That's a great cheap Christmas present idea.
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  • I wanted to buy my Son one of these for a stocking filler this Crimbo, but they cost crazy amount. Its cheaper to buy a new one, of similar design without the drink product advertising.

    Vintage-Original-1980s-Sprite-YoYo-Genuine-Russell.jpg
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  • I had one of them a Fanta one i think and my brother had a coca cola one. They were a craze for a short while. My Dad bought them for us in Blackpool.
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • What was the difference between Professional and Super, other than the opacity of the inner rim?

    One hundred billion Bitcoins says there was none.
  • If my memory serves me correctly, I think the rim of the super ones was just hollow plastic, that if the yoyo was landed hard would chip or crack.

    The professional ones had a rubberized plastic outer, that if landed hard merely bounced.
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  • Spinners, now that's a blast from the past I pretty much had a box full of them at one time, and I have no idea what happened to any of them...
    Every night is curry night!
  • They sell on ebay for $35 to $45 each with some nutters charging more.
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  • No idea what happened to mines either. I could have kept it and sold it for a few quid. Mind all the tricks people could do with them?
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • In my country, we sill use daylight saving time. Thinking about that...

    Are those "time" services still alive? I'm talking about that phone numbers where a machine answered the phone and said the current time.
    I was there, too
    An' you know what they said?
    Well, some of it was true!
  • edited November 2021
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 exactly [pause], pip pip pip. "
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 10 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 20 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 30 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 40 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 50 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:26 exactly [pause], pip pip pip."


    Remember, before the internet and internet porn, some people used to call 0898 premium rate numbers to hear a recording of some allegedly sexy woman and we used to see the adverts in the paper.

    Even after the advent of the internet in the late 90's and early 00 these numbers existed late night chat lines and use to be advertised on low rate TV channels in the dead hours.
    Post edited by Scottie_uk on
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  • If you jumbled that sentence around and worded it differently, it could be a possible celebrity death announcement.
  • Something youngsters would not recognise or know how to work.

    WQheh8s.jpg
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • What was the difference between Professional and Super, other than the opacity of the inner rim?

    One hundred billion Bitcoins says there was none.



    I think there was a difference in the super spinners, something to do with the the bar inside that allowed them to spin rather than just yoyo.
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Something youngsters would not recognise or know how to work.

    Nice phone!! Here is one of mine, this one lives in my office at work. The other is a grey and brown one and is in my home.

    1WOg8hf.jpeg
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  • edited November 2021
    zx1 wrote: »
    Something youngsters would not recognise or know how to work.

    WQheh8s.jpg


    That one was made after the mid 60's as it doesn't have the letters around the dial (in the same manner as the three letter combinations around the buttons on mobile phones) that the pre mid 60's ones had, from the days when you had to use exchange codes instead of the numbers used now to call different different cities.

    To dial for Leeds for example I seem to remember you dialed 0LE ( which corresponded to 053) then the number you wanted to reach. In later years the letters were dropped altogether from the dials in favour of numbers only for the area codes.
    Post edited by moggy on
  • edited November 2021
    zx1 wrote: »
    No idea what happened to mines either. I could have kept it and sold it for a few quid. Mind all the tricks people could do with them?

    Thatcher! That's what happened to mines.
    Post edited by Scottie_uk on
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  • Scottie_uk wrote: »
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 exactly [pause], pip pip pip. "
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 10 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 20 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 30 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 40 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:25 and 50 seconds pip pip pip."
    "At the third stroke it will be 10:26 exactly [pause], pip pip pip."


    Remember, before the internet and internet porn, some people used to call 0898 premium rate numbers to hear a recording of some allegedly sexy woman and we used to see the adverts in the paper.

    Even after the advent of the internet in the late 90's and early 00 these numbers existed late night chat lines and use to be advertised on low rate TV channels in the dead hours.

    I remember one that was on late night telly for years, it featured a woman dressed in black underwear on the phone talking to a guy who was using a mobile. The advert was used for many years, the phone the guy had was a brick! :))
    I also remember seeing one for gays that featured a group of stereotypical gays, one was a fireman, one was a builder and i think another was a bodybuilder :))
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • Scottie_uk wrote: »
    zx1 wrote: »
    No idea what happened to mines either. I could have kept it and sold it for a few quid. Mind all the tricks people could do with them?

    Thatcher! That's what happened to mines.

    Nah - trade unions is what happened to the mines. Lets be honest they the were the biggest and most millitant and something had to be done about it and they were the obvious target. Scargill and his ilk totaly misread the situation and didn't realise what they were up against - they even boasted that they'd bring down the government in two weeks.

    Not saying it was right and the aftermath should of been handled better but they pushed it and she was happy to oblige. I think i even read somewhere that originally the plan was to phase coal out over ten years to lessen the shock but they couldn't get agreement so she went all in.

    And to be fair Greta would be really moaning her self entitled arse off now if they were still open.
  • zx1 wrote: »
    Something youngsters would not recognise or know how to work.

    WQheh8s.jpg

    I just proved this by asking my fourteen year old daughter. She wasn't sure, but knew you had to turn the dial, but not sure how. :))

    I worked at exchanges VIGilant and MELville. We were using the codes right through the eighties, long after the public stop using them. Private wires, data circuits used by banks and businesses used the codes for routing, as they feed through many exchanges.

    6fb6dc8b5459516b6bbd4af7ef77194a.jpg

    Mechanical, noisy and needed a lot of maintenance.
    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • zx1zx1
    edited November 2021
    That looks antiquated now. Everything is now stored in big massive cabinets now.
    Post edited by zx1 on
    The trouble with tribbles is.......
  • zx1 wrote: »
    That looks antiquated now. Everything is now stored in big massive cabinets now.

    Over my 10 year period at BT, I saw the above which took up a massive had become a handful of cabinets

    brixam_sysx.jpg

    And the muxes, which encoded and routed all the calls go from another hall filled of equipment to a single rack.

    Sod it!

    @luny@mstdn.games
    https://www.luny.co.uk
  • edited November 2021
    Following on from old phones - another thing I don't think many people under 40 would recognise is Accoustic Couplers.


    d32fd2389d2d0b53b827e469027f444c.jpg
    Post edited by dmsmith on
  • zx1 wrote: »
    I remember one that was on late night telly for years, it featured a woman dressed in black underwear on the phone talking to a guy who was using a mobile. The advert was used for many years, the phone the guy had was a brick! :))
    I also remember seeing one for gays that featured a group of stereotypical gays, one was a fireman, one was a builder and i think another was a bodybuilder :))

    Here's a YouTube vid for you, it's probably NSFW (though the uploader wrote he cut the offending bits) and it is in German, but it shows exactly those stupid TV adverts you're talking of ... they usually aired late at night. Am I wrong in feeling nostalgic even for this crap :\">
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