Toy-
1980 :
Rubik's Cube
The award winning toy sensation which twisted millions of wrists around the world. Invented in Hungary in 1974, this toy didn't make its international debut until early 1980, when it was shown at the London, Paris, Nuremberg and New York Toy Fairs.
Pacman
Orginally named ;Puck-Man'. The game that was the idea of Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani and was inspired by a piece of pizza.
Action Man
Action Man won the honour of Toy Of The Decade in 1980. Developed from the G.I. Joe toy launched in the US in 1964, the manufacturers had no idea it would be so successful.
1981:
The Breville Sandwich Toaster
Breville made this the year of the toastie, when every meal had to come wedged between two slices of bread, neatly sealed around the edges, and heated to over a thousand degrees.
Lego Railway
Engines ran at a snail's pace along blue plastic rails, which you could build into smooth curves, tight curves, level crossings, points and junctions.
Spit the Dog puppets
Spit would sit on Bob's arm and - well - spit. Kids tried to get their pets to do likewise but to no avail.
1982:
BMX Bikes
In the early eighties kids tried to do clever stunts on their BMX bikes, but invariably ended up with grazes and broken bones instead.
The Kodak Disc Camera
The Kodak Disc 2000 was the first camera to use a disc shaped film. It was a bit of a novelty at first but is now obsolete. Although if you look hard on the internet you may find enthusiast web sites suggesting places you can still get the disc films developed, if you really want to.
1983:
My Little Pony
The first love of any girl's life in 1983 was her My Little Pony. Adverts evoked a magical world inhabited by pastel coloured horsies with flowing polyester manes and doe eyes.
Matey Bubble Bath
Matey, and his wife Mrs Matey, were the ultimate stocking fillers in 1983.
Bubble bath was the only way to get children to wash, and though parents feared they might come out of the water stained blue, green, or red, at least they knew their kids were clean.
CD Players
CDs were dead cool 'cos you could jump from track to track and you didn't need to turn them over like a record.
1984:
Dungeons and Dragons
D & D was a fantasy game that could be enjoyed by the whole family, but more often than not was the reserve of intellectual school boys.
Cabbage Patch Kids
Made in their thousands, each doll managed to maintain its identity with an individual name and birth certificate.
Care Bears
These plush fellows began life on greetings cards. When they became toys in 1984 they were still acting as greeting cards, wishing you a happy birthday or lots of luck.
1985:
Transformers
Transformers were the ultimate present because they were two toys in one.
To start with they were either a car, a boat, or a gun, but then you could twist them inside out and they became robots.
Kids loved them, and a tie-in cartoon series meant that one Transformer was never enough. Soon houses were littered with hundreds of unidentifiable lumps of plastic.
Pound Puppies
These felt monsters took up where the cutsey Cabbage Patch Kids left off.
Flexi Singles
These were ultra thin records that came free inside pop magazines, bags of cereal, bank accounts, and practically everything else in 1985.
1986:
Panini Football Stickers
After the defeat of England by Argentina in the World Cup, young boys needed a way to moan about and celebrate their favourite and least favourite players.
Disposable Cameras
Fuji introduced the first disposable cameras in 1986. They came in handy for weddings, so you didn't have to worry about losing your camera when you'd had a bit too much to drink, and were a great idea if you'd turned up to a big event without your camera.
Casio SK1 Sampler Keyboard
A home keyboard with a basic sampler that's so small and light it nearly fits in your pocket! Sometimes called the poor man's sampler, the memory clears when turned off but it sampled well enough for you stun your friends with Jingle Bells in burps.
1987:
Sylvanian Families
Tiny rabbits, bears, mice and frogs that were cute, cuddly and - best of all - tied into a TV series. A must have for every girly girl.
Rubik's Magic
Not content with giving half the children of the UK an inferiority complex with the Cube, Prof Rubik returned with a new mathematical nightmare.
Karaoke machines
The most effective form of torture ever devised by man, Karaoke emerged from the supper clubs of Tokyo to become a mainstay of British pub culture.
1988:
Give Us A Break
Based on Give Us A Break as used by DJ Dave Lee Travis which in turn was based on snooker.
Inflatables
The craze for all things inflatable began in the football stands at Maine Road.
One of Manchester City's players, Imre Varadi, was nicknamed Banana, and team supporters started waving blow-up bananas about! Soon supporters of other clubs around the country were doing the same.
Ghostbusters Toys
Even thought the film had been out a few years by 1988, the manufacturers released new Ghostbusters toys, probably to coincide with the release of the less successful sequel Ghostbusters II.
1989:
Nintendo Game Boy
Gaming on the move was all the rage. The arrival of the portable Game Boy meant friends finally became redundant in 1989.
Dancing Flowers
Amusing for exactly 2.3 seconds, the disco dancing daisies sold in shedloads to a public amazed by any form of computer technology.
Barbie
Not looking a day over 29, Barbie celebrated her 30th birthday with a grand ball at the Lincoln Centre in New York City.
Fashion-
1980:
Kickers
Everyone was wearing Kickers shoes in the early 80s.
These chunky, colourful shoes from Belgium caused chaos in shoe shops in 1980. The manufacturers just couldn't make them quickly enough.
They came with a little flower-shaped leather logo attached to the laces. Daring kids tried on the shoes without buying them, and managed to 'remove' the leather flower.
The more of the logos you had on your shoes, the cooler you looked.
Horrible jeans
There were drainpipe jeans, straight jeans, jeans with paint splattered on them, jeans with sparkly bits, stonewashed jeans. And if you were very, very cool, you had a jeans jacket to go with them!
1981:
Pixie boots
These were huge. It was every young girl's dream to own a pair of these hideous, wrinkly-ankled pull-on boots.
Telephone Cards
After several bold designs were launched to promote them, collecting the cards became almost as popular as trainspotting among UK obsessives.
1982:
Bad hair
This included the three-in-one hairstyle was better known as the mullet - short and spiky on the top, longer at the back of the head and then depending on how much patience you had, long
down the back. This was favoured by many sports stars including Chris Waddle and Glen Hoddle.
Deelyboppers
Glittery, wobbly antennae which kids wore to discos thinking they were really cool.
Ra-ra skirts and legwarmers
Ra-ra skirts were worn with innocence by young girls but they were actually quite racey. They were good-time skirts, not church-going skirts. They weren't even that stylish...
1983:
Shoulder pads
Shoulder Pads were the epitome of Eighties chic - and possibly one of the worst fashion statements ever. Shoulder pads rank alongside mutton chop sideburns and shell suits as one of the great fashion disasters.
Snoods
Snood was a silly name for a kind of metallic or - usually - crocheted hairnet which was tragically in vogue in 1983.
Often worn by hippychicks with long flowing tresses and bead necklaces, the aim was to make every girl look like a fairytale princess or peasant maid. In fact, most looked like they had got caught in a trawlerman's net while swimming.
Sweat Bands
Many people blame Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits for encouraging people into the misguided belief that wearing sweat bands made you look athletic and sporty.
It was, however, the evil influence of Jane Fonda and her brain-bouncing workout that did much of the damage.
1984:
Slogan T-Shirts
Designer Katherine Hamnett had the great idea of making T-shirts with political slogans. These were very popular as young people were becoming increasingly disheartened with Thatcher's Britain and the slogans perfectly expressed their dissatisfaction.
Roller Skates
Instead of sipping panda pops and eating cheese and onion crisps whilst stationary, kids were now snacking on wheels!
The Filofax
It was a padded personal organiser comprising address book, diary, weights and measures, conversion charts and a map of the London Underground, especially useful if you lived in Glasgow. If you were very lucky it came with a flexible ruler that you could also use as a book mark.
1985:
Fingerless gloves
Suddenly, fingerless gloves were no longer an embarrassing Christmas gift from granny. In 1985 girls everywhere were wearing them.
Goths
Sporting dyed black hair, white makeup, leather and lace clothing and a permanently miserable expression, they swayed along the catwalks.
Zit creams
Soap and water was no longer enough to keep those teenage terrors away.
In 1985 the nation was blasting its pores with Oxy, Biactol and any number of different acne treatments.
1986:
Boxer Shorts
It all started when the advertising censors banned the use of Y-fronts in an ad. The authorities had decreed that Y-fronts were indecent and so Nick Kamen stripped off his Levi 501s in a laundrette to reveal crisp, white boxer shorts.
Big Glasses
Suddenly in 1986, TV presenters realised they could make complete fools of themselves and get away without damaging their reputation! Big glasses went beyond functional and became fashion accessories.
1987:
Cycling shorts
They were designed to reduce wind resistance and chafing during cycle races.
Smileys
Not to be confused with the :-) symbol used in modern text messaging, Smiley adorned jeans, T-shirts, caps, badges, pencil cases and even vans in 1987.
Nike Air Trainers
They didn't exactly let you leap tall buildings in a single bound, but Air Max trainers certainly put a spring in your step.
1988:
Brosettes
Bros fans were quite different from other pop group fans. They were more than fanatical!
Barbour Jackets
A countryside necessity became a town accessory. Barbour (or wax) jackets were all weather garments designed for farmers and were completely unnecessary for people who got out of their car and went straight into the office.
Car Accessories
Accessories gave your rusting banger an individual value and a bit of character. Well, that's what we thought in 1988!
1989:
Baggies
Flares might have gone out of fashion 15 years earlier, but in Madchester you were nobody in 1989 without a pair of 21-inch bottomed Joe Bloggs jeans.
Bodies
Like a gym slip, only with poppers at the crotch.
The Lambada Look
Lambada fashion was launched by a dance craze that was launched by a film, that was launched by a song, that was launched by a fashion.
Music-
1980:
John Lennon
The ex-Beatle was shot dead late at night outside the Dakota building in New York where he was living.
1981:
Bucks Fizz and Joe Dolce
The people who brought the world Making Your Mind Up and Land of Make Believe bounced and twirled their way to eleven Top 20 hits before singer Cheryl Baker got a proper job presenting Record Breakers.
1982:
Musical Youth
Young band Musical Youth was formed in Birmingham. It was made up of two sets of brothers who all attended the same school, Kelvin and Michael Grant and Junior and Patrick Waite. Even though they were school boys, they were able to secure gigs in pubs in Birmingham.
Boy George
George and band Culture Club arrived on the music scene amidst a flurry of controversy. He had perfect make-up, had his hair in dreadlocks and wore what can only be described as dresses. It's not a surprise that many mistook him for a girl.
1983:
Michael Jackson's Thriller
Thriller was the pop video that redefined pop videos - a 15 minute long cinematic epic, shot by Hollywood legend John Landis, featuring balletic choreography and a multi-million dollar price tag.
The horror-film inspired video was filled with breakdancing zombies and werewolves, and deemed too terrifying to be shown during the day. Thriller was first broadcast as a late night special and millions tuned in to watch.
Spandau Ballet
Before moving to Walford to star in Eastenders, Martin Kemp and brother Gary played guitar in this quintessential Eighties band.
1984:
The Smiths
Thought by many to be one of the most important UK bands of the 80s, The Smiths formed in Manchester and their lead singer was Morrisey.
Madonna
Often dubbed the Queen of Pop, Madonna broke into mainstream UK pop music in 1984 with her hit song Holiday.
1985:
Live Aid
Bob Geldof, not content with making millions for the starving in Ethiopia with his Band Aid single, pulled together the world's rock elite for this mammoth intercontinental charity concert.
Whitney Houston
Whitney made her name bouncing around in pastel eyeshadow and outrageous lycra singing bubblegum hits like I Want to Dance With Somebody.
1986:
Power Ballads
1986 was a great year for epic love songs. In the space of a few months came The Power Of Love by Jennifer Rush, Take My Breath Away by Berlin, The Final Countdown by Europe and Just Died In Your Arms Tonight byCutting Crew.
The Chicken Song
Spin off from the satirical puppet TV series Spitting Image, the Chicken Song amazingly reached number one in the UK charts.
1987:
Rick Astley
The be-quiffed crooner who put Newton-le-Willows briefly on the map (it's near Warrington, by the way) started out as a tea boy at the studios of producers Stock Aitken and Waterman.
Acid House
"Aciee-ed! Aciee-ed!" squealed the vocals, "Boing-boinga-boing" went the bass-synth.
Throughout 1987 ecstasy-fuelled clubbers made silly shapes with their arms, grinned a lot, wore Smiley badges, and made DJ Dave Pearce a very rich man.
1988:
Bros
Twins Luke and Matt Goss were the real heart throbs in the band, the third member was Craig (who was later ousted bacause he didn't match their blonde image).
Acid House Raves
1988 was the Summer Of Love and forbidden raves sprang up in disused warehouses up and down the country. The Acid sound had begun the previous year with bands such as 808 State and KLF.
1989:
Madchester
In 1988 Manchester was a rather grubby little city with chronic unemployment and the highest rate of heart disease outside a hospital cardiac unit.
Kylie & Jason
They were a marketing dream. Two good-looking Aussies known by everyone under 25 from their roles in Neighbours.
Films-
1980:
Fame
The film suggested that the High School students were inclined to spontaneous singing and dancing in the street and the canteen.
Flash Gordon
"Flash! Aah - Haah!"
A camp space opera, in which heroic Flash Gordon had to save the world from the dastardly Emperor Ming. Along the way Flash and his partner Dale Arden (Melody Anderson) battled with Ming's minions. Flash also had to resist the temptations of a beautiful princess.
The Shining
Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. Frustrated writer Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as winter caretaker in a remote mountain hotel so he can write in peace. He takes his wife Wendy and son Danny with him.
1981:
Porky's
A coming-of-age comedy set in the frat house of an American college.
Chariots of Fire
Best remembered for its theme tune - to which a generation of boys raced each other home from school. This was the Oscar-wining tale of two men competing in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
1982:
ET
Even well 'ard boys and their dads cried at ET. A friendly pot-bellied little extra-terrestrial is abandoned by his fellow aliens and has to survive on earth until they are able to come back and rescue him.
Blade Runner
Arguably the greatest sci fi movie ever made, this thiller is about human-like androids known as replicants, based on a Philip K Dick story.
1983:
Zelig
Woody Allen turns up in the background at a string of historic occasions, pre-dating the special effects marvel that was Forrest Gump by more than a decade.
The Big Chill
A group of angst-ridden friends gather in a country house for a party while their relationship troubles boil over in the background.
Educating Rita
The film that did for universities what Shirley Valentine would later do for holidays to Greece.
1984:
Terminator
This sci fi thriller, starring muscle-man Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg, was directed by James Cameron who later found even more fame as director of Titanic. This futuristic thriller has been endlessly imitated.
Beverly Hills Cop
This comedy starred Eddie Murphy in a blockbuster as a black Detroit detective sent to lily-white Beverly Hills on a reluctant vacation and insists on investigating his friend's death.
Ghostbusters
A quartet of Manhattan based paranormal investigators led by deadpan Bill Murray are called into action when ancient spirits are let loose in New York. They are armed to the back teeth with wacky paraphernalia for busting ghosts.
1985:
Back to the Future
The film that made bodywarmers (basically sleeveless Puffa jackets) and skateboarding fashionable again.
Michael J Fox played the teenage hero with the time-travelling DeLorean car, who returns to the 1950s to make sure his teenage mum and dad get together and so ensure his future survival.
Brazil
This surreal epic from Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam laid the foundations for the director's more commercial sci-fi hit Twelve Monkeys a decade later.
1986:
Crocodile Dundee
Legendary crocodile hunter Michael J "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) takes New York journalist Linda Kozlowski (Sue Charlton) on a tour of the outback to scoop a great story for her paper.
Crocodile Dundee
Legendary crocodile hunter Michael J "Crocodile" Dundee (Paul Hogan) takes New York journalist Linda Kozlowski (Sue Charlton) on a tour of the outback to scoop a great story for her paper.
Absolute Beginners
Colin (Eddie O'Connell) has a talent for photography and is in love with Crepe Suzette (Patsy Kensit) an ambitious and beautiful fashion designer who dumps him after attracting the attention of a powerful older man. In the middle of this, the Notting Hill Race Riots break out.
1987:
Dirty Dancing
Good girl Jennifer Grey has her sexuality awoken at a holiday camp in the 1960s by the raunchy dance moves of Butlins-style Yellowcoat Patrick Swayze.
Withnail & I
Released in 1986, Withnail & I had already gained a cult following by 1987.
The ultimate student picture, it is the tale of two down-and-out actors (Grant and Paul McGann) sharing a squalid flat - and several tons of drugs - in Sixties London.
Fatal Attraction
The film that put more people off casual sex than AIDS, and added a new phrase - bunny-boiler - to the English language.
1988:
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are two puppet-like airheads who are on track for flunking their high school graduation. They are given one more chance by their teacher.
Buster
Based on The Great Train Robbery of 1963, Buster tells the story of Buster Edwards (Phil Collins), one of the junior robbers.
Rain Man
Used car hustler Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is told that his estranged father has died. He expects to receive at least a portion of the $3 million estate, but discovers he has inherited only his father's prize roses and a Buick Roadmaster.
1989:
When Harry Met Sally
Famous for its "fake orgasm in a restaurant" scene, this romantic comedy established Billy Crystal as an actor and rocketed Meg Ryan to superstardom.
Heathers
Winona Ryder and Christian Slater teach the in-crowd of a US High School a lesson... by killing them.
Shirley Valentine
Willy Russell's play about a Scouse housewife who leaves her husband for a holiday romance in Greece was adapted for the screen in 1989, starring Pauline Collins.
bbc
I Love the 80s
2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/80sindex.shtml
[Internet]
[11/2/2012]
