30 Very Random ‘80s Kids Things You'll Only Know If You're Either A Gen Xer Or An Old Millennial

1.Hands Across America — which every kid owned the T-shirt for whether or not they participated in it:

A white Hands Across America T-shirt

2.Mr. Owl from the Tootsie Pop commercial, who, let's be honest, was a pompous asshole:

A kid with a Tootsie Pop standing next to Mr. Owl asking him a question
Tootsie Pop

3.The waxy packaging that Garbage Pail Kids cards came in:

A pile of Garbage Pail Kids cards with green wrapping featuring a kid with his head exploding

4.The Clapper, which you wanted because of the catchy commercial they played all the time (also, it was truly the smart-house appliance of its time):

A Clapper box on a table

5.The McDonald's coffee spoons that were OH SO TINY and CUTE:

Two McDonald's coffee spoons laying on a table

6.McDonald's McKids clothing line, which was sold at Sears:

7.The Tupperware pitchers that came with the button you need to press on top:

A yellow plastic pitcher

8.Small Wonder, which, even for the time, was a really budget show and also had you questioning how nobody realized that Vicki was a robot:

Three of the kid stars from Small Wonder promoting Book It!
20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

9.And Not Quite Human, the Disney TV movie where Alan Thicke played a man who created a robot son for himself (also, why was creating robot kids a thing in the '80s?!):

Alan Thicke and Jay Underwood in Not Quite Human
Disney Channel / ©Disney Channel/Courtesy Everett Collection

10.Max Headroom — that, honestly, was just a creepy as shit TV show:

Max Headroom screaming at the TV
Warner Bros. Television Distribution

11.Your parents telling you to NEVER put your mouth near the receiver when using a pay phone 'cause it was dirty and full of germs (and, like, they were right):

Black and white photo of dirty pay phones
Barbara Alper / Getty Images

12.Smurfs glasses that every family seemed to own:

Five Smurf glasses

13.That weird Coleco Couch Potato novelty toy, which you always wondered who it was for:

A Couch Potato stuff animal sitting on a green couch package

14.Time for Timer PSA and the hankering for some cheese you got every time you saw a commercial featuring him:

  ABC
ABC

15.The California Raisins, which you never fully realized were trying to actually sell you raisins:

16.The Twister box cover that came with that very '70s meets '80s pic:

A 1986 edition of Twister game

17.The DIC logo...

DIC

18....and the Kid Stuff logo:

Close-up of Kid Stuff red and yellow logo

19.Cut and sew dolls that your mom or grandma would make you (that would get all flat after a month or two):

Rainbow Brite cut and sew doll

20.Corning Ware glass pots and pans that looked so futuristic:

Amber glass pot and pan collection

21.Hostess Ding Dongs that came wrapped in foil:

Foil fully open on a Ding Dong

22.Nestle Quik that came in metal tins:

Strawberry Quick flavor tin

23.Portable TVs that were grainy AF and had the tiniest screen ever, but still had you thinking it was the coolest thing ever:

A Sony Watchman TV

24.Novelty telephones, which (like the portable TVs) you thought were the coolest thing ever, even though they were super impractical:

A Diet Coke novelty phone

25.Dustbusters that looked like this:

A beige and dark tan colored Dust Buster

26.The terrifying Mr. Munch, who was part of Chuck E. Cheese's band:

A Mr. Munch button pin
AuntEddiesCloset/etsy.com

27.These rainbow flip-flops that every kid owned in the '80s:

Rainbow flip flops

28.Disney Channel's free "sneak peek" weekends — aka back when it was premium channel and if your parents didn't pay for it, this was the only time you really got to watch it:

1980s rainbow strips with gold mickey ears over it Disney Channel logo
Disney/ ewjxn/ youtube.com

29.Beverly Clearly books that came with these covers:

Four Beverly Clearly books

30.And lastly, the "I saw it by watching you!" anti-drug PSA that had you screaming that every time they ran it: