1980s Space Fings, Crazy Fings, and some very British comic ads

Posted on by

If you were around in Britain in the 1980s you might well remember some of the following adverts for comics, sweets, bubble gum, Hot Wheels, MOTU, Weetabix, Grange Hill, and, erm… Understanding Electricity. Actually, if anyone recognises the artist from the Understanding Electricity ad at the end of the post, please let me know. The style is familiar, but so far I can’t find any info.

Enjoy this blast from the past 🙂

Trebor Space Fings. 1981. UK.

Trebor Crazy Fings free stickers. 1981. UK.

‘5 for Fun’. Comics. 1981. UK.

Western Magazine. 1980. UK.

Hot Wheels. 1981. UK.

Hubba Bubba. The Gumfighter. 1981. UK.

Hubba Bubba. The Gumfighter. 1980. UK.

Hubba Bubba free pack of gum in selected comics. 1981. UK.

Bazooka Bubble Gum prize offer. 1980. UK.

Weetabix Gang. 1985. UK.

Masters of the Universe Club. 1985. UK.

2000 AD. Judge Dredd Mobile. 1980. UK.

2000 AD. Nick Stone. 1980. UK.

The Grange Hill Magazine. 1981. UK.

Understanding Electricity. 1981. UK.

Thanks for looking 🙂

16 thoughts on “1980s Space Fings, Crazy Fings, and some very British comic ads”

  3. From the little preview image, I really thought the Grange Hill ad said, “What’s the show you never miss? Grange Hill, of course! The best show on, SILLY!” Haha. Made me laugh anyway.

    Fascinating to see how big it was in those days. My sisters were big fans in the 80s, but by the time I came along I think they’d stopped watching. There was a Spectrum game released at some point, which we had, and it was mad!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • Ah yes, it seemed to be ‘on the telly’ forever. I remember watching it in the mid-late 80s when they did episodes about drugs – they had the ‘Just Say No’ campaign and a chart single.
      Always thought it funny the show had the same theme tune as ‘Give Us A Clue’* and if you were in the kitchen and heard it from the living room TV you couldn’t be sure which show it was 🙂
      *As a disclaimer I also watched Give Us A Clue.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • I was surprised to read it was still going in 2008 – that’s the year I finished school! I’m guessing the Speccy game came out around the same time as the single. There is a rather chilling encounter with a pusher in it.

        I did not know that about the the theme. Alan Hawkshaw has done alright for himself; The Grange Hill theme used for all those years, then Countdown and the epic Channel 4 News music which are both still being heard to this day.

        I dunno if I’ve ever watched Give Us A Clue. I will have to Give It A View. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • I didn’t know it was still going in 2008 either. Lol at a speccy game showing a pusher! The cast went to the Whitehouse to meet Nancy Reagan who was promoting the same Just Say No drugs message, and if you believe the stories one of the cast was supposed to have lit up a joint in the garden!
        Yes, Give Us A Clue was a good laugh, essentially charades, with Lionel Blair and Una Stubbs as team captains plus celebs. The host was Michael Parkinson I think.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I can quite believe that about the Grange Hill actors, honestly. It’s no different to the WWF stars around the same time who recorded anti-drug messages when they were doing god only knows what.

        The Spectrum pusher was chilling! The in-game text gives a detailed description of how pale and drawn he looks, and if you choose to buy his drugs, it finishes with something like, “He is dead. Soon you will be dead too.” Game Over. Aaaah! That’s not lodged in the memory or anything!

        Yes, Parkinson hosting is about all I knew of Give Us A Clue. Love a good game show so will definitely look it up. I fondly remember Call My Bluff with Bob Holness, which sounds kind of similar but about obscure words.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I only really got to watch Bluff because it was on at about 12:30, when I used to come home for lunch (lived pretty much next door to middle school!). Nice show – Alan Coren and Sandi Toksvig were captains. Great chemistry between them.

        Big fan of Bob on Blockbusters too, although I wasn’t around to see it originally. I would have loved to go on and meet him, he seemed like a lovely bloke.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, there was something very likeable about Bob. The show was a staple back in its original run. I also like Sandi Toksvig and remember her first in a kid’s show called N° 73, along with Neil Buchanan of Art Attack – who in recent days has had to publicly declare he is not the artist Banksy, due to theories that he is. A bit like the urban legend that Bob Holness played sax on Jerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ hit 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Haha yeah I saw that about Neil Buchanan! He plays in a metal band too, or used to at least.

        Love that Baker Street legend! It’s so random but I can totally picture it. I’m not surprised people believed it!

        Liked by 1 person

Reply to this blog post

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.