Tag Archives: 1980s

Fashion and Working Women in Socialist-era Hungary and Romania

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Nok Magazinja 2. 1984. Hungary.

TVTA is pleased to welcome for the first time here vintage images from Hungary and Romania. These two countries join our ever-growing rosta of international advertising, posters and print images as seen in decades gone by.

Images come from the socialist-era print publications Nok Magazinja (Budapest, Hungary, translation: Women Magazine) featuring articles and photos of fashion, the arts and women’s interests; and Dolgozo No (Bucharest, Romania, translation: Working Woman) featuring articles and photos of working women and politics.

Both publications are represented here by dates from the late 1970s to the late 1980s.

“New Winds are Blowing in Fashion.” Nok Magazinja 5. 1986.

“We Wear it at Home.” Dolgozo No. Feb 1979. Romania.

Dolgozo No. Feb 1979. Romania. Cover.

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

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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.

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Tiswas

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Tiswas is a British children’s television show which aired on Saturday mornings from 1974 to 1982. “Tiswas” stands for “Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile. Presenters included Chris Tarrant, Sally James, Lenny Henry, John Gorman, and others – including returning special guests and famous personalities. One of the most popular characters was the masked Phantom Flan Flinger – the arch villain of the show who would think nothing twice of chucking a custard pie in your face.

The show was all about fun, mayhem, riotous and slapstick humour, jokes, custard pies, puppets, impersonations, music, and famous faces. Popular slots included ‘Flanorama’, ‘Compost Corner’, and ‘Flan Your Folks’. The show spawned a hit single called ‘The Bucket of Water Song’, performed by members of the cast as ‘The Four Bucketeers’.

My Saturday morning TV childhood memories are full to bursting with excellent programmes, but Tiswas will always have a special place for its sheer mayhem and fun.

Recently I received a little bit of Tiswas in my life again – namely an armful of 1981 issues of the Tiswas Family Fun Book (later Tiswas Magazine). Flantastic! Here are the covers, ads, and selected content – all wiped clean of custard pies, and dried out from their buckets of water soaking.

Enjoy! I’m off to practice my Dying Fly movements 🙂

Tiswas Family Fun Book Vol 1 N°9 1981.

Tiswas Book of Silly Superstitions 1981.

Tiswas official money box and digital watch. 1981.

Tiswas. Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog.

Thank you for flinging flans with us 🙂

The Doctor Who Quiz Book of Dinosaurs, 1982

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Cover illustration by Geoff Hunt.

We promised you dinosaurs! And here are some – with added Doctor Who time travel stamp of approval!

Presenting, the Doctor Who Quiz Book of Dinosaurs, written by Michael Holt, published by Magnet Books, 1982.

This paperback was aimed at children, and took readers on a journey with the 5th Doctor and his companions – Nyssa and Tegan, as they travelled back and forth through time exploring prehistory. The reader is asked to solve puzzles and answer questions after each adventure is told, aided with black and white illustrations by Rowan Barnes-Murphy.

Big bad bird…

According to the Doctor, the terrifying creature pictured below is a kind of hybrid lizard-vulture-woodpecker called Archaeopteryx (say it ‘Arky-op-terricks).

It couldn’t yet fly, and instead ‘glided’ down from the tops of trees to capture its ground prey, whereupon it would “tear him to shreds with its razor-sharp toothed bill.” The creature was too heavy for flight due to having weak wing muscles and solid, heavy bones – as opposed to modern birds who have hollow bones. Its feathers were used as insulation to protect against the cold climate it inhabited.

TVTA theory: Dinosaurs became extinct not because of an asteroid or disease, but because the Archaeopteryx friggin’ ate them all!

Artisit impression of Archaeopteryx. Image: SPL/BBC.

Koringa, the crocodile-wrestling circus lady! 

In the book, according to Nyssa she once saw a video of a lady croc-wrestler called Koringa, who worked with Bertram Mills’ Circus. The Doctor disputes that Koringa wrestled with crocodiles as they are far too deadly, and rather that it was alligators she wrestled. There follows the theory on how Koringa managed to wrestle such a beast, then a quiz about the differences between alligators and crocodiles. Regarding Koringa, I checked – and she really existed; so Nyssa was right.

Rear cover:

Doctor Who bonus book advert:

Doctor Who Best Sellers. 1984.

That’s all for now…

Thank you for avoiding Archaeopteryx with us 🙂 

Office Cat Tales: the new furniture arrives!

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TVTA’s brand new state of the art entertainment/conference suite rocks! Modern Homes and Office Style Rating: 10/10.

A TVTA short story special.

Wooof could hardly contain himself this morning when our new furniture arrived to freshen up the dusty, old TVTA offices. Of course, like most cats, he spent the first hour sitting inside one of the empty packaging cartons, while I was busy unpacking and assembling.

“Are you going to sit inside that cardboard box all day?” I said. “Or are you going to give me a hand building this furniture?”

“After I’ve finished playing with the polystyrene packing peanuts,” replied the cat, “I’ll give you a hand, so long as it doesn’t interfere with my mid-morning nap.”

“Look,” I said, “You should be pleased we have all this nice, new, modern 1980s and 1990s furniture to replace the 1940s set we inherited from Mrs Coldkettle’s grandmother who worked for MI5.”

TVTA’s old office furniture. The cold war had never been colder. Modern Homes and Office Style Rating: 2/10.

“Ah,” sighed the cat. “I shan’t be sorry to see that old typewriter go. And those razor sharp filing cabinet doors. And those brass drawer handles the size of Olympic hurdling fences… and always a hard-boiled sweet immortally stuck to the back leg of a chair. You’re right, I am pleased we have new furniture!”

“Glad to hear it. We have new kitchen appliances too!”

“Did you get me an ice cream maker?”

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Personalities with a Plus! Fabulous superstars of the 1980s

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Queen frontman Freddie Mercury as featured in the 1983 Eagle Annual Personalities With a Plus!

In the early 1980s, British comic publication Eagle published a regular section in its comics and annuals called Personalities With A Plus! also known as Personality Plus. The section feratured profiles on popular sports, music, TV and film stars of the day, along with competitions and freebies to snag pop culture items such as cameras, bags, sports equipment, mugs, music, books, posters and more.

TVTA is pleased to present a selection of these personality profiles as found in Eagle publications dated between 1982 and 1983.

Olivia Newton-John as featured in Personalities With A Plus! Eagle Annual. 1983.

Christopher Reeve in Superman III as featured in Personality Plus. Eagle Comics. 1983.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock. Personality Plus. Eagle Comics. 1982.

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Retrogaming ads 1982 – 1985

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Pink Panther hand held electronic game by Orlitronic. France. 1984.

TVTA is pleased to present a selection of retrogaming ads from 1982 to 1985 … featuring The Pink Panther, Mickey Mouse and The Smurfs hand held games from Orlitronic … Atari … Coleco Vision … Parker Brothers … CBS Electronics … and the not-much-known-about French electronics company ITMC.

Mickey Mouse hand held electronic game by Orlitronic. France. 1984.

Smurfs hand held electronic game by orlitronic. France. 1983.

Atari. France. 1983.

CBS Electronics / Coleco Vision. France. 1984.

CBS Electronics / Coleco Vision. France. 1983.

Amidar by Parker Brothers. US. 1982.

Pole Position by Atari. UK. 1983.

Scott Adams presents Hulk, Spider-Man and Fantasic Four home computer games. US. 1985.

Atari video games. France. 1984.

Let’s get dizzy…

This 1983 ad for Solar Fox does its worst to perpetuate the sexist trope of the dumb blonde. CBS Electronics… what space cadets!

Solar Fox by CBS Electronics. US. 1983.

In. The. Mystery. Corner.

We end with these colourful and fun adverts for hand held pocket games from hard-to-track-down French company ITMC. When researching ITMC I found very little information other than these 1983 hand helds were made in Japan and sold in France along with other ITCM-branded gaming consoles. There is also a connection to the French toy chain JouéClub, either in promoting or co-producing certain models.

Panique Spatiale / Space Panic by ITMC. France. 1983.

Guerre des Astres / War of the Stars by ITMC. France. 1983.

That’s all for now. Thanks for looking 😎