1980s Items That Failed!

The 80s was a great decade but it certainly wasn't without failure. In this video we will have a look back at some of the 1980s Items That Failed!
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @rhettyforhistory
All music can be found on the subscription service Epidemic Sound.
Mail is always welcome at:
Rhetty for History
P.O. Box 850593
Yukon, OK 73085
Join me on Instagram
/ rhettyforhistory
#80s #fails #nostalgia

[@brucebuechel9406]

We were lucky to grow up in the 80's!!!

[@chariswilliams6990]

Anyone remember Crystal Pepsi?

[@mysticwolf75]

That was in 1991. I remember because they used Van Halen's "Right Now" in the commercials.

[@jennifertaylor4966]

Wasn't it clear?

[@bobcarn]

Wow. The very first item they showed in the opening montage, the Timex Sinclair 1000, was one of the best things I ever bought. I was a store clerk and got it because I wanted to see what a computer was like. I taught myself to program it and discovered that I was naturally good with computers. I impressed someone, they hired me into a technology field, and I kept moving up until I became a network administrator. That little toy computer opened up my career for the rest of my life.

[@TooLooze]

I always regretted not buying one of those; they were very affordable.

[@jamesslick4790]

I'm going to guess that while seen in the opener, The Timex Sinclair 1000 did not make the actual list was because it was NOT a failure. These sold like hot cakes in the early 80's. Many people dipped their toes in the computer pool with one! I even got the later 2068 (Kind of the US market version of the ZX Spectrum with a somewhat better keyboard!) . As far as programming newbie was concerned, The Sinclair 1000's MANUAL was worth as much as the machine! So much technical detail in such a little book for such a tiny machine! I think only IBM provided better deep dives in their manuals at the time, Any YET was readable by someone with NO computer experience. My 1000 died DECADES ago. I did NOT part with that manual!

[@nathanwoodruff9422]

_" I was a store clerk and got it because I wanted to see what a computer was like. I taught myself to program it and discovered that I was naturally good with computers."_ In 1982 I was a junior in high school and was taking Advanced Trigonometry and Calculus. The Teacher of the class would give us 20 minutes at the end of the class to start on our homework. Instead of starting in on my homework, I would write a program in BASIC and walk a 1/2 mile from high school to the local Kmart and enter the program into a display VIC-20 computer. One day I was asked what I was doing and I said, my homework. I was asked by a sales person if I could write a program to show the features of the home computer. I said that I could. The manager of the store found me a chair I could sit in. It took a few days but I got it done. I started the program by displaying "Press Any Key for a Surprise", the program would then go on and ask the user specific questions on why they want a home computer and allowed them to type in an answer. The answer to the questions didn't matter and at the end of the program always stated that the VIC-20 was the perfect home computer for them. It was about 2 months later and near the end of the school year that the manager of the store presented me with the display VIC-20 that I was entering my homework into, which cost at the time almost $200, probably because I really increased the sales of that computer. My senior year 1983, the church my mom went to had received as a donation a CPM machine and my mom blabbed off to the pastor that I was writing amazing programs on my VIC-20. After the service on one Sunday, the pastor asked me to come into the office. He wanted to know if I could write a program to store addresses and phone numbers of the people that attended the church as before it was all stored in a rolodex. I said sure. It took several Sundays but I had something that the pastor liked. Several months later I graduated from High School and about a month later thinking of what I wanted to do in life as I had no clue, a person that went to my mom's church came up to me after the service and told me that he had seen what I had done for the church and the pastor told him that I was the one that wrote the program. He was the plant floor manager of Ciba-Vision, and they just received a new CNC machine for the use of cutting metal blanks that they used to squeeze Hema together to mass produce specific contact lens prescriptions. I was great in math, so I said why not. The manager of Ciba-Vision didn't have a job for that description, so he hired me as a janitor of plant floor but instead of paying me minimum wage which was $3.05 an hour at the time, I was the only janitor making $5 an hour. The engineers that were designing these tools gave me specifications on how these blanks needed to be cut to form specific contact lenses and I wrote in HPGL how to make the CNC machine move to make the tool. Well, someone that worked in the HR department that liked me, I was only 17, had a husband that worked for the Federal reserve bank. She told him of what I could do and called me one day at home to offer me $27,000 to come work for the Federal Reserve bank. 18 years old and making $27,000 when all my other friends were making $3.05 an hour. Well the rest is history, I've now been in this industry for 40 years and I have specialized in Encryption and Cryptography for data companies. I'm doing well for myself, all thanks to a VIC-20 at Kmart.

[@alvincash3230]

A friend of mine started getting into computers with the Timex computer. I thought it was ridiculous. But he stuck with that and other early computers & word processors. He wound up with a great career doing digital archives at our local historical society. He just retired a couple months ago.

[@donaldvincent]

I had the great Color Computer 2 from Radio Shack. Back when they sold actual electronics & components.

[@Tracy81258]

I’m old enough to wish I still had some of the old stuff.

[@JamiJR]

The one I can think of the most is Ayds Diet Candy. I think we all know why that failed.

[@two4u443]

I remember that!!😂

[@vivamelo]

Yep, my mom bought that ‘diet’ candy when I was a teenager. What were you telling me mom?

[@paul8926]

Yes, my brother had those.

[@Lemuel928]

That candy had aids?

[@paul8926]

@@Lemuel928 LOL ! 😆

[@johnlopez3996]

The Kodak Disc camera negatives looked like a fancy View Master reel.

[@indridcold8433]

Imma gonna get you with the Kodak Disc Yes, Imma going to get you with the Kodak Disc.

[@lukemn29]

I miss the 80's ☹️

[@indridcold8433]

The planet has become a giant toilet of hate and scare tactics since the 1980s. People were also fit and active, unlike today.

[@dominickgaramella6431]

Me too. What a great time to be a kid

[@classifiedtopsecret4664]

The 80s misses you more than you miss "it"!

[@jons.6216]

Wow! I lived through the 80s and had never heard of a bunch of these things!

[@drhkleinert8241]

Most of those things were only sold in limited Countrys. If a thing fails in US the manufacturer dont export it to europe.

[@billyg8614]

Had a Casio calculator watch & a Casio AM radio watch. They'd be collectors items now.

[@tonyo3544]

I just asked my dad earlier this week if he still had the Kodak disc camera he used on our disney vacation in 1984. He didn't know what I was talking about lol. Memories.

[@CarlosRodriguez-dd4sb]

The 'New Coke' failure had some interesting background. Coca Cola did a lot of testing where the new product was shown to be preferred to Classic - but a key issue was how they tested. In testing, consumers typically just had a small amount to drink, but consumers usually drank a whole can or more in real life. So, the taste profile changed under real life conditions. This, with the resistance to changing what was considered a cultural icon, contributed to the failure.

[@joerichardwad1645]

Calm down.

[@nathanwoodruff9422]

Being a Woodruff and my great great grandfather is Kenneth Woodruff, the older brother of Robert Woodruff the one that stole the formula and patented it from the Pemberton's to create the Coca Cola company. Coca Cola changed the formula to save money on buying sugar. The "New" coke had corn syrup instead of sugar and the company added slightly bitter taste to it. Coca Cola stopped producing the original formula for more than a year so people wouldn't remember what it tasted like. When they went back to producing "Classic" Coke, they didn't put in the bitterness that was in the "New" Coke and still kept the corn syrup instead of sugar. Nobody noticed because it was less bitter than the "New" Coke. If you want the original formula of Coca Cola, Mexican Coke can be found in the USA that has sugar instead of corn syrup and can be seen in the ingredients printed on the bottle. But, a 16oz bottle of Mexican coke will run about $1.50 where a 16oz bottle of Classic Coke will cost $0.79. The difference is in cost is sugar as opposed to corn syrup. The only reason why the 16oz bottle went from $0.50 cents in the late 1990's to $0.79 in the 2000's is because corn syrup now goes into gasoline and our cars as 10% ethanol.

[@Skank_and_Gutterboy]

As opposed to Crystal Pepsi, which just tasted like ass and I find it weird that anybody ever liked it. The first time I tried it, I immediately poured the 20-oz bottle down the sink and never purchased another. I thought Crystal Pepsi was going to be part of this compilation but upon further research, its run was from 1992-1994.

[@K-Riz314]

@@nathanwoodruff9422 That is incredibly interesting! Thank you for sharing

[@Liz-re3ek]

@@joerichardwad1645 🤭

[@aleks1939]

I wouldn't consider the disc camera a failure. Sure, the pics came out grainy at times, especially in low light, but a lot of people had them throughout the 80s. Plus its slim design made it easy to carry. I used mine until the early 90s.

[@carnacthemagnificent2498]

I confiscated my mom's disc camera to take to college for a weekend in 1988ish and took a bunch of pics of people and things that went on, great to have them thanks to the small camera. The pics are pretty low res but worse, the color has gone all sort of reddish-orange. I've managed to save a few with photoshop but most are beyond repair and I just remember my college days now as an orange-red haze. On second thought .... accurate!

[@jamesslick4790]

The disc camera was far from a failure sales wise at all. Kodak sold a TON of them! What killed them off was the new breed of really compact 35mm cameras, these new little beasts used "full size" film for better quality. Killed the market for not only the Disc format, but also the older 110 "pocket" camera format.

[@Nerval-kg9sm]

I liked mine quite a bit as a teenager.

[@spazbobstinkpants]

@@jamesslick4790My grandparents had one. The pictures weren't great but a lot of cameras back then performed similar. 110? But what I would point out is that just because something sells good doesn't mean it is actually any good. Might just be good marketing and us buyers being willing.

[@Skank_and_Gutterboy]

@@jamesslick4790 I kinda have a hunch that disposable cameras had something to do with it. Why spend the money for a disc camera when, before a trip, just buy two or three disposable cameras? I don't know the going rate but when I was in the Navy in the early 90s, you could buy them at the BX for $5 each. The pics weren't great but good enough, especially for a 22 year old like me just goofing off.

[@NASCARFAN93100]

The Seiko TV Watch was WAY Ahead of its time

[@CarsandCats]

I had a TV watch but it was not this one. It must have been newer. I am thinking Casio made one.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Aw, c'mon. Dick Tracy was using a 2-way wrist tv back in the '40s, way ahead of its time.

[@mrgold714]

The disc was great for taking pics at concerts. Venues used to be real strict about cams or audio recorders. This was before metal wands came about too. Now everyone’s phone does it, and most bands gave up forbidding recording.

[@D-Fens_1632]

I became one of those people who records concert, mainly a byproduct of becoming a fan of the Grateful Dead, who encouraged such behavior. Eventually most bands accepted and/or encouraged it but I got "in trouble" for trying to record a concert in 2017 (a band I'd recorded before who were okay with it). The venue made me hand over my equipment to be returned after the show (though I only gave them some of it and still recorded the concert anyway). They said "no taping is allowed." Meanwhile 90% of the audience watched the show through their phones on "record" mode. The world only gets weirder.

[@TheJosep70]

I liked New Coke. Back then I was living in Texas and I remember a guy who bought a full trailer of Classic Coke because production was supposed to stop. It wasn't, but I guess the guy did not have to buy more Coke for a long time.

[@williamhaynes7089]

for a while Classic coke was not on market as they assumed everyone would like the 'new' coke... but it wasnt long before they both were in stores... but with corn sugar instead or can sugar.

[@rchrisutoob]

I liked New Coke also but I have never had any preference to a particular brand or flavor of cola and equally enjoy Coke, Pepsi and Royal Crown along with all the lesser knowns and store brands. At the time, I said that New Coke was proof that Pepsi won the cola war as the taste reminded me of regular Pepsi.

[@williamhaynes7089]

@@rchrisutoob I drink all colas ...

[@riproar11]

@@williamhaynes7089 I have yet to find a store-brand cola that tastes as good as Coke. Most of them taste really bad.

[@williamhaynes7089]

@@riproar11 - if you are that happy with coke, you should stick with it.. The store brands couldn't clone the taste 100% or they would wind up in court

[@sharonsomers]

I had a Kodak Disc camera! Took it on a few vacations. Yes, the negatives it made were absurdly tiny.

[@rbsmith3365]

In 1982, my mother had it and pictures came out normal.

[@3DJapan]

​@@rbsmith3365My sister had one and I seem to remember the pictures looking ok.

[@ShannonFord1977]

Kodak easy share 🙌🏻

[@corky74]

When new Coke came out a bunch of us decided to try it and when we did we all said the same thing it tastes just like Pepsi

[@MrJpen82]

The mini compact disc . . . only 3" across. Enjoy your channel! Thank you!😮👍

[@RhettyforHistory]

You're welcome and thank you for watching. The mini disc I remember actually had a case over it much like a 3.5 floppy. It was a great concept but the record companies didn't want it. That meant selling less due to scratched disc's.

[@ericesquivel5485]

Love love love the fact that you put the ALL TIME BEST 80'S CAR....THE YUGO....at the very end❤❤❤❤😂😂😂....love ya Rhetty!!!

[@fob1xxl]

It was 1967 and I was 21. I moved to L.A. in 1964 from San Jose, CA. This station was on EVERY DAY ! Things were different then. No MTV, or smart phones. This music brings back all of my youth. Loved that time of my life. Loved this music and this station. 💙

[@bobblowhard8823]

WHY would you move to a God-awful place like Los Angeles from a wonderful place (at that time) like San Jose? WHY?

[@brianhannawald9864]

It seems everyone but me has forgotten 7Up Gold. Spiced 7Up. So good (especially with spiced rum.)

[@soriacx]

The electric doormat actually got heavy use in department stores and shopping malls here in Germany, where its required size wasn't a problem. Combined with air curtains, this was a common sight in the 80s whenever you entered huge department stores like "Hertie" or "Karstadt", although I never saw it use for private owners, since it requred a big machinery below the floor. But it faded out in the 90s, it was too heavy on maintenance and in the end not overly effective. Both the doormat and the air curtains were replaced by classic mats and big revolving doors during the late 90s.

[@drhkleinert8241]

I remember the local Hertie...was that cool to have no door between warm Store and Winter outside. The prob was the huge amount of energy for doors like that and when the Theme goes to energy saving it changes to normal Doors.

[@rhinehardt1]

In the late 80's there was something called "The Bone Phone" that around your neck and supposedly sent music sound waves through your skeleton, so only you heard the music. I wonder why it didn't catch on?

[@Maki-00]

I love the briefcase alarm! So super secret agent-like!

[@BIGGER_RED]

As someone who was born in the early 90s, I love these kinds of videos!

[@rangerjones5531]

Born in the early ‘60’s and I love this kind of content. This channel rocks!👍

[@medina__anidem]

Me too

[@markgordon8146]

As someone born in the 50s I don't know what's going on.

[@indridcold8433]

@@rangerjones5531 You likely enjoyed the Sega Genesis, 486DX2-100Mhz computers, Windows 3.11 for workgroups, Netscape Navigator, and being around fit and trim people.

[@ChrisRoth1972]

I remember 1985’s New Coke & I liked the taste although I was 13 so I didn’t no better,never heard of Coke 2 & Pepsi Am. I started out the 80’s at 8 years old & never heard of many of the gadgets although I remember the Kodak Disc Camera & off course the Atari 2600,you showed a picture of the Coleco Adam Computer,had one & loved it! Thank You for your hard work making this video Rhett!

[@killrmillr]

The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults USFL Laserdiscs

[@RLee-we1fc]

What about Al Capones vault?

[@two4u443]

EXCELLENT VIDEO!!😁👍There were many items I never heard of. Just amazing!!! Thank you for all the research and time in making these videos!❤

[@AJDIYNetwork]

I didn’t know Atari had a touch pad……

[@SDWNJ]

I think that was for the Atari computers, not the game console. My family had an Atari 800 computer back in the day and the style of the packaging in the video looks like that of the computer and it’s peripherals.

[@Exodus26.13Pi]

Great video agan. I was in NYC in the mid 1980s. Those electronics stores were overflowing with the most diverse electrinics in human history.

[@freeman10000]

Shopping in general was more fun in the Eighties.

[@Exodus26.13Pi]

And Malls

[@Qboro66]

@Hoyt_twd Yeah, and do you remember that they were always having a "Going Out Of Business" sale?😂

[@chriscosby2459]

I test drove a Yugo one time at a car lot, just to see if it was really that bad. I remember driving over several railroad tracks and I literally thought the car was going to come apart. It was awful, it made a VW Rabbit feel like a BMW.

[@bobblowhard8823]

True. The Yugo had the look and feel of being assembled by workers at gunpoint.

[@chriscosby2459]

@@bobblowhard8823 LOL

[@seclusionworks7547]

My step son asked one time if a person looked at the Yugo in a wrong way, did it fall apart? Our laughter said it all!

[@whycantthisbeblank]

And the country that made the Yugo no longer exists.

[@GoonSquadLifeMember]

At least it had a rear window defroster, so your hands would keep warm while you're pushing it when it's stalled.

[@nathanlamont9920]

Those dome houses must have made a brief comeback. I've seen a few of these modernized homes before.

[@mikeywid4954]

First saw a dome home at the Minnesota state fair many years ago and it was love at first sight. Never got to own one but I love them yet today.

[@agriperma]

There really is a lot of benefit to them, for one, they are economical to build, compared to other types of construction, they are basically Earthquake and Hurricane proof, the problem is, they are not really that attractive, and floor layout schemes were odd.

[@peehandshihtzu]

My friend lived in a dome house. As a kid it seemed pretty cool. As a young framer it seemed cool because of the level of precision it takes to get the roof right. I was told by my foreman at the time that being off by even 1/8" would make the last panel placed on the roof way off and therefore noticeable in a bad way, so it had to be well made. And now as a home owner it just seems so impractical. :)

[@HauntedXXXPancake]

I guess there are levels of impracticability there. Not making the base completely round might (ironically) take off a lot of the edge 😄

[@peehandshihtzu]

Ha! I see what you did there, LOL. :)@@HauntedXXXPancake

[@SPAMDAGGER22]

My dad built and lived in two domes, off grid in British Columbia in the late 70s. I used to spend my summers there as a kid and got a whole dome to myself.

[@peehandshihtzu]

That's cool! :)@@SPAMDAGGER22

[@Keepskatin]

I love you he dome homes, they resistance hurricanes better, very high ceilings, I need head room, don't like crampy little baby spaces. Dome homes look unique, we are all unique in many ways, I don't want my home looking cookie cut like your home, I need artistic visuals.

[@sammyspero3648]

It was such a good times back then it's hard to remember all of the good things we had. The worst of it all, we'll never be there again! 80's!!!

[@rbsmith3365]

I remembered and some aren’t too familiar. In 1982, my mother had Kodak Disc, Walkman, Atari except Touch Tablet. New Coke, it was bland and gassy and a lady in office complained about it. I’m not familiar with Coke II and Pepsi A.M. I didn’t have much money in 80’s.

[@christopherwilliams3190]

I had a disc cam. It was stolen when my niece took it to France.

[@lorinichols9996]

I graduated from high school in 1982, and hardly any of these were even remotely familiar to me.

[@Ranchladytmd]

Exactly, the failed.

[@BabyPinkMonsoon]

There's a dome home down the street from me! It looks really cool and the best part is that their mailbox is a little replica of the home! There's another one close by but they don't have the cute mailbox so it's not as cool. 🙂

[@Cinemagic77]

In the beginning of 1981 RCA had officially rolled out its revolutionary home video product, the CED videodisc system. After many decades in research & development RCA finally had a market-ready product that could offer affordability in videodisc players and discs, now a new movie on CED could be had for under $20, in an era where the very same movie on VHS would be priced at around $70 and the picture quality was about the same as VHS if not slightly better, it was a no-brainer that the CED videodisc system was a hit! But RCA drove itself bankrupt in heavily promoting the CED system, not to mention the cost of all the specialty service and repair shoppes exclusively for servicing CED players, the tonnes of money that went into financing the rights from the major movie studios for transferring those movies to the CED system, and add to that the many CED players that were returned to the factory with skipping issues, by 1986 RCA had run out of money altogether and had to shut down productions of any new CED videodisc players and no more money to support the release of any new movie titles. The RCA CED videodisc system was great but unfortunately a short-lived marvel of home video technology that was with us in the early and mid 1980s.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

We looked at CED; it was much better quality than VHS IMO, but you had to purchase the disks (I don't remember them being as cheap as $20, most were $30-40. The weakest thing with it is that you couldn't record on it and people wanted their own home movies (remember the Kodak 8mm movie camera that preceded it?)

[@paulstan9828]

Wow I was surprised how many I never heard of. We were lucky some of them never made it. Ha!! Hi Jodie! 👋😁 🦘

[@swansfan6944]

Hi 👋 my friend 😃

[@RhettyforHistory]

Thank you for watching Paul!

[@BigBadJohn7]

Thank you. I have never seen or heard of some of theae things.

[@Paul-ou1rx]

I always thought that if you explained everything a smartphone could do to somebody living in the 1980s they would say it was impossible. But it looks like they wanted to create it back then.

[@indridcold8433]

The only problem with a smartphone is that one must subscribe to the service for the to be useful. I would have to drive about 45 kilometers to just get to the edge of service. Thus, I do not have one. I had one for work back in 2003. But, I switched careers in 2004 and moved to my current location. I will likely never have a cellular phone again.

[@indridcold8433]

CB radios, the predecessor to chat rooms, were enormously popular until 2000. Now, one is lucky to find one anywhere. I think I saw one in a petrol station about two years ago. It was a kit with an extremely small Cobra CB radio that had an antenna and coaxial cable. It had been sitting there awhile because it had significant dust on it. I guess those days are over.

[@oldrango883]

You’re looking in the wrong places then. CB radio is still big although the culture has changed to DX contacts. Big power radios reaching world wide on the skip.

[@karenmiller2642]

I remember a short-lived item from the 70's called Koogle. It was like flavored peanut butter, chocolate, banana etc. It was awful to say the least.

[@kandigloss6438]

That doesn't sound awful to me at all. Also, looking into it a bit, it seems like most people that remember it do so fondly and it was more a failure of marketing than anything else.

[@timacrow]

@@kandigloss6438 As I recall, it tasted rather like flavored wax.

[@robertshiell887]

It was a cool concept, but the ingredients were so cheap that it was quite awful.

[@carnacthemagnificent2498]

I contend that New Coke was not a failure, it achieved exactly what they wanted . Coca-Cola wanted to ditch sugar for high fructose corn syrup but knew the public would go nuts. So they created new coke, let the outrage happen, then proudly announced they were bringing back the old recipe. Except it wasn't. It had high fructose corn syrup now. Mission accomplished and everyone praised them for listening to their customers. Marketing fail? No way, it was marketing genius.

[@meauxjeaux431]

WHOA ! I WANTED TO SAY EXACTLY WHAT YOU JUST SAID, BUT WANTED TO READ A FEW COMMENTS FIRST. I WAS GOING TO SAY THAT IT WAS MEANT TO BE A TEMPORARY DISTRACTION TO BUY ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE PEOPLE FORGET THE ORIGINAL TASTE. SO THAT BY THE TIME THEY CAME BACK WITH COKE "ORIGINAL", NOBODY HAD ANY AUTHENTIC ORIGINAL COKE LEFT TO COMPARE THE REAL OLD COKE TO THE NEW FAKE ORIGINAL COKE. KINDA LIKE THE "ORIGINAL" WHOPPER OF TODAY..IT'S ANYTHING BUT ORIGINAL...NOT EVEN CLOSE. I'M SICK AND DISGUSTED WITH ALL THE ORIGINAL PRODUCTS THAT TOOK THE CHEAP ROUTE AND CHANGED THE TASTE, SIZE, AND QUALITY. THEY ALL GET PUT ON MY LONG AND EVER GROWING "DO NOT BUY AGAIN" LIST.

[@bobblowhard8823]

Those bastards!

[@mkshffr4936]

Exactly right. I noticed that Coke Classic was not the same. I pointed it out to the delivery driver who didn't believe me until I showed him the ingredients.

[@Ghostrider-71]

Lol, and today there is an obesity epidemic here in the US.

[@donlarocque5157]

Coca cola uses sugar during Passover and puts a yellow cap on it. Only time of the year to get it.

[@dottiegillespie8067]

200 000 !!!! I'll be around for 2 million!!! I needed a video from you today! Thank you so much. I love all you do!!!

[@RomanJockMCO]

I only remember new Coke, the disc camera and Seiko's TV watch. I really wanted one so I could watch the Price is Right at school. The price was rather prohibitive.

[@paulstewart4077]

Loved this video, I don't recall several of these items and I was a teenager in the 80's.

[@jameshepburn4631]

When my youngest son was away at university, he found out Coca Cola makes a special Kosher Coke which is Classic Coke sweetened with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. It comes out every year for about a month for the Jewish holiday Passover. This is about the same time in the Spring as Easter. He shipped home four 2 liter bottles. They tasted just like the Coke did in the six ounce glass bottles of my youth. I’ve never had Mexican Coke which is also made with sugar, but people who have and have tried the Kosher Coke I’ve given them, tell me the Kosher Coke is a little less sweet and has a hard to describe “crisper” taste. Going on a few years now I look forward to Easter season and real Classic Coke. The Kosher Coke has yellow caps on the plastic bottles while the the ‘regular’ corn syrup Coke has red caps. Look for it if it’s sold in your area, it’s the real thing and the same price as the ‘regular’ Coke. I don’t know if it’s available in 12 ounce cans. When my son graduates, I hope somebody sells it by internet or he brings a bunch home with him.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Hmm, apparently we don't have a large enough Jewish community here for them to ship in the "Kosher" Coke. We love matzos and eggs and sometimes they're hard to find.

[@Cheshyre.]

I just got slapped in the face with a heavy dose of nostalgia! Love it!

[@Orange_Storm24]

My mum had 1 of those disc cameras i remember taking it on holiday and others were jealous of me as it looked really cool. My photos came out clear.

[@jeffu.8053]

Those tv watches were too expensive for me so I got one with a built-in FM radio. The reception wasn't the greatest but it was a unique product back then.

[@krzysztofczarnecki8238]

I had a watch with a FM radio and calculator in the late 90s. And it did have a translucent orange case, and had OK enough reception to keep using it. Honestly, I really liked it back then. Only it was completely unwaterproof and it came as a pack-in gimmick with kids' vitamins called Marsjanki (The Martians). The Martians were a bit expensive for vitamins, but came with all sorts of weird toys and devices, and were shaped like little stereotypical aliens to encourage kids to encourage their parents to keep buying them. You can still get them, but they seem to no longer come with toys.

[@trishamorriston3737]

Thank you Rhetty for the look back at things that failed during the 1980’s. I remember some the “failures “ 1:33

[@brendaholliday6866]

Rhett, I enjoyed your things of the 80's that failed never knew it was so many items. I remember some of these "disasters," but you showed us some things I didn't know about as well. Have a fantastic weekend. Take care 🐎

[@dennislogan6781]

One of the best things about the 80's was we kept trying new things even if they sucked. Now it seems like everything looks like something else and doesn't really try to be that new. Even movies and music today are just remakes of classics.

[@KenanTurkiye]

Dude! Pls mind your manners, nuthin in the 80's sucked! 🙃

[@laurenmp7486]

Great video! And I love you included things like the Vibrosaun and the the Atari Touch Tablet, which have sort of fallen out of collective memory.

[@kevinnelson66]

I remember Alan Alda pushing the Atari Touch Tablet.

[@MarkWilson-qx8yh]

Awesome Video! I remember so much from the 80's, like clear Pepsi! Their were a lot of fads back then. Seeing your videos bring back memories! Great Video! Thanks 👍 oh, I forgot the livesaver soda and , I think it was bobblelishous soda! Or it was hubabuba soda!

[@RhettyforHistory]

Those sodas weren't that great. Thank you for watching and mentioning some other forgotten items.

[@nickimontie]

That electric doormat is crazy - talk about over-engineering!

[@jgweems]

I had a Coleco Adam computer in 1984. (one was pictured at the very beginning of this video) I thought it was fun, but it couldn't keep up with Atari and Apple.

[@robk5427]

Man, when I saw the ADAM at the start, I got butterflies. I loved that thing. I learned early on that it was an outcast, but copying apple code with minor changes if needed did the trick most of the time. Remember the giant SmartBASIC manual that came with it and how the printer sounded like a robot woodpecker and moved across the desk while it typed? I got a book about "hacking it" learned how to put 7 coleco carts on a tape...later got into phreaking and learning to write code professionally. Not too long ago I still had 3 Frankenstein ADAMs that actually worked, but I got rid of them and tons of consoles and carts to make room for kids. :(

[@alabama2uz]

I've been listening to The Fat Boys, Run DMC, and Whodini a bunch lately.

[@NateB1976]

Love The Fat boys!!! I wore their cassettes out back in the day.

[@Mick_Ts_Chick]

Love the brief case part. It's all very James Bond.😅

[@spaceghost27]

good stuff Rhetty! i had no idea that video could be recorded on a cassette tape, even if it is terrible quality.

[@taffykins2745]

Lol! They had video cassette tapes and audio cassette tapes, two different things!

[@sw6188]

@@taffykins2745 They did, but a video signal can be recorded onto cassette tape just as an audio signal can be recorded onto a video cassette tape.

[@sw6188]

Yes, the tape used in cassettes is really no different to that used in a VHS cassette for example. Cassette tapes were used as data storage for personal computers for a long time as well. A video signal contains a lot of information (data) so if the tape speed is low as it is in a cassette, the resolution will be low. If you speed the tape up past the heads, the resolution of the recorded signal goes up. In machines like VHS recorders they use a rotating drum that the heads are mounted on so essentially the heads are flying past the tape at very high speed which gives a reasonably watchable picture.

[@hunterericson6782]

@taffykins2745 … dude, do some research and experimentation. the cassettes can store video and audio data just the same

[@a64738]

"New" Coke only happened in USA as it was to cover over the transitioning to corn syrup instead of sugar... Also corn syrup cola do taste different from real Coca Cola.

[@Frankjc3rd]

My mother had a disc camera in her collection.

[@ascendingprayer8383]

I was born in ‘81 and I remember some of these, but not all . We spent so much time outside, having fun . We only came in when it was raining to play video games. I wish my 8 and 9 year old daughters could see what it was like not having the technology that is available today

[@jillefeldme9452]

I used my Kodak Disc camera until about 2002 or so. I still have it.

[@Richard-fv7rq]

Don't remember a lot of these shown, likely because they fell flat on their face before they reached the 'mass' market 🙂

[@travelingwithmikeandpam9074]

A most interesting decade! Thanks for the memories Rhetty!

[@sideburn]

I have that Atari touch tablet and the ArariArtist cartridge :) and a PXL2000! Speaking of Pepsi AM, I remember there used to be a commercial for coke singing 🎵 "Have a Coke in the morrrrning "🎶

[@taffykins2745]

"...Shape making skills..." That's funny! 😄

[@zombie8u213]

Oh wow. The disc camera. I had one. I was like ten. I loved it. Got me into photography that I fell out of in my 20's. But still. It was what got me started

[@SquishySenpai]

Something very similar to the Premier cigarettes came out around 2002. They were called _Eclipse_ and baked the tobacco instead of burning it. Made for a cigarette that tasted weak and had very little smoke and then tasted really nasty if you over smoked it. And if you smoked one then tossed it on the ground at a Greyhound station, a bum would pick it up in short order and try to smoke it. Man they'd get so mad!

[@cordeliabuffy6419]

I remember the "generic" thing. Black and white labeled food items that actually said Generic Corn, peas, cereal , even cigarettes. Think it eventually became GPC before it just phased out. My mom smoked GPC menthol 100s .

[@LymanPhillips]

Inflation was pretty rough in the 70s until the secretary of the treasury - Greenspan(?) Shoved interest rates way up around 20%. People were desperate to wake money and generics became a thing.

[@elainehill6504]

There were even generic books, white cover that said "Romance" or "western" in block letters.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

The late '70s were a hard time for my family but I don't remember these generic things unless they were government surplus. I do remember the GPC cigs, not the food.

[@LymanPhillips]

@@indy_go_blue6048 I was young, but I donrecall the generic cans on the shelf next to the branded items. I don't think they were goc. surplus - they weren't part of an entitlement program. They were just another step down from store branded items. They didn't have fancy labels, no promotions. So I guess they were able to trim the manufacturing and promotion budgets to the bone.

[@AFluidRealiTea]

Our small city and surrounding township have at least 6-7 geodesic-type dome homes. I still love seeing them, even the one down the street I see several times a week.

[@caeserromero3013]

1:42 Looks like drivable Tupperware 😂

[@norwoodwildlife9849]

Another product that failed eventually due to technology was the beeper. Everyone I know owned one for like a year including me.

[@taffykins2745]

I had one and hated it! You'd always have to find a phone to find out who it was.

[@agriperma]

I wouldn't call it a failure, as almost everyone that worked had one, they were a complete success, they only became obsolete due to newer technology replacing them.

[@marvingecko1232]

I remember around the time they came out. Where I was living, i got one. And when my mother saw it, she said. What do you have that thing for and I told her I just wanted to get one, and she said. Well, I heard that only contractors and drug dealers use those things, and I know you're not a contractor. I just started laughing at her and turned around, and walked away, shaking my head.😂

[@agriperma]

@@marvingecko1232 we take communication for granted today, but back in the day, how did you contact someone when they weren't home? the beeper was the solution, I was an installer, so yeah I had to have one, later I got the alphanumeric one, that had multiple lines of text, these were expensive back in the day, but for anyone that worked in service, it was like having your own secretary and office, people called your number, and a real person answered, and would transmit their message via text, and I would get it on my beeper, that thing was my whole office.

[@kc4cvh]

I'd include the Nimslo 3-D camera. It featured four lenses, one more than the latest I-phone, and the MSRP was similar to a top-of-the-line Nikon body.

[@maga6252]

It looks like everybody tried copying the ViewMaster and how successful it was. 👍👍

[@edwardburek1717]

I feel relieved that New Coke never made it across the Atlantic. But I never knew there was such a thing called Coke II - what was the deal with that?

[@TrangleC]

One thing is for sure, the 80s were a hell of a time to be a little kid and see everything with that typical childish sense of wonder. I remember getting a small, transparent pocket calculator made of glass. The screen was the only non-transparent part and to this day I don't know how the computer chip communicated with the "keys" which were only marked spots on the glass surface, because there were no visible wires connecting those to the non-transparent part inside the glass. This weird credit card with a built in calculator in this video reminded me of it. Even though it was still just a very basic pocket calculator, I thought it was the coolest science fiction technology and it blew my mind in a way I somehow don't see in today's kids when they are interacting with obviously much more impressive modern technology today. Maybe it was just because I kind of grew up poor, relatively speaking. My parents both had decent middle class jobs (him being a tool maker and her being a accountant) but we somehow still never could afford anything, it seemed. So in the rare cases where I did get something cool, I appreciated the shit out of it. For example, I had something that might be classified as a "ghetto blaster", but wasn't quite as big as what most people have in mind when they hear the term. It was just a portable radio with a cassette player and 2 build in speakers at each end. The thing was about 2 feet wide and maybe 2/3 of a foot tall. It was super cool because you could put 2 cassettes into it at the same time and it had a function that would play one tape first and then aromatically start the second one. I used it to listen to audio play tapes before falling asleep each night. The thing remained my cherished treasure basically for my whole childhood and I only grew bored of it as a teen in the 90s when I started listening to stuff on CD. Remembering it kind of still feels like remembering a close childhood friend, or your first beloved pet, or your favorite stuffed animal or something like that. That thing kind of was my childhood. I didn't have much but the things I did have were all the more important and special to me. I don't have kids myself, but as I said, I don't really see kids today loving and appreciating their smartphones like that and I shudder at the possibility that their childhoods might actually really be that much less magical and less filled with joy and this sense of wonder and awe my childhood was so full of. That classical Christmas movie about the little boy in the 50s who is obsessed with a BB rifle really captured that feeling I am talking about well.

[@lesliehackney7519]

You always find the most interesting items for your videos. I don't remember almost all of the ones you had in today's video probably because they died quickly and I spent several years in Germany during the time. It was fun seeing them and I wish I had seen them in person. I always look forward to these trips down memory land. Thanks Rhett.

[@ruthanneluvsvacuuming6653]

I was born in 1969 and didn’t know about most of the things until I saw this video 😅

[@jmi5969]

2:05 - Similar sole-sweeping mats were certainly known in the 1930s. They didn't see much use outside large American hotels - but their vacuum-powered relatives are now commonplace in industrial and (to a lesser extent) medical environments.

[@RhettyforHistory]

Very interesting. Thank you for watching and telling us a little more.

[@erikpreston1805]

I just put in small speakers in my motorcycle helmet with a plug hole on the back where I plugged in my sound system back in the 80’s.

[@1805movie]

This definitely proves that "innovation" isn't linear.

[@lilitharam44]

Thanks for the memories Rhetty, do you remember the Nintendo Glove? I remember wanting one as a kid but it was also a flop because it was hard to use. Keep up the great channel!

[@dbranconnier1977]

The Nintendo Power Glove. I had one, when I was a teenager, and while it looked cool, it never worked well for playing games.

[@lilitharam44]

@@dbranconnier1977 That's what I saw on a video. It looked cool though, that's half the battle!

[@okamijubei]

The power Glove may have failed but then the Ninendo Wii have been released in 2008 and look how much it succeeded do with the Wii Mote. Sometimes a fail can turn into a new success like that Power Glove into a Wii-mote and the electric pen switches into a tattoo machine pen.

[@lilitharam44]

@@okamijubei You are very right, technology doesn't fail, it just evolves.

[@rac1061]

A buddy of mine had one when i was a kid. It was so bad, but we just could not admit it. We spent so many hours trying to get that thing to work.

[@monikameza4107]

Great video Rhett, thanks for the memories.👍

[@RhettyforHistory]

You're welcome and thank you for watching Monika!

[@michaelhughes7718]

I think it's funny that a large percentage of the gadgets shown have all been rolled into 'smart phones can do it'.

[@beachdog67]

I worked as a Realtor in the 1990s and 20000s. The biggest issue with geodesic domes (4:33) turned out to be the fact they developed chronic water leaks along their seams after a few years. Every structure has to deal with the issues of expansion and contraction at the joints in different temperature and weather conditions, but the domes just have such an intricate and extensive network of joints that developing a few failures here and there was virtually inevitable. And short of an ongoing program of preventive stripping and recaulking joints it was impossible to avoid the issue. More often than not, the first indication homeowners would have of a leak would be when water damage appeared in the walls or ceiling inside the domes.

[@jerrylopez5979]

I remember the laser disk. It was basically an over grown DVD.

[@bobblowhard8823]

Let's not forget Beta Max

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

Wasn’t the resolution higher on laserdisc? I think so, it was just more expensive to produce per unit so dvd was invented to be a cheaper mainstream option

[@jerrylopez5979]

This came out when I was stationed in West Germanyy1983 to 1987 everything looked good on the screen and you are right those players were really expensive

[@itsalwayssunnyinpahoa7631]

👁 ❤️ The 80’s!

[@KenanTurkiye]

nd 👆

[@banditt18]

core memories unlocked . so wish i could go back and relive the best years

[@NateB1976]

I can think of 2 things. Beta vcr tapes and laser discs. They both worked fine and all but VHS eventually beat out Beta because of their bigger size and you could record longer videos on them. Not exactly sure why laser discs didn’t catch on as much.?.?. Might have been the price for the system and discs compared to VHS. Had an Uncle that had one and always thought it was so cool when we’d go to his house and watch the newest movie on laser disc.

[@williamhaynes7089]

dont forget that you may have to flip the disk yourself, and or watch a movie on more than 1 disk.

[@lp-xl9ld]

I had a disc camera from 1983 to 1992. And I took some pretty good pictures with it. Sadly, they're all lost now...

[@jamesslick4790]

Yep. They could not produce high-quality 8x10 enlargements like a 35mm, but for 4x6 prints (what IS what most people ordered anyways!) They were as good as a 110 in an even easier to carry format. In the 1980s I had a full size SLR (a Vivitar 220/SL) and a Kodak Disk camera. Guess which one was taken to Cedar Point every year?

[@TH-hy9kr]

That vibrating sauna looks like a weird watercraft. The pricetag was like a house downpayment or the better paet of buying a car for the time!

[@maverickhistorian6488]

The briefcase alarm technology is still used in the cash in transit business. A small unit is incorporated into cash collection boxes (smoke boxes) , if the box is snatched the guard will activate the security protocol by pressing a button on a keyring, carried by the guard. An alarm will then sound from the collection box and orange smoke will be released, staining the money and marking the culprit with an indelible dye.

[@ACoustaDC]

Man.. you never fail to spark memories and nostalgia in me.

[@BradinSiouxCity]

They mad a movie about the Premier cigarette called "Barbarians at the Gate" where they said that "the smell resembles a fart and the taste is that of a turd"

[@GoonSquadLifeMember]

Any cig can be described in that way. Just nasty any way they come.

[@nicholassheffo5723]

The Disc cameras were not awful, while most developing labs would not buy the extra magnifying lenses to develop the small negatives properly, so it was doomed. Note that early generations of the actual film turned out and held up better than latter ones and Kodak was not the only producer of film for the format.

[@bobblowhard8823]

They weren't awful, but they weren't very good, either.

[@laurabailey1054]

Disc camera negatives weren’t much smaller than 110 film negatives. I preferred my 35mm that I had.

[@frankmitchell3594]

I remember Yugo cars being sold, they were very cheap. Their ad slogan was "how do Yugo do it?" The answer, that they never admitted, was that they used convict labour from local prisons who were paid next to nothing for their work.

[@indy_go_blue6048]

Did you ever hear the satire of Elvis' "In the Ghetto" called "In a Yugo." It's here on YT (was anyway, don't know for sure now) and still holds up.

[@GoonSquadLifeMember]

@@indy_go_blue6048 That was Paul Shanklin, a cohort to Rush Limbaugh, who made that parody. Funny as hell, I tell ya huh-what!

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Rhetty.

[@theodorerelic2718]

Interestingly, there were other companies that produced drawing tablets around the time Atari put theirs out. I have one called KoalaPad, which was released for the Commodore 64, and I believe other computers of the time (mine's for a C64).

[@fluffysheap]

KoalaPad was the real deal. Most of the serious computer art of the era was made with them. Today artists still use similar devices.