Monday, October 06, 2008

The Things We Did As Kids

Not too long ago, one of my friends sent me an e-mail with pictures of stuff that we used to have during the era of people around my age group (That means if you were born around the 1980s).

The e-mail brought back memories of the things I used to do as a kid.

Lets start with the stuff I used to watch.

THE TV

I started off with this cartoon called He-Man Thundercats. I used to think that little red dragon creature in the picture was cute... *sigh*, what a distorted perception I had of the word "cute" back then.

Then I slowly grew up to learn to watch... DORAEMON!!!

Who doesn't love Doraemon right? Even up till now I treasure my Doraemon memories. At one point when I was studying in London my phone had a Doraemon ringtone to it.

And finally, when I was getting older, the testosterone began to kick in and like all boys my age, we went to more "MANLY" and cool stuff to watch...


TRANSFORMERS!!!

I remember how they would always play all these cartoons somewhere between 5.00PM - 6.00PM each day. As far as Little Timmy was concerned, 5.00PM-6.00PM is private TV time.. nobody was allowed to touch the remote.

THE MUNCHIES

That's also around the time when they would play TV commercials for things like TORA.


I still remember some of the Tora commercials. They never seemed to focus on the chocolate itself but always focused on the toy they had in each box. The commercials would have a bunch of kids all playing with those little plastic toys whether they're little flying helicopters or little plastic bugs that squirt water.

And let me tell you this, those ads worked!

Whenever I went to my tuition class I would always sneak out to buy a pack of Tora that cost RM1.00 each just for the toy but here's the joke: the toy in the TV Commercial looks soo much cooler than the actual toy!

Like if the actual toy could squirt water, it could squirt up to 5CM away but the toy in the TV Commercial looked like it could squirt water to 10 miles from where you were standing.

The thing about Tora also is that they keep updating it with new toys and new commercials almost each month so I never stop buying them. I mean once I feel that I've gotten all the Tora toys available, *POOF* another commercial with a new toy would appear in front of me and I would go out and buy it again.

But while I only bought Tora for the toys, I made sure my mum bought me plenty of these.
I used to love this.... and I still don't understand why though. It's just sugar on a biscuit. I used to like biting off the sugar and eating it on its own before going on to its biscuit.

Almost as much as I liked these little animal crackers.
But here's what I loved the most of all the munchies we had back then.

BUBBLE GUM!!!

I mean I don't know but somehow back in my school, when you were eating bubble gum, you were "COOL". Probably because if you're not allowed to bring bubble gum to school and if you got caught you get a huge scolding from teachers but I guess even as early as back then, girls loved guys who broke rules and acted all dangerous and so.

I also used to love this bubble gum for the temporary 'tattoo' that you could put on to your arm or anywhere. Just add a bit of water and stick it on till it dries.

THE TOYS

Then comes the things we play with.

I guess all boys grew up with these little toy soldiers.
I don't know what it is about them but I loved lining up an entire freaking army of them all around my room. Funny thing though is after I've lined them up, I kinda lose my way on what to do with them. I mean they don't exactly shoot each other or move around on their own.

So what I would end up doing is getting one of my big toy trucks and ramming them all down, making sound effects of the trampled soldiers
"AIEEEEE!!!!! AIEEEeeeee!!!!"

Of course, boys love to play with girls too and girls don't fancy toy soldiers (No they think their Barbie Dolls are all so much better eventhough they don't come armed with bazookas and M-16s).

So for games with girls, we used to play a card game called
"HAPPY FAMILY".
I remember how after exams we would always play a lot of "Happy Family" in school. Probably one of the few games we were allowed to bring to school to play after we were done with our exams.

And when we weren't allowed to bring anything to school before exams, the girls used to play games like this with the boys.
Now I never really friggin understood what the hell this paper thing was supposed to do but I think it was supposed to somehow tell my fortune or something... but I don't know and I didn't care... a girl was playing a game with me and that was the only thing that mattered.

Heck I lived a very confused childhood. On one hand I loved the attention the girls in my class gave me, but on the other hand I was the leader of the G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS) club that I started in primary school after reading way too much of Calvin & Hobbes.

Of course by the time I turned 13, hormones kicked in and I realized that I did like girls after all.. very very much indeed.

But well among the other cool toys I used to play with friends was this.
This little revolver gun that shoots a very small dose of gunpowder.

All my friends used to arm themselves with this and we would go hiding under cars and all shooting at each other and always shouting
"I GOT YOU I GOT YOU I GOT YOU!!!"

and some of us shouting back
"NO... I GOT YOU FIRST!!!"

or

"NOO!!! YOU MISSED ME!!! I MOVED AWAY".

I was never too sure how anyone knew whether we hit or missed but I remember thinking to myself at one point:
"Sonofabitch always say that you move away... wait till I get a real gun and we'll see you dodge my real bullet".

Today all the friends I used to play this with are all grown ups working at big companies with girlfriends. Ishh ... how did we even make it this far.

Now here's the last thing that really brought back loads of memories.

The PENCILBOX.
Somehow back in primary school it was cool to have pencilboxes like these full of buttons to press. They had everything from pencil sharpeners, to a million different compartments and probably a coffee maker in there somewhere.

That was like the status symbol in school. The better your pencilbox the richer you were.. eventhough one of those probably one cost like RM5 - RM10 each.

Funny thing is how that pencilbox so quickly ran out of fashion. From being cool in primary school, to quickly becoming "childish" by the time we hit secondary school. By the time you were Form 5, your pencilbox had better me nothing more than a zip pencilcase or you were a lame ass.

But ahh.. finally.. there were the erasers.

All the girls took pride in little cute-sy erasers like this.
Which most of them never used to rub anything, funny enough. I mean all it was there for was to make their pencilboxes look pretty.

The guys like myself however... WE LOVED... THE FLAG ERASERS!!!

and I would collect loads and loads of them with all the different countries.

Ahh... I wonder if the kids of today grow up to the same or similar childhood as we all did during our time. I know they probably don't watch He-Man or eat Tora anymore but maybe ... just maybe... they still collect Flag Erasers from different countries.

Do any of you guys remember all this?

93 comments:

Justin Koh said...

the first one is Thundercats, not He-man...

and it did bring back a lot of memories...heheh

kelly said...

I forgot how He-man looks like. haha. but thundercats the bomb.
Oh and..captain planet. gee.

Unknown said...

haha... fun times... i loved pressing on the buttons on the pencilboxes... and collecting lots and lots of erasers by winning them from other ppl! ahha

Ryudiculous said...

omg, this post really brings back memories =D

Terrence Cheang said...

Did you watch ninja turtle when you were a kid? HAhahaha ! DUDE, great memories !!! Yes I had loads of those erasers !

Jason Lioh said...

That's freaking Thundercats lah!

He-man pulak.

Deanna Beryl said...

oh totally! the 1980s rule! :)

Orange Armada Inc. said...

yeap this is so totally true,every word of it reminds us of our childhood when we dont know the meaning of the word streess.ahhh,those were the days

PremierYou said...

hey i watched Naruto during childhood... j/k... it was DragonBall. Our Childhood's DragonBall = Current Children's Naruto....

Mz said...

hey, that's not fair.. us girls may not use those cute-sy erasers, but i'm sure u guys don't use any of those flag erasers too!! unless u hv extras of the same ones.. =P then again, i like playin the "flip-ur-eraser-and-land-on-opponent's-eraser" game.. aha once u flip the eraser n it lands on ur friend's eraser, u win!! :D

love those pencil cases.. n i use to sing out "thunder thunder thunder thunder cat~!!" :D

Rozy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
LeangFM said...

even tho i also kids from the 80s, but when i reach the age that i old enough to watch TV, Thundercat,transformer kinda outdate liao....(but i still watch xD )

my time is Power Rangers!
its Mo*sensored* Time...rawr!

other stuff almost the same leh.. damn nice ~
but da things i played the most are the "guli-shooting" and "water bottle cover shooting task"

ZB said...

gosh! i remember those days and the silly games played :)

R said...

eh boss, the erasers right? we play very competitively you know? the eraser which pawns others claim the losers! lol.

bryanlyt said...

aaahahahah! omg memories man... memories..... and yes, the tora ads worked on me as well omg ahahah!

LWY said...

I'm 4 years younger than you, and not anywhere near as successful as you are, but I've been through all of those memories you mentioned. It's like we had the same childhood. Except the Happy Family and Pistol thing.

tysern said...

hahah, yeah very truee, i used to keep all those little toys. one more thing about the erasers, can anyone remember what we used to do with them, I do remember I played the eraser game with my friend, something like eraser war where you used your fingers to try to bounce your eraser over your friend's and when it does, you win lol, AND WHERE ARE THE BOTTLECAPS too?

sigh great times man, now it's all work, work, not enough money, work , money and more work. where are those happy days, they seem so hard to find.....

KY said...

I want my ding dang back!

MaN|acZ said...

arlo.. boss. that is Thunder cats la.. aiyo.. He-Man and Thundercats also dunno how to differentiate.

MaN|acZ said...

fyi, from left to right of the Thundercats "cast"

1) Tygra
2) Snarf (Red dragon creature)
3) Panthro
4) Lion-o
5) WilyKat
6) Cheetara
7) WilyKit

Diva said...

oh my oh my... i so heart this entry, and all the pix just brought up all the fond memories. he-man,transformer,bubble gum,lil soldier don't restrict the opp gender too.

Panache said...

he is too confused between thundercats and he-man...

btw, the one that looks like xformers aint a xformer... it is a voltron!! just kidding...

mizzvickz said...

omg i love this post!
i wanna be young again!!!

Twinkle said...

wAKAKAAK... Oiiiiii Kucing kilat laaa bukan dia lelaki. Ahhh Yup, I had that pencil case before.. Fulamaakkkk... terasa hebat laa that time... Push here and there.. hehehehe...

My friends didn't get tired pushing button here and there lo...

Twinkle said...

wAKAKAAK... Oiiiiii Kucing kilat laaa bukan dia lelaki. Ahhh Yup, I had that pencil case before.. Fulamaakkkk... terasa hebat laa that time... Push here and there.. hehehehe...

My friends didn't get tired pushing button here and there lo...

a n n n a said...

i like this post! really brings back the memories being a kid. u forgotten the white rabbit candies (the kena banned one). Those were the days lorr..

Balqiz said...

Thundercat & He-Man were first shown in the late 80's and early 90's then followed by Transformer and only by late 90's did the TV aired Doreamon. I was and am still a cartoon addict :-P

JacJac said...

feelin nostalgic

*the cartoons (had to watch boy cartoons cos of big bro)
*tora
*the playing cards..
*the overly sweetened bubblegums
*the multiple-compartment pencil case(just for u to know... RM5-RM10 back then was like...RM20 now eh)
*the erasers.....
*etc

eh boss... you still keep all those stuff ka?

c.ho said...

yup. remembered every single one of them.. hahahaha..

Boss Stewie said...

hahahaha okokk yes yes thundercats! thakns for correcting me everyone.. i could barely remember!

Anonymous said...

man i was born in the early 90s and i actually did that too! though the erasers were not for collecting they were more for fighting by being able to kiap the other eraser..but other than that it was pretty much the same. sure brings back memories..;)

Mayz said...

i'm a girl...i play with Barbies and all... but i also did almost everything u've mentioned! Maybe because i was quite tomboyish at some points of my life too! Hahah... the best of both worlds i guess (^_^v)

*the good ol days*

p/s:: i doubt kids nowadays really got to play these kinda things... they are mostly too hooked up with all things high-tech i.e. PSP... Gameboy and the likes. Sadnya...

Unknown said...

Good old memory. good stuff.

Simon Seow said...

You didn't watch M.A.S.K.? I only buy Ding Dang, Tora is more expensive.

El@inE said...

wow, hw on earth did you managed to dig out so many of those pictures...

haa..tt's the good old days..Everything is virtual now...instead of eraser, its now backspace & delete..

I miss the good old days...

ch3ryl said...

thunder, thunder, thundercats - WHOAH!!! :P

*grins*

miss those times...

besides the flags-erasers, i think we also coolected those with alphabets and a pic. u know, a for apple and so on.

electronicfly said...

Don't forget playing bottlecaps or rubberwars!

xianfu said...

lol. erasers of flags from different countries? noope.

I was born at 1989.
I think I collected lots lots lots of pokemon erasers. It was the hit thing back then. haha

Tora ya. still hip. hahaha.
And the happy family cards..

woo. brings back old memories. haha.

choco said...

HAHAHA. omchoco, that wasn't that long ago for me. was born in 1990 and yes we played that! :DD

err, at least i did. minus the cartoons and those toy soldiers.

Boss Stewie said...

awww great to know everyone has had a similar share of my childhood as mine

Anonymous said...

OMG THOSE FLAG ERASERS !!!111one

wow wow wow so much memories pouring back! thanks for this post!! *forwards to all her friends*

*suddenly feels happy all of the sudden* ~~

Cassie said...

oh myyy brought back so much memoriess...and how come you don't watch Power Rangers..during your time,don't have Power Rangers yet is it?hmmm

i love those biscuits too..the one with colourful sugar on it..and yess i seperate the sugar from the biscuits..but i always eat the biscuits first instead of the sugar..cause i want to save the best for last -_-"

and nyehe Happy Family...that time don't have Uno cards yet hor?hehehe and yesss i remember the paper fortune thingy...like "what colour do you want?" and bla bla bla ohh bluee eee you like that guy or something like that.

and haha i used to collect those eraserss too..like some hobby to collect erasers and i still have them in a pencilcase till now!and they are still brand new (the last time i check =p)

and and and the guys dun just collect the flag erasers right..they play like "rubber rubber"..like flip flip and see whose rubber goes on top of whose (why does it sound so wrong now?=/) and and also some football game with it.

what about "conquer" hehe..that's the game i play with guys..where we draw X and O on math exercise book to see who conquer who..

what about ice and waterrrr

okay i should stop commenting.hehe sorry for such a longg comment!i've never commented that much on your blog before XD

panda said...

sigh......a walk down memory lane.....miss those days...

FengY said...

Wah spot on! All the good old memories!

I remembered watching cartoons like Baja Hitam, Captain Planet, Gaban, Voltron.

And flag erasers own! :D

Ysmm said...

yeah, i was thinking of the name of the card game that i used to play when i was a kid few days ago and yes, it was "Happy Family", where you have to collect all 4 family members and form a happy family then you win.
A great post indeed, you brought my childhood memories back....

julie said...

darn true....especially tora, pencil box and flower biscuit...hahahha
i used to watch smurf back then...
brings back memories of good old days...but i believe now kids are not into this anymore...but pc games...LOL

Kay said...

i used to have that gun last year XD i still love those sugar biscuits and eat them the same way you do =p and of course everyone loves Doraemon!

Axiao said...

those 80's babies will relate to this post. btw thundercats will come out with live action movie. looking forward to that.

Zephyr said...

haha I had a similar childhood too ;)

but for the eraser part, we gamble it. RM 0.10 for a round and I remembered I won RM 10.00

red | hongyi said...

oh gosh, all this is making me feel really nostalgic now.

great post, timothy. im sure all of us twentysomethings enjoyed this post very much. :)

ps: u forgot those 'alphabet erasers' with cartoons on them. eg the letter A and an image of an apple beside it ...it's the white ones with the green strip on top. do u recall?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I did not quite like cartoons though at that time, except that I watched captain planet a lot when I was fat kid.

And I remembered I freaking got myself injured with that gunpowder gun thingy when I was a kid. D;

On the lighter note, I just borrowed a Doraemon comic from my friend's little brother a few minutes ago. Haha, and I still do read them from time to time, good relaxation :)

.:Baby Gin:. said...

T________T im only 18 wei. and i did all that and i still have some of those things.. AHHAHAH. wtf.

i like to buy pencil box.. i bought one panda 1 in corea shaped like a school bus got wheels wan!! hohohoh

Tim-Kimokeo Voon said...

yes indeed, im from da 80s too ahahah!!!
a very good post BOSS!
GOOD OLD DAYS!!!

Serena said...

Very nostalgic! Those good ol' days.

ahlost said...

1) thundercats
2) Doraemon
3) transformers
4) Tora
5) sugar on a biscuit
6) bubble gums with 'tattoo stickers'
7) toy soldiers
8) fortune paper game
9) little revolver gun
10) pencilbox
11) flag erasers

OMG !! I REMEMBER ALL THOSE.. and yes.. I was a tomboy back then cos I didn't play barbie dolls and din have that cutie erasers :DD

ling ling said...

Wah!! Boss,you really bring back all the memories..I love this entry..

Boss Stewie said...

YAY! all same generation!

Unknown said...

damm...i must say this is your best post ever! The flags eraser...that's the killer...playing the eraser game some more..ahhaha! By the way, i still have the whole Season 1 of Thundercats on CD!

Boss Stewie said...

haha thanks dude

MaN|acZ said...

UNO card only become more popular from '95 onwards (at least for me that is) . primary school years still with
1) Voltron
2) Ghostbusters
3) Gaban
4) Baja Hitam (Masked Rider)
5) Ultraman
6) Saber Rider and the Star Sheriff
7) Smurf
8) Garfield
9) Heatcliff
10) Captain Planet
11) Jem & the Misfits
12) Macross / Robotech
13) M.A.S.K.
14) Micro Machines
15) Hot wheels
16) Lego (this one sure a lot of people remember wan).
17) and etc.

Matchfingers said...

oh boy i miss my old game boy console.

Patrick said...

Hey....

Me born in the 70s. And let me tell u..I DID ALL THAT TOO!!!

Watching Thundercats, Saber Rider, Voltron, Bravestarr, Transformers..
the list goes on. Heck, i even thought Pedoman was a super hero.

I used to play a game at school. All u needed was a pencil & paper. I call it Pencil War. You drew your home base, with lots of guns, and send ur mini battle cruisers out to war. You'd take the pencil, aim at ur opponents mini cruisers and try to destroy it wif a slide of the pencil...

Of coz u provided the sound effects la.. "ch..ch..chew!!" Hmm...I wonder if that is still a popular school game..??

MaN|acZ said...

hello Patrick,

Yes, I remember that game , Pencil War. But, we didn't have any name for it. But, we played it differently. I think we played point by point. We drew a point then destroy it one-by-one. Those were the good old days.

Ysmm said...

I really like this entry and reading it over and over again.It bring all the childhood memories back and it so sweets.............

NekoHime said...

WAH! i remember all these!!

nicole said...

ahh...i just love reading this. i remember them all. that biscuits with the colorful sugar on top, wow!

Terrence Cheang said...

this is going to be the most commented post.

aims said...

Gosh I was actually thinking of Tora the other day, especially the part where 'TORA' was announced with an annoying exclamation mark, haha.

Btw love this post, these are some things that kids today will never get to enjoy. I must say though, reading this does make me feel slightly old, lol.

Boss Stewie said...

hahaha guys... if you're asking how i got the pictures, one of my friends emailed them to me ... i think it's one of those chain emails that were going around

lufiasism said...

classic stuff... especially the pencil box case...I remembered used to play warship with friends and more pencil u could put in, more missiles can be fired and more compartments mean, errr more "power" LOL....

Tora and Ding Dang didn't get out of my mind but I wonder do kids nowadays appreciate these things ?
I remember my time ppl started with Nintendo and Megadrive and not to mention a battle between GameBoy and GameGear.

Bottle caps , Street Fighter sticker book (collect all and get some present or what) was also another classic.... btw, those who live around the Klang Valley, remembered Mimaland ?

Pencil war, pen war (spin the pen and kick the opponent out of the table), conquer , Monopoly, etc...

Unknown said...

come to think of it..i really pity kids nowadays. i am glad i was born in the 80's!

meow said...

ahhh... i love the 80's stuffs... the sugar-flower-like-cookies are yum yum =)

davidlian said...

Wow...judging from the number of comments, it seems many of us share the same kind of childhood memories.

Did anyone else like Gummy Bears?

Simon Seow said...

The Gummy Berry Juice? I used to have the recipe. Boink, boink, boink.

Jia Hui said...

I'm from the 90's! And so much memories clicked! I keep hearing myself going, ya man!! that was the one! like tora. My bro and I used to be crazy about the toys but ditch the chocolates aside. (no one remembers how they taste like now, i bet. haha) The pencilbox was part of the memories too! Used to be envy of frens who have them.

Something's different though. Guys in primary school don't collect flag erasers. But instead its pokemon! And they would used the pokemon erasers to 'fight'. Well you know those games.

The four 'petals' paper was also damn popular back then. It was just the hit thing that if you dunno, it will be just so uncool. LOL

Yeap, gummy bears over here too! And there's the mini burger candy (forgot its name) and the mini pizza candy.

Wah, fond memories!

YiNG said...

oh my god.. i remember all the things u mentioned!! and i'm like born in the last year of the 80s!!! seriously brings back so so so much memories... =)

Anonymous said...

ya forgot Archie comics. used to be obsessed with those books. cant take a shit without it. even had a wet dream of betty and veronica.

AikThai said...

ahahahahhah..

you missed out power rangers too. LOL!

PiNöLãm said...

oh i received this email too. u got some great discription on those pics ;)

JuLJuL said...

the pictures brought back many childhood memories. haha. thanks for doing it. =)

Wong said...

OMG, im reading this at work and everything comes flooding back to me... the pencilbox was a killer cuz my parents didnt want to get me that. but I tink you forgot one thing, the water bottle with the sling!!! you press a button and it flicks open.. THat was the status symbol too~

KahSiong said...

omg. thank you for writing this post. it does bring back memories! =D

Magdalene said...

I'm from the 90's! :P
but some of those things were still big when I was in primary school XD !
I still have that pencil box ! And also that pencil box that you play 'football' with
omgg.
hahahaha

Unknown said...

stewie,
u sure u r born in the 80s? those stuffs are meant for ppl born in 70s...haha..anyway, thanks for bringing us back on memory lane...

it sure does bring me memories of my childhood.

where on earth did u get all these props/stuffs? u still keep them? if you do..u can consider donating them to the museum...hehe

Huixin said...

I laughed myself silly just looking at all those items. Definitely remember the Tora, Doraemon, pencilboxes and flag erasers back in pri school! Haha.

peggy said...

boss! great post.
i love it alot. brought back alot of memories.
unfortunate to say that i come from the same generation as you :(

Boss Stewie said...

hahah don't we all feel so old now

Dave said...

it's like reading my own childhood! Very Funny!

Alex said...

omg. I can so relate to this. All those memories flash back from getting scolded for reading too much doraemon to playing rubber wars. The only play thing with rubbers now are completely different.....

irresistible said...

even though I'm much younger.. But i remember all that too... I know i love tora.. the happy family game..the chewing gums for sure!! hehe~ and the small small sugary biscuit.. Nice post u have there!!

ladyrora said...

all the toys and jnk food u mentioned were fads during my primary schooldays.. 1991-1996.

good effort on the pics :)

ladyrora said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sAyi fiSHah said...

OMG..this is awesome..
really miss the good old days~