I must have seen hundreds of photo sets on Flickr, and even though this one doesn’t contain the original work, I’d struggle to find one that evokes such nostalgia. Many an hour was spent searching the Argos catalogue for the latest toys, walkmans, hi-fis and the like. Now we can do it all again.

SPONSOR

1980s, why did you fade away. I miss you and your rampant kitschiness. Life is just too damn serious these days. I could do with a sprinkle of fun back on our TV screens. Did I say fun? Oh boy! Watch on and be amazed. Sorry, amused.

Like many other kids who grew up in the 80s, I loved Knight Rider. I wish this Minimates toy version of KITT in super pursuit mode was available back then.

Michael Kvium is one of Denmark’s most prominent painters. He had his breakthrough in the mid-1980s when he first demonstrated his personal figurative painting.

Who didn’t have their own Etch-A-Sketch as a kid. Then we grew up and bought iPhones. Now they’re together, in a winning combination. The Etch-A-Sketch case is made of ABS plastic and designed just like the original. A fun gift idea, indeed.

SPONSOR

Big malls. Big mullets. Big double denim. In 1989, Michael Galinsky drove across America and documented malls along the way. He shot about 30 rolls of slide film in malls from Long Island to North Dakota and Seattle.

‘It was hard to tell from the images where they were taken, and that was kind of the point. I was interested in the creeping loss of regional differences’, explains Galinsky. As an incredible time machine, these images only getter better as the years roll by. Galinsky is trying to turn his photos into a book.

Curxes (pronounced ‘curses’) are one of the most exciting new bands you’ll hear all year. Roberta Fidora and Macaulay Hopwood make music that will suck you in, invade your brain, and make you lose sense of time. Their music is somewhere between Depeche Mode and Crystal Castles.

Illustrator Lou Romano has a great vintage style. He has an awesome series of monster portraits inspired by my favorite 80s kids movie, Monster Squad.

The great thing about Lionel Ritchie is that, as his music has aged, so too he’s become the definitive symbol for queasy cultural kitsch. Commodores be dammed. We prefer Hello era Lionel, pouty hips and all.

SPONSOR

Phantom City Creative continues to churn out absolutely stunning movie posters. Their latest Back to the 80s series really brings back memories.

If Monkey Magic wasn’t the most compelling and intriguing children’s TV series of the 80s, then I don’t know what was. Now, sit back and rejoice in the funky musical richness that was its memorable theme song by Japanese band “Godiego”

Stereolizer is an app that turns your iPad into an ’80s stereo with an interface that includes a radio dial which allows you to access streaming radio all over the world, and a tape deck that you can use to record things: music, messages, radio shows. You can eject ‘tapes’, edit and catalog them, just as you would the analog version.

Forget about the cliche that they don’t make movies like they used to. They don’t make trailers like they used to. Oh please, please, great higher being who controls the keys to the Tardis, transport me back to the 80s, with its saccharine sweet smiles and wide-eyed innocence.

SPONSOR

I can’t decide what I miss most about the 80s: the haircuts that always seemed on the verge of toppling over, the colourful knits, or the sense of naive insecurity that permeated every conversation. Oh, the memories. Now, ladies, take your pick from this remarkable smorgasbord above.

The recently finished Future Beauty, at the Barbican in London, was the first exhibition in Europe to comprehensively explore avant-garde Japanese fashion, from the early 1980s to the present.

Japanese designers have had a huge impact on world fashion. Visionaries such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto redefined the basis of fashion, challenging Western concepts of beauty to transform their garments into art.

The exhibition delved into the correlation between Japanese art, culture, costume history and fashion. Curated by Akiko Fukai, Director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, and designed by architect Sou Fujimoto, the show brought together over 100 garments from the last three decades.

If someone were to take my childhood and put it on display it would end up looking something like Lucas Mongiello’s latest series titled 20/20.
Seven images of plastic toys stacked up in glass containers bring back memories of my youth, when playing (and displaying) my Troll collection was all in a days work. But times have changed, and while I like to think that my childhood toys were way better than the toys of today, I know that a rainbow haired Troll is no match to a child raised on a diet of Xbox.

So while these images bring back found memories of hours spent playing, they also remind me how the toys of my generation are like relics at a museum. (Insert feeling old right here)

Old school never sounded so new school. RZA got nothing on this RD, but only Grandmaster could get away with what he’s wearing at .45 secs.

SPONSOR

Oh shucks, 1980s, where did you go? Oh, ok, you were replaced. By the crummy 90s. But you never lost your warm fuzzy place in the hearts (and joystick obsessed hands) of every 30 plus year old out there. Which is probably what motivated YouTube member Eyspire to create this platformer showdown in which ‘old-skool video game characters do battle’.

Cody Hamilton is an Austin-based advertising and editorial photographer. He recently finished this series entitled ‘Relics’, which is a tribute to the most colorful and vibrant decade ever, the 80s.

Straight out of a some twisted long forgotten David Cronenburg movie from the 80s comes the ultimate accessory for those who are extremely attached to their IPhone: the Umbilical cord IPhone charger. Created by artist Mio I-zawa.