Back in the Day… We Had Interesting Products Part Two

Back in the day, we had so many cool products that it was necessary to do a part two.

Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific

Most shampoos have one or two-word names. This one, which was launched in 1974, had an entire sentence for a title. It also featured commercials with people sticking their noses in other people’s hair to smell how great it was. While this product is out of production in the United States, it’s still produced in the Philippines.

My Little Pony

Introduced in 1982, the six original My Little Ponies featured Cotton Candy, Blue Belle, Butterscotch, Blossom, Minty, and Snuzzle. Later, they came out with names like Pinkie Pie and Applejack. Not everyone was a fan of My Little Pony. I recently read an article online where the writer referred to them as dumb ponies with big, creepy eyes. I have to admit, some of the movies and specials that came out for My Little Pony were a bit weird. In the series finale, Pinkie Pie married a male earth pony named Cheese Sandwich.

Chia Pet

Chia Pets were small figurines resembling people and objects that sprouted chia seeds and grew grass hair. The catchy commercial phrase Ch-ch-ch-chia reportedly caught on after someone at a company meeting stuttered when saying the name. They were introduced in 1977 and are still going strong. The first Chia Pets were bulls and rams. Then they branched out into Teddy bears, puppies, and kittens. Now there are Chia Pets made for dozens of famous people and characters. There are Shrek Chia Pets, Hello Chia Kitties, Chia Hulks, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Chia’s. Speaking of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This has got to be one of the worst names for anything ever. It sounds like a deadly cancer turtles can get. However, they were extremely popular. The franchise was introduced in 1984 with a superhero comic book. They eventually had an animated series, action figures, films, and video games created. Like the Little Pony crowd, they had some interesting names. The original four were Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael.

Chicken McNuggets

The classic McNuggets came out in 1981 and featured processed chicken, fried and then flash frozen. Depending on the McDonald’s you visit, you can choose your heavily processed and deep-fried nuggets in 4, 6, 10, 20, or 50 packs. Like most things at McDonald’s they taste pretty good hot. About 10 seconds after you open the box, however, they start to go bad. You want to snarf these things down pretty quickly before they get too rubbery. As far as how healthy they are, I won’t even go there. One commenter wrote that eating Chicken McNuggets was like eating a chicken brain smoothie.

Shoulder Pads

The beautiful Krystal Carrington from the night-time soap opera, Dynasty, immortalized the shoulder-pad look in the 1980s. Shoulder pads were popular in fashion in the 1920s and 30s. By the late 1940s, however, big shoulder pads fell out of style, for almost 40 years. Back in the 1980s, we all strived to make the top of our bodies look like an upside-down triangle. Everything was great until those removable pads, held by Velcro, came loose. Then it looked like you either had a dislocated shoulder or you suddenly grew a lump in the middle of your back.

Mr. Bubble

Okay, Mr. Bubble came out in 1961, but it was such a staple of my childhood I had to include it. Of course, Mr. Bubble wasn’t much more than dish soap in a pretty pink bottle. Mr. Bubble, however, had a dark side. Many kids complained of suffering from urinary infections and occasional rashes in interesting places after taking too many bubble baths. Despite this, the bubble man is still around. For our modern age, he’s come out with a kinder, gentler formula. He’s also pushing bubble bombs and science beakers for the bathtub. Different colored bath bomb powders create a foamy fizzing eruption of colorful bubbles.

These are a few more products and characters we either enjoyed or loved to hate… back in the day.