The original vintage Slinky toy was an all-metal spring that thrilled kids by ‘walking’ down stairs. Invented by accident back in the forties, it’s one of the classic toys that has stood the test of time.
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McDonald’s Shamrock Shakes: The story of how a simple shake became a holiday tradition (1970s & 80s)
McDonald’s shamrock shakes have been a St. Patrick’s Day favorite for decades. Here’s the surprising history behind this minty green fast-food classic.
Do you remember Shrinky Dinks? They were DIY crafts that could be made by coloring on a plastic sheet, cutting out the various shapes, and then shrinking them down using heat.
The vintage Spirograph toys let you create millions of colorful, startlingly beautiful extraordinarily intricate designs in infinite variety – all you needed were pens, paper and the kit’s plastic gears and wheels. Take a look!
Take a look back at some of the most popular vintage 1970s cereals that we loved – including many discontinued products we still miss. (And don’t forget about the free toys that were inside kids’ cereal boxes!)
For more than 100 years, if you needed a new pair of sneakers or sandals, oxfords or saddle shoes, you had to visit one or more vintage shoe stores. Through more than 100 photos, see what it was like!
See what was needed to put you in the running for a coveted stewardess job back in the ’50s and ’60s! Some requirements were grounded in reason, but many were just plain sexism in action.
Mr Whipple: Please don’t squeeze the Charmin! 20 years of legendary TV commercial toilet paper drama
Discover the story of Mr Whipple and his famous “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin” commercials, one of the most memorable ad campaigns of the 20th century.
From volumizing wonders to moisturizing miracles, these 90s shampoos played a significant role in making hair look fabulous.
After hitting the market in the early 1980s, it didn’t take long for the Rubik’s Cube to become one of the most popular toys ever. Here’s a look back!
A heavenly idea! Pudding in a cloud. So lovely. So light. So luscious. You get two delicious tastes in every spoonful.
Pepperidge Farm remembers… but do you recall all of these classic cakes, cookies, breads, turnovers & other treats they made years ago? (And did you know they once made canned soup?)
Was Red Lobster restaurant where you got your first taste of seafood? The first Red Lobster restaurant was in Lakeland, Florida, and opened its doors
Kellogg’s wasn’t the first to invent fruit-filled toaster pastries, but Pop Tarts have dominated the market for 60 years and are more popular than ever.
Unbelievably enchanting and ever-changing, the Wham-O Magic Window toy created countless designs, landscapes, seascapes, birds and butterflies as the crystals fly, slide and erupt into one pattern after another.
Take a step back in time and check out some of the most awesome 80s shampoos (and conditioners!) — including a lot of brands you can’t find anymore!
What’s amazing about KFC history? There really was a Colonel Sanders, he truly had a secret recipe, and he actually started Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Have a look back at 50 years of America’s favorite party snack – and see if we found any of your favorite old potato chip brands!
Who would’ve thought humble roots, herbs, and bark could spin such an effervescent tale? The history of root beer is both intriguing and surprising – take a look!
Learn how yogurt transitioned from an exotic treat to a staple in American households. And take a look back at discontinued yogurt brands and why they faded away.
Indulge in a nostalgic journey with Figurines diet bars, the crispy, low-calorie delight from the 70s and 80s that were discontinued in the 90s, leaving dieters frustrated forevermore.
These old-school vintage blow dryers from the seventies were more than just hot air – the handheld tools could dry! Style! And came in retro-popular colors like yellow, orange and baby blue.
Love’s Baby Soft hit the market in the mid-’70s with a creepy ad campaign with lines like ‘that irresistible, clean-baby smell, grown-up enough to be sexy’ and ‘innocence is sexier than you think.’ So how did America respond?
Let’s explore the fates of some of the most iconic 80s restaurants, charting their journey from their heyday to the present. Which ones have survived?
America flipped over Farrah Fawcett’s famous feathered hair back in the seventies, and the trendy retro Farrah hairstyle was copied by millions of women. See lots of pictures of the style, and find out how they created the look!
Dairy Queen history involves decades of transformation, innovations, and, of course, a few yummy vintage menu items that make folks nostalgic.
Wendy’s has been a top player on the American fast food scene since not long after their first restaurant opened back in 1969. Established in
It’s been a remarkable journey from that first Bob’s Big Boy hamburger stand to the national restaurant franchise it still is today. Here’s a look at the restaurant chain over the years!
Let’s reminisce for a minute about Hawaiian Punch, the iconic red beverage that has a history as rich as its flavor. The original product first
The old Carnation Breakfast Bars were an offshoot of the popular Instant Breakfast powdered drink mix. Here’s a look back at both of these popular products!
You’ll remember just how many breakfast cereals you forgot as you scroll through these photos of 90s cereal ads.
You didn’t go into a Fotomat Store – you stopped by it. The corner store was for toothpaste and funny books, and the Fotomat Store was for film & developing. Take a look back!
Swiss watchmaker Swatch revitalized the industry with a bold and vibrant analog quartz marvel, sparking the colorful watch craze of the 1980s and 1990s. See dozens of retro Swatch designs here!
For those of us who lived any portion of our lives when the Yellow Pages phone book was an essential community resource — could we
The party favorite – more fun than throwing custard pie! Wham-O Silly String shoots a plastic stream of plastic string 1/4 mile long!
In the ’80s, The Incredible Hulk & Courtship of Eddie’s Father actor Bill Bixby was the spokesperson for Dietac diet pills… at least until the over-the-counter medication was taken off the market.
Introduced in the late 1970s, Underoos were a popular brand of colorful children’s underwear featuring characters from popular franchises like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Star Wars.
Hot on the heels of the flower child era, back in 1974, Mattel introduced a set of toys that were sort of the anti-Barbie: The Sunshine Family dolls.
Remember when these popular brands of old granola bars were called natural and wholesome… and seemed they were too delicious to be healthy? Yeah, we were right. But still, so yummy!
Back in the mid-1960s, the newly-invented marvel of Shake’n Bake coating mixes was kind of a big deal – or at least the shake and bake concept was marketed that way!
Ayds candy debuted in the 40s, and was basically a piece of caramel or fudge that contained an appetite suppressant. For years, the diet candy called Ayds was a big seller… and then came AIDS.
Before gummy vitamins existed, there were several other chewable supplements for kids – but none was more iconic than Flintstones vitamins.
As great an actor and director as Orson Welles was, it would be remiss of us if we did not touch on some of his later, slightly less epic works… like his classic ads for Paul Masson wines.
‘Just add water and you’ve got instant life!’ they said. ‘Over 150 amazing Sea-Monkeys born ALIVE before YOUR eyes!’ But, oh, the disappointment when the critters didn’t look anything like the pictures on the package.
Anyone who lived through the great videotape format war of the late 1970s to early 1980s will never forget the big question: VHS or Beta? Here’s the Betamax side – the player that ultimately lost.
Take a look back at dozens of the most popular cereals from the 1980s, along with some really random varieties that didn’t last long.
While chocolate milk will always be the rock star of milky mixed drinks, strawberry drink mix has a charm all its own. Here’s a look back at the debut of Nestle’s Strawberry Quik back in the sixties!
Look back at dozens of flavors of vintage Shasta sodas – including root beer, sparking lemonade, strawberry, cream soda, pineapple cola and more from the 60s, 70s and 80s!
On the way to today’s super-simple, pregnancy test sticks that give results in minutes, women had to use these chemistry set-style vintage home pregnancy test kits, then wait hours for a result.
Vintage ovulation predictor test kits: These home fertility tests from the 80s & 90s were like magic
By the mid-1980s, reasonably accurate home ovulation predictor kits hit the market, simplifying the process of pinpointing peak fertility.
The Kodak Disc camera was was lightweight, foolproof (with auto-exposure and built-in flash), affordable, and used a brand new kind of film cartridge… but it was only sold for six years.
The Tootsie Roll has a sweet legacy that started way back at the end of the 1800s, and continues to this day. From the early days, the unique chocolaty chewy candy was a huge favorite with kids. Find out more about them here!
See a dozen cute vintage play kitchens – toys for kids who wanted to pretend to cook, and have fun with mini appliances and plastic food.
Take a look back at actress Elizabeth Montgomery — from the early days of her career in 1955 up until her 1972 heyday!
Can you imagine life before bubble gum? Here’s a brief history of vintage gum brands in the US!
In 1975, Chrysler released the Cordoba – and sales were helped along by TV ads featuring the great Ricardo Montalban and his famous mention of the car’s soft Corinthian leather.
See how Vintage Kool-Aid soft drink mixes looked over the years, along with all of the flavors they’ve made so far. Plus, see the Kool-Aid man break down some walls!
Soaky was a popular brand of bubble bath in the ’60s that kids loved because the plastic bottles were shaped like cartoon characters. See some here!
Remember that AT&T jingle, ‘Reach out and touch someone’? Hear it again & find out how it came to be
If you remember the old ‘Reach out – reach out and touch someone’ long distance ad jingle, you probably just sang those words in your head! Look back at some of these vintage TV commercials, and find out how the ditty came together here!
Merlin, the ‘electronic wizard,’ was a red telephone-shaped toy used buttons, lights and sound effects to let kids play a variety of simple games, and was one of the earliest gaming consoles.
While boxes of Jell-O pudding pops may be but a memory, we can still remember their glory days through these magazine ads and TV commercials!
Tang orange drink mix was advertised as a ‘new breakfast drink discovery’ when it was introduced in the ’50s, and went on to become a part of pop culture history – especially once NASA and Mrs Brady got in on the action.
Before the Pepsi company introduced lemon-lime Slice (starting in 1984), Storm (1998) and Sierra Mist (2000), they hit the market with Teem soda — a fizzy lemon-lime soft drink that seemed much the same, but with a different name.
Here, look back at 14 brands and varieties of crunchy and smooth vintage peanut butter goodness from the last 120-plus years, including popular favorites as well as once-famous spreadables that are now gone.
Do you remember chocolate-covered Kudos granola bars? Here’s a look back at the flavors you used to be able to get, and why you can’t find them anymore.
While popular cartoon kids talking about life insurance and IRAs might not seem like a natural match, in the ’80s & ’90s, the combination was a hit. Take a look back here!
One of the most unusual ad campaigns of the seventies featured gruff Western star John Wayne pitching Datril, a pain-relief medicine that was competing against Tylenol. Find out more about the ads here.
Here’s the original press release that a small company called Apple released back in 1984, announcing the launch of their new Macintosh personal computer – the first mass-market PC with both a graphical user interface and a mouse.
Before pro football player OJ Simpson was arrested and tried for the murder of his wife, he was one of America’s top celebrities. Companies paid him to be the face of their brand… which didn’t work out well in the long run.
There were so many vintage Chevrolet station wagons back in the ’70s, including the Bel Air, Blazer, Caprice Estate , Chevelle Laguna, Chevelle Malibu Classic Estate, Impala, Suburban, Vega Kammback and more!
This vintage ad featured the tagline ‘I had a headache this big… and it’s got Excedrin written all over it.’ That sentence ended up becoming one of the most enduring slogans of the eighties.
Before he was a star among stars, Leonardo DiCaprio was a kid taking jobs where he could – including playing an awesome gum-lover in this vintage 1980s Bubble Yum TV commercial.
Vintage McDonald’s: See 5 decades of the famous fast food chain’s retro restaurants, menus & history
See these vintage McDonald’s restaurants – the food, menu boards, uniforms, old ads and retro architecture – starting back when fries were 10 cents in the ’50s, to the food concepts of the ’90s.
In the ’80s, vintage Crispy Critters cereal had little animal shapes like rhinos, hippos, lions and camels, and a lightly-sweetened crunch. Remember it?
Over the years, vintage Breakfast Squares from General Mills have gained semi-legendary status, earning a place in the gone-but-not-forgotten files.
Did you ever have one of these vintage Paas Halloween makeup kits from the eighties, so you could go trick-or-treating looking like a vampire, clown, werewolf or ghost?
In 1965, Instant Quaker Oatmeal hit grocery store shelves, and so was born a popular hot breakfast cereal that has lasted more than 50 years.
The monumentally-successful ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ ad campaign was heard all over the world back in 1971. See the commercial here!
Post Pebbles were crisp, pebbly puffs of pre-sweetened rice just arrived in two flavors – cocoa and fruity – and were created specifically for brightening breakfasts of children.
Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips fast food restaurants were based on the English tradition of serving fried fish together with crispy potatoes. Take a look back!
In 1985, Coca Cola debuted ‘New Coke’ and dropped the 100-year-old popular recipe. That decision lives on in PR infamy. Here’s the story.
A multi-million-dollar family amusement park – Six Flags Over Texas – has brought millions of people to a former strip of pasture.
Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo & conditioner are extra rich, extra thick — so it leaves your hair shiny clean and fresh. Slightly spicy. Slightly flowery. And ready for compliments.
What were mutts and pedigreed pups eating in the ’40s-’80s? Here’s a look back at vintage dog food print ads & TV commercials you might remember.
With the vintage Growing Up Skipper doll, if watching a little girl grow up into a bosomy teenager seemed a bit much, just turn her arm back and she’s cute and young again.
Look back at all of these talking dolls from the ’60s! Just pull the string – or the ‘Magic Ring’ – and you never know what these toys will say next!
“Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down” is the memorable slogan that helped sell millions of these wobbly wee folk from Hasbro/Romper Room. Take a look back at some vintage Weebles here!
Remember the old Palmolive dish soap ads, featuring Madge the Manicurist (actress Jan Miner), who was always telling women how terrible their hands looked?
A chewy retro ’60s energy snack developed for astronauts became known as Pillsbury Space Food Sticks – treats in chocolate, caramel & peanut butter flavors.
Vintage diet sodas became all the rage in the ’80s when Nutrasweet (aspartame) was a new sugar-free replacement for saccharine.
Take a look back at ABC television’s family-friendly Friday night offerings back in 1970, which included the hit sitcoms Brady Bunch, Nanny and the Professor & The Partridge Family… and total of 14 kids between the shows.
The early-70s TV sitcom ‘Nanny and the Professor’ starred Juliet Mills, Richard Long, and a very young Kim Richards – best known now for The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
For the picture-perfect housewife of the ’50s, the kitchen was the heart of the home. And the heart of the kitchen was the refrigerator/freezer combo – the kind of luxury that mother and grandmother could have only dreamed of!
Sunday sightseeing around town and afternoon jaunts in the countryside are shiny new adventures when you’re driving a fun-loving ’56 Chevy!
Take a look at this vintage White Rain shampoo commercial from 1954 — so achingly wholesome and sincere, it’s easy to see why some ’50s stereotypes persist today.
How to have fun with Lite-Brite: Put in the black picture outline, insert colored glow pegs, then watch them light up the screen with your fun design!
Maxell was long one of the leaders in the cassette tape world, and produced one of the most iconic ad campaigns of the era, featuring the man fondly (now) known as ‘blown away guy.’
Pacific Southwest Airlines executives ‘appreciate beauty and grace in women and, what’s most important, they don’t mind admitting that we are the ones who make them look good.’ Yep, it was the ’60s.
