For those outside the UK, Argos is an unusual kind of store. It's a catalogue shop, so it's products are essentially mail order. Except Argos has a massive chain of high street stores, so it's mail order goods where you actually go into a store to buy the stuff. Just like non-mail order goods...
Yeah, I know it doesn't make any sense, but the company's been going for a long time, and over here you just accept the non-sequitur of its existence, and move on.
Argos, Winter, 1985. It Was a Good Year.
Anyway, by random happenstance, I found a digital scan of a 1985 Argos winter catalogue online (new catalogues were released quarterly, I think), and couldn't help but browse it's well thumbed pages. For one thing, I actually feel like I remember this exact issue. There are a multitude of household items throughout this book that I hadn't even realised I'd forgotten about.
There's another long-lived Argos tradition in the UK, where kids will sit down with their parents toward the back end of November, and go through the Argos book to make a Christmas gift list. Raise your hand if you remember doing this.
So given the time of year, I had to share this quirky insight into the festive season of 30 years hence, as I was surprised just how technological things were back then. It's no wonder we've all grown up to become addicted to our electronics; it's not a new fad we've jumped on board with at all. It's evidently been with us for the better part of our lives. And I'm not just talking about digital watches and "micro wave" ovens. 1985 had recognisable versions of all today's favourite tech, from computer desks to techno toys.
We easily accuse ourselves of forgetting things too quickly, but perhaps that's because we haven't actually forgotten anything? We're still buying the same stuff, just in slightly fancier, bigger and smaller packaging.
Anything you guys remember in the gallery below?
And what did kids and parents from outside Britain use to build up their Christmas list of electronic goods?
Tell me all about it! I'm in a nostalgic mood.
| {gallery:autoplay=false} Christmas Electronics of 1985 |
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DIGITAL WATCHES: Not new, even in 1985, but the Casio style of watch is still available today, and the calculator watches were a big techno deal. Also, I owned that exact "Robot Game" watch, with the yellow buttons. It was seriously high tech! |
SOUND ACTIVATED ALARM CLOCKS: Braun's alarm clocks were hugely impressive (item 6). You could turn them off by talking to them! |
DIGITAL PENS: What?! Those pens have got digital clocks built right into them! 1985 was totally the future. |
COMPUTER DESKS: Even 30 years ago we had desks specific for all our computer gear. |
BATTERIES: It's interesting to note that batteries are cheaper at CPC today than they were at Argos in 1985. |
WALKMAN: Music hadn't just gone portable, but stylish, too. Those kids with the unfortunate hair are all probably in their late 40s now. |
TVs: We loved our different sizes screens 30 years ago, too, and there was plenty of choice. |
CALCULATORS: You could drop some serious coinage on a scientific calculator in 1985. For comparison, a beer costs around £4 today, and 75p in 1985. |
ELECTRONIC GAMES: Nintendo's Game & Watch games were in their heyday in 1985, while the Tomy games pioneered 3D virtual reality gaming. Worthy of note is the orange Donkey Kong Game & Watch unit, which was the first time a plus-shaped d-pad controller was ever seen. |
LEGO TECHNICS: Remember when you could build whatever you wanted with LEGO, rather than just what was seen on the box? LEGO Technic was getting up and running and gaining popularity in 1985. |
ROBOTIX: Robotix was an awesome Meccano-style system, that included motors so you could build your own machinery. It's totally due for a reboot. |
CABBAGE PATCH KIDS: Although not an electronic toy in itself, Cabbage Patch Kids were a real technological achievement in terms of manufacturing dolls that were all entirely individual. Shame the company blew all its money trying to keep the ColecoVision console alive. |
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