The feel of a Rubik’s Cube in your hands… The opening chords of The A-Team theme tune… The smell of Mattel plastic (yes it seriously does smell different). We all have different things that take us back to our childhood. Many of us who were born in the 70s or 80s have these memories of growing up. Retromash is all about archiving these memories. Bottling them up so that we can relive happy moments, admire past cultures and share our childhood with our own children. And if we can have a bit of fun in the process, well that’s a bonus.
The 80s was an incredible, charming, weird and naive time. It maybe wasn’t as ‘cool’ as the 60s and 70s but it was groundbreaking in other ways. It was a great time to be a child as new technologies brought in cooler toys, better gadgets, video consoles and computer games. New franchises like Masters of the Universe, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began, all of which are still going today. Many TV shows and movies are in a generation’s collective zeitgeist, before the current smorgasbord of cable and streaming gave us the overload that we have today. The 80s was a simpler time. Everyone would be watching the same TV shows at the exact same time. You felt a part of something new. I’m not sure I would want to go back and live permanently in the 80s (what, no Twitter?!) but I definitely want to remember them.
The main part of this site is The List. That’s where it all started. I just kept thinking of things in my head which would make me go ‘Aw remember that?!’ so I thought I would start a list of them all. I do love my lists. That list then became huge and I thought of a proper way to archive it all and also create some kind of online museum that other people could enjoy. Luckily I do web design, photography, graphic design and video editing as part of my job so I figured I had the skills to make something that other people might enjoy looking at.
My aim is to try to acquire, or at least borrow, every item within the categories of The List and photograph them for The Gallery. It may take me a while but I’m not going anywhere. I will aim to get new items up as regularly as I can, so please keep checking back regularly. Meanwhile I will be writing on the Blog to dump any retro stuff that needs filtering out of my brain and also a Podcast seems to have appeared on my site too. The podcast wasn’t planned but it’s certainly been a challenging and enjoyable experience and one that I am excited to continue.
The initial idea for Retromash started off in about 2007 just as a way for me to archive my memories. But with this website, launched in 2014, I hope it has developed into something that everyone can enjoy. Even if just one picture or article on this site makes you smile or brings back a happy memory then it has done its job. I’d love to hear from you if it does! But also if you spot anything incorrect or anything you think I should add then again please do not hesitate to get in Contact.
Enjoy the site!
Michael from Retromash