Time Travel Gift Shop: What Would You Bring Back From A Trip To The 1980s?

Jen Chaney and Liz Kelly of the Washington Post, inspired by Hot Tub Time Machine, have listed a few things they’d change if they could go back to the 1980s. I’m more concerned with bringing back a few souvenirs:

I am one of those people who never really lost the thrill that comes with hitting up the gift shop during a school field trip to the science museum, so I’m pretty sure any time travel I did (if we’re treating this more as a delightful jaunt than say, a chance to rectify social ills and what not, which is an entirely different post) would be accompanied by a trip to several stores to load up on “stuff you can’t get back home,” much like I did, to my parents dismay, by insisting upon buying fancy polished rocks every time my elementary school class headed out to a quarry. Precious memories, people!

With that in mind, here are five things I’d stock up on, that you can no longer “get back home,” during an 80s flashback:

1. Maybelline Kissing Potion It doesn’t really matter that I didn’t receive my first kiss until this stuff was, I’m pretty sure, pretty much out of production. What matters here is that this stuff tasted like bubble gum and made me feel very glamorous between the ages of 8-12, which is when I’d steal it out of my older sister’s cosmetic box and smear it all over my face. There are some bottles of it apparently still selling on Ebay, but they’re used, which is kind of a no-go, as far as lip gloss is concerned (swiping it from your older sister at age 8 is one thing; willingly paying for a strangers old lip gloss is quite another).

[Image via Latest Beauty.]

2. Ice Cream Cones Cereal
Do I really need to explain this? It’s Ice Cream Cones cereal, you guys.

3. Copies Of The 80s Alvin And The Chipmunks Cartoon: Yeah, I know, they’re back and everything, CGI style, but I’m sorry, nothing is better than 80s Alvin. Especially that episode that details how the Chipettes came from Australia, which was pretty epic for a Saturday morning cartoon. There are a few episodes floating around on EBay, but the series itself hasn’t been released on DVD yet (I’m guessing it’s a music clearance issue).

4. Wacky Wafers: I’m still mourning their discontinuation!

[Image via Grickily’s Flickr]

5. Axl Rose, Circa 1987 Oh what? Like you wouldn’t?

Have an 80s time travel wish list of your own? Feel free to post it in the comments.