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Things that went over your head...

Started by ming, 09 January, 2012, 11:00:01 AM

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sheridan

Quote from: Dandontdare on 31 October, 2019, 12:49:18 AM
Did you not have lucky bags as a kid? They were basically proto-lootboxes with mainly sweets, but also stuff like crayons, stickers or small toys.

You've perfectly described lucky dips (which came in bags but were called lucky dips where I came from) :P

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Frank on 31 October, 2019, 07:07:32 AM

Even in 1988, it was a sort of Baby Boomer reference, but, looking at those reactions, it seems the concept might have lived longer in the imagination the further north you popped into existence.

If I might skew the results of your graph a bit; I was born in the mid-80s (so grew up in the 90s) right on the South Coast - and Lucky Bags were very definitely 'a thing.'
@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

#1262
Lucky bags a part of my '70s Dublin childhood too: campsite shops and seaside towns appeared to do a particularly strong line in them. The single comic generally included were weird US things like Tweetie Pie & Sylvester or Scrooge McDuck, which I never saw anywhere else, and whose sole value were the ads for 1000 Army Men, Sea Monkeys and the ubiquitous X-Ray Specs. Many a rainy day in a 10ft caravan in Carraroe or Kilmuckridge was spent in contemplation of the boundless possibilities implied.

I concur with Sharky on the vampire teeth, arsom. Also, crappy pencils the lead in which came pre-shattered.

Frank

Quote from: sheridan on 31 October, 2019, 08:15:53 AM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 31 October, 2019, 12:49:18 AM
Did you not have lucky bags as a kid? They were basically proto-lootboxes with mainly sweets, but also stuff like crayons, stickers or small toys.

You've perfectly described lucky dips (which came in bags but were called lucky dips where I came from) :P

Friday, Eightball, Top and Dip.



Link Prime

Quote from: TordelBack on 31 October, 2019, 08:35:42 AM
Lucky bags a part of my '70s Dublin childhood too: campsite shops and seaside towns appeared to do a particularly strong line in them. The single comic generally included were weird US things like Tweetie Pie & Sylvester or Scrooge McDuck, which I never saw anywhere else, and whose sole value were the ads for 1000 Army Men, Sea Monkeys and the ubiquitous X-Ray Specs.

We can only assume that the same entrepreneur who brought Lucky Bags to our emerald shores was also responsible for flooding every 70's / 80's newsagent with Put On Stickers.

I'm pretty sure that "Lucky" earned his GI nickname due to a compulsive gambling habit.
That blue skinned cardsharp was spotted with a deck once or twice in the Progs.

Frank

Quote from: Link Prime on 31 October, 2019, 02:02:16 PM
I'm pretty sure that "Lucky" earned his GI nickname due to a compulsive gambling habit.
That blue skinned cardsharp was spotted with a deck once or twice in the Progs.

Yeah, but Top was also destined to become a hat and Eightball's aim would come in handy in his new career as a gun.

The names are still improbable and on the nose, just not in the nose.



Link Prime

Quote from: Frank on 31 October, 2019, 02:18:43 PM

Yeah, but Top was also destined to become a hat and Eightball's aim would come in handy in his new career as a gun.


You missed the subtext regarding Missionary position predilection and clone-pattern baldness.

JayzusB.Christ

#1267
I'd forgotten all about Lucky Bags. Lucky Dips were something different: two connected bags of vaguely different flavours of sherbet, and an edible Swizzle Stick (tm) to dip in them.

Edit:. No they weren't.  https://www.britishcornershop.co.uk/swizzels-matlow-double-dip
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

The Legendary Shark


In the dim and distant, at school, I once accidentally induced an erection in one of my best friends by describing a view of Miss Morris, our English teacher, through x-ray specs.

Damn those Lucky Bags - all full of destiny and shit.

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




JayzusB.Christ

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack


JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Frank on 30 October, 2019, 11:09:10 PM

Friday, Top, Eightball ... and LUCKY.

LUCKY ... because he's a BAG! Slaps forehead and kicks self for 30 years spent knowing there was something there but never quite making the (obvious) connection

I honestly don't enjoy pointing this out, but the writer who came up with his name had no idea he was going to become a bag in later stories, nor indeed that there would be later stories.  While I can't quite remember clearly, he may have been a Bagman proxy, though, and given Friday his bag, so maybe there's something in it.

Have to say, the gambling theory works better for me.  He was definitely a card player.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

That's definitely the actual reason. That, and (IIRC) he's Trooper 13 (Top is 1, Eightball is 8, Friday is 19 (?)). There really is no bag connection at all, other than that he has a good supply of gear (including cards) in his pack that Friday picks up. As you say, the bag thing is an ugly retcon.

Link Prime

OG Bagman bit the bullet in Prog 949 - guess you could say he was Lucky not to have starred in any further Fr1day adventures....amirite????

< Snorts Breaking Bad blue crystal meth from combat knife >

Dash Decent

#1274
Growing up in Australia, a lucky dip was a blind pick of some very small and cheap toys (like said vampire teeth) usually stuck in a paper bag and stapled up or scrunched closed.  They'd all be in an enclosed box with a slot so you could get your hand in.  They cost 5 cents or 10 cents or 20 cents to have a go - "pocket money prices".  You dipped your hand in, drew out a random bag and looked to see how lucky you were.  You'd never get anything as big as a comic in them. They're pretty much the equivalent of all the "blind buy" type toys you get these days, e.g. Lego minifigures.

I'm sure I read the Americans had similar 100+ years ago with toys stuck in a bran tub, so you literally had to worm your way around feeling for a prize to grab.

Something with a comic and rubbish plastic toys sounds more like a show bag, which you buy at the show (county fair).  These were originally (many years before I was born) sample bags that used to get given away for free, then were charged for, and now - like the proverbial Quality Street tin now being twice the money for half the weight and full of nasty toffees instead of chocolates - aren't great value for money.

Actually we got lots of US comics at the newsagent so that wasn't strange, but the show bags were the only place my brother & I came across UK Star Wars comics.

Oh, and just to bore you all a tiny bit further, we call cotton floss/cotton candy "fairy floss".
- By Appointment -
Hero to Michael Carroll

"... rank amateurism and bad jokes." - JohnW.