All the hip young bear-bloggers are doing it so why can't I.
Don't answer that.
Here's my Childhood Appendix N: media I experienced that I feel/fear continues to inform the creation of stuff. In (approximate) chronological order: childhood begins with self-awareness and ends with Urotsukidoji (I'm sorry to say).
The Clangers; Bagpuss... enchanting stop-motion animations for young children
Button Moon, plastic bottle puppet people who live on the moon
Worzel Gummidge head switching scarecrow. Fucking nightmare fuel.
G-Force: Guardians of Space I remember next to nothing about this how apart from how it looked:
Mr Noseybonk See second phrase above.
The Puddle lane Books Especially the Sandalwood Girl
The loading noises produced by a ZX Spectrum 128k tape deck
Pinocchio (Disney animated movie)
Ghostbusters theme, instrumental b-side to the vinyl single
The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. Psychedelic whimsical children's literature, probably nowhere near as good as I remember
Marvel UK Transformers comic 1985-7
The advertisement for Crossbows and Catapults (a toy/boardgame I never got to own or play)
This Return of the Jedi book: I didn't see the films until much later, the images in this created a very different world.
Odysseus: The Greatest Hero of Them All narrated to camera by Tony Robinson on location
80s Cold War nuclear armageddon fear-mongering like this safety video
Terrahawks
The Westcliff Library, London Road, SS0
Les MaƮtres du temps
The Hobbit, book but my-oh-my the stage production was something
Usborne Book of Ghosts
Dungeons and Dragons animated series
The Never Ending Story book and movie
Ulysses 31
Blood and Honey: Tony Robinson narrating Old testament stories to camera on location in the Holy Land. Similar format to Odysseus: The Greatest Hero of Them All above
Knightmare (children's... gameshow?) Now I'll bet/ that you don't know about a gameshow where the player wears/ a helmet/ and walks around a maze that isn't really there.
Cities of Gold Ahhh aha aha aha...
The Rats of Nimh (feature film, though our teacher read the (Secrets of Nimh)
Heroquest (board game)
Metamorphosis This will no doubt stretch the limits of your good faith but hear me out: a primary school teacher (Mrs Williams) was off for several weeks as she was dealing with her daughter's sudden loss of hearing. When she returned she told us a story about a man who turns into a "beetle" who is ultimately rejected by his family. I read Kafka's novella many years later.
Dungeon Master video game
Redwall/Mossflower books by Brian Jacques
Chronicles of Narnia, especially The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath by Alan Garner
Archer's Goon - Diana Wynne Jones (was also made into a children's TV series)
Eye of the Beholder video game (a TSR AD&D game)
Salute of the Jugger
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| Rutger Hauer in a film |
Robocop, Predator, Aliens, Commando, Terminator... all of these, more-or-less back-to-back, treated and consumed on equivalent terms: it was all about guns and blood and things blowing up. Then one film to end them all:
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend
It wasn't fun or big or clever, but it made me realise there was no going back to Button Moon.
That felt weirdly cathartic.
Links to other misty-eyed nerds
https://idraluna-archives.bearblog.dev/childhood-appendix-n/
https://the-black-citadel.bearblog.dev/childhood-appendix-n/
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