Awesome 1980s

Mashup maker Darth Blender chopped up bits and pieces of classic sci-fi, superhero, and fantasy footage to create an awesome retro take on the Avengers: Infinity War trailer, had the movie come out sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I-ron Man is the best.

Back in 1986, magicians Penn and Teller turned up on an episode of Saturday Night Live and pulled off an a series of tricks which poked fun at other well known magicians, and culminated with a big surprise at the end.

Whether He-Man, Thundercats, Inspector Gadget, or TMNT was your jam, Andrew Farago’s 160-page book has got you covered with a great retrospective of the best that Saturday morning (and other days) had to offer back in the decade of big hair.

8 Bit Universe presents an amazing chiptune cover version of the Muse classic Knights of Cydonia that sounds like it could have come straight out of a late ’80s side-scrolling shooter. We’re thinking something like R-TYPE could have easily used this as its soundtrack.

For anyone who grew up watching TV in the ’80s and ’90s, the Cheers theme song will immediately bring back fond memories. But let this version play, and things get a whole lot less cheerful. We don’t care if everybody knows our name. There’s no way we’re going to this bar.

The Floppotron plays a song which feels like it was tailor-made to be performed on old floppy and hard disk drives – Eurythmics’ 1981 classic Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). The synth sounds just work perfectly on the computer hardware, and who are we to disagree?

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross recorded a fantastic tribute to John Carpenter’s theme from Halloween, adding their own haunting style, while preserving the synth sound that made it a classic. From the upcoming John Carpenter’s ‘Anthology: Movie Themes 1974-1998.

The always educational Captain Disillusion takes a break from debunking viral videos and questionable crowdfunding to kick off a new series about the masters of visual effects. The first episode looks at the ahead-of-their-time visuals in the Back to the Future trilogy.

Musician Leo Moracchioli of Frog Leap Studios turns in another fantastic heavy metal cover version – this time putting a razor-sharpened edge on the 1982 Toto pop hit Africa. This time, he’s joined by vocalist Hannah Boulton and guitarist Rabea Massaad.

Director Fred China and his team are currently raising funds for a documentary about the creation of Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice, which features amazing, never before seen archive footage of production of the film’s clever visuals. (Thanks John!)

Celebrate the peak of glam metal with the 30th Anniversary Edition of Def Leppard’s fourth album. It’s available on vinyl and CD, as well as a deluxe set that comes with B-sides, remixes, two DVDs, and four books.

An awesome tech time capsule from the 1987 Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. Art Vuolo of Videoholic Returns posted this 4 part video which shows us just how far we’ve come in 30 years. That remote control was insane. And that bar code VCR LOL.

If you’ve ever gotten mad that your smartphone took an extra second or two to send a message, just watch this 1984 video from the Thames TV program Database, which should serve as a reminder just how good we’ve got it with today’s technology.

Follow your nose to this campy assortment of old breakfast cereal commercials from the 1980s, from Frosted Flakes to Froot Loops to Cheerios to Pac-Man. And we always thought Little Chocolate Donuts were a fake thing.

If retromodern videos are to be believed, the 1980s were defined entirely by a neon glow and synthwave music. Vox takes a look back at the actual ’80s to figure out where some of the key styles that defined the decade came from.

Digital artist Florian Renner created this neon-lit promo video for the synthwave collection Magnatron 2.0 from New Retro Wave. While the imagery and sounds are certainly inspired by the ’80s, they’re also crazy slick and futuristic. The track here is Star Fighter by Wice.

The Ferrari Testarossa defined the ’80s. Our friends at DriveWithDave spent some time with the now retro-cool flat-12 machine. Both mesmerizing and menacing, the Testarossa is still a desirable ride, and Michael Jordan’s weapon of choice.

We dare you not to do a little dance in your chair while you listen to Paweł Zadrożniak’s latest electronic cover track, as his orchestra of outdated computer hardware gets to work covering the 1985 pop classic by A-Ha.

Techmoan digs up all kinds of strange and wonderful “high-tech” stuff from the past. One of the crazier items has to be this cassette tape which defeated the entire purpose of a cassette, making you load in tiny reels of tape. Perhaps this was the precursor to the fidget spinner.

An amusing old 1987 interview featuring John Moschitta, Jr., long known as the world’s fastest talker. The best part is around the 3-minute mark, when he reads over a minute’s worth of Michael Jackson’s hit BAD in just 20 seconds.

The music video for a-ha’s 1984 pop hit Take on Me gets supremely creepy, and more than a little bit painful when Mario Wienerroither gets his hands on it and subtracts the catchy synths and dulcet tones of Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen, and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy.

Scandroid performs an awesome synthwave arrangement of John Williams’ classic Force Theme from the Star Wars saga. While it might not suit the timeless feel of the films, it certainly captures the essence of the era during which they achieved their greatest fame – the 1980s.

Get hit by lightning and bitten by a cobra as Eclectic Method takes us on another journey back to the ’80s. The awesomely synthwaved-out remix of sounds from Laser Unicorns‘ 2015 breakout hit Kung Fury makes us want to watch the whole movie again right now.