Big Box of the Nineties

Here in my studio there's a box collecting dust. It contains the 1990s.



Having been proudly displayed in the back room at home for a while, it is now up the road in my studio where no-one can see it and where, I'll confess, I've not looked at it for a while. It's full of junk valued between cheap and free, collected up in the nineties at the same time as I was hanging onto shampoo bottles shaped like cartoon characters. In my mind they were pop art icons of the future, and I've always thought they looked pretty cool. There are others who might disagree. See which stars of the screen you can recognise in this box of delights (click to enlarge).

You should be able to see at least three Batmen, a Two Face, a Riddler and a Flash; Dennis The Menace and Teacher from the Bash St Kids, a Ghostbuster, a classic Cyberman and a Tardis bookmark from the Doctor Who exhibition in Llangollen, an original 1975 Billy Connolly tour badge, a Gromit shaped birthday card, a Spongebob Squarepants electric fan, a Captain Scarlet badge, Troy Tempest & a Captain Green; and just hidden from view are Bart Simpson, Darth Vader, The Rocketeer, Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Last Action Hero, a Spice Girls chocolate bar, a Desperate Dan chewy bar (which has, I fear, leaked), a Tin Tin pencil case, a Jurassic Park fridge magnet, a Teletubbies mouse mat, a Batman toothbrush, a Nightmare Before Christmas pencil and, inevitably, a cuddly toy. Oh and some football player who, I was told, looked like me.

Opening up the drawers I find a chocolate Hercules from the Disney film, an "I Am Not Dave Gorman, Are You?" badge, a hot dog, a jumping frog, and Albuquerque. Some day there's going to be an episode of Antiques Roadshow that really lowers the bar.