The Gobbledock
I had completely forgotten about the Gobbledock until my mate mentioned him the other day and my blood ran cold with all the paralysing and irrational fear that five-year-old Smaggle felt when she heard the psychotic ‘CHIPPIEEEEES!’ come screeching out of the television speakers. For those of you that either don’t know what the Gobbledock is or you blissfully don’t remember, he’s a horrifying furry creature that Smiths chips used in the 80s/90s to advertise their chips. He used to scream ‘CHIPPIEEEEES!’ and then run freakishly fast and steal your chips. I was convinced he was going to come into my room at night and eat me. I’d love to know how succesful that campaign was because it scarred me for life.
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Goosebumps books
I think most children of the 80s have experienced some kind of fear induced insomnia at the hands of a Goosebumps book cover. My personal scary-ass cover was The Horror at Camp Jellyjam. The counsellors at Camp Jellyjam were brainwashed and would feed the campers to the horrible purple blob monster King Jellyjam, if they misbehaved. It was pretty messed up and made me question most authority figures in my life until I was least 12 years old.
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Porcelain dolls
Horror stories involving porcelain dolls were extremely popular in the 90s and so were porcelain dolls. One of my neighbours had a collection of 22 porcelain dolls and I hated them. If we were playing in her room and she had to go to the toilet, I’d follow her and wait outside the door. She thought I was pretty weird but being a bathroom stalker was a much better alternative to being stabbed to death by a tiny army of curly-haired, frozen faced dolls who needed my soul for their master.
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The Witches
My mother, bless her soul, took my brother and I to The Witches when we were kids, thinking as so many mothers did back then, that it was appropriate for children. It was not. My brother has a delicate stomach and started dry heaving at the witches rotting teeth and I nearly had a heart attack when Angelica Houston peeled back her perfect face to reveal the horrifying mug of the Grand High Witch. I’d already read the book so I knew what was coming but that disgusting face was something my delicate youthful brain would never be able to concoct. I was extremely uncomfortable around women with large nostrils for at least a year after watching that.
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EC from Lift-Off
When I was kid, everyone wanted an EC doll. You would have had to PAY ME to have an EC doll. He never did anything particularly awful but he was a creepy faceless doll that came alive when you weren’t looking. I just can’t see how the writers sold him as an appealing children’s show character. He wouldn’t look out-of-place shuffling along behind Chucky.
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What things from your childhood creeped you out? Anything that left you terrified and sleepless at night?
22 Comments
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Oh my godfather, yes EC. What. Just, what the?!
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Mama Smaggle loved him but she’s a freak. They also sold these horrible plastic version of him at the ABC store which was terrifying. A giant stack of boxed ECs. Can’t even.
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Oh god, I hated EC as well. Especially the weird plant in the foyer with the eyes that would follow you. No thank you. We re-watched Witches recently and the face pulling off scene still gets me, so graphic for a “kids” movie!
Ps. Look at your fancy new blog design – looks good lovely! And yay for being able to comment again!-
The plant! Oh my god it was horrible! The Witches is a FANTASTIC movie but it is in no way appropriate for children. PG my butt! I didn’t sleep for weeks because of that. So glad you like the new design – it’s been a REALLY long time coming but comments are all sorted and it’s all clean and delicious. It’s like clean sheet day for the blog!
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Yep. Yep. and Yep.
Also had a fear of swimming in any shaded part of a swimming pool lest a shark would eat me. Unless there was someone else in there with me……..which took my chances of being consumed down to 50%-
It’s like you stole that from my brain. Why are we so much safer from swimming pool sharks when there is someone else in the water? I also hated swimming in muddy creeks or rivers where I couldn’t tell or see how deep it was. Every mossy rock my foot touched was a monster about to eat me.
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Oh my gosh, sharks inside the swimming pool! Yes! I might tear up because I thought I was the only one who lost all logic and was terrified of such things. And by lost all logic, I mean totally sensible.
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I have never heard of Gobbledock before but for the love of God that thing would terrify me now and I’m 27!!! ????
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I linked to a video of him there. Watch it… just not alone.
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Terrified of ET. Still refuse to watch the movie as an adult. It’s creepy…
I also had an irrational fear that robbers were going to come in the toilet window while I was sitting on the toilet. I used to try and keep an eye on the window while I was on the loo and it is really hard to twist around and do a wee at the same time.
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Oh my gosh, me too!
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Holy freakin rebrand Batman! I like it for sure, was just surprised when it loaded (especially because the creepy photo is the main one today :p)
Now, onto creepy – so with you on EC and Goosebumps. I was never really bothered by the Witches and remember being surprised when one girl had to leave the room when we watched it in Grade 2. Probably not quite appropriate for 7 year olds…
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Oh my god that must have been terrifying! Tomorrow’s picture won’t be so scary I promise! The Witches was horrifying… still is.
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Even though it was intended to scare the bazookas off us, Freddy Krueger took me to the outer most limits of scared. I lost count of how many teen girl slumber parties saw me hanging out in the kitchen with the mum rather than sit through a Nightmare on Elm St vid. I have issues with red and green jumpers to this day…
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Oh god! Freddy Krueger! The stuff of nightmares. I even hated that Simpsons episode where Groundskeeper Willy turned into him.
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Love the new look Smags! And those porcelain dolls are pretty scary, especially late at night. Have you noticed that some dolls have eyes that move along with you? We have a monkey toy that does and I’m convinced that he is alive and real….
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Thanks love! Erm… what dolls are you referring to? Do their eyes actually follow you? Or does it just seem like they’re following you? 🙂
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Check you out with your bloggy makeover. Looking mighty refreshed. Just like a blogger back from Queensland…!
When I was a kid, I used to be scared shitless of the witch in Disney’s Snow White + The 7 Dwarves – you know, the one that makes her eat the apple. I just Googled her and managed to scare myself again some 20+ years later!-
Ah! Yes! My blog went to Noosa and had a little botox! 🙂 Snow White freaked you out??? I guess the witch was pretty scary….
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And THIS is why I love you so much. How else would I remember something as niche as EC, but from a fellow Aussie of similar age?
Thankfully wasn’t afraid of The Gobbledock. I say thankfully because one of my brothers loved to impersonate it, even long after they stopped showing the commercials.My things are: The movie IT. Had a sleepover at a friends house and her underbearing (not a word, but you know what I mean) parents thought it a neat idea to have us watch it. My vivid imagination took that movie and ran wild with it. For Years I would have to say in the shower “It’s not real, it’s not real…” just to get through them.
Beetlejuice. I know it’s 80s chic to love that movie, but that scene with the Jamaican music and the hand that comes out of the soup and grabs Catherine O’Hara’s face? scary as hell.
Also, this stuffed toy kiwi bird, my New Zealand Aunt kept on her bed. I always dreaded leaving their house at night because i knew that bloody kiwi bird would be staring at me from in the darkness, probably waiting to peck out my eyes and slowly eat my remains, while I walked down the hallway past the bedroom. I should probably mention I have severe anxiety about birds in general. As to whether that makes me sound more crazy or less, I’m not sure.-
EC was my what my childhood nightmares are made of. No one liked him! I just don’t understand how they managed to get him through the TV screening process. Shudder. Oh IT is terrifying! I’m STILL a bit scared of drains. I’ve never actually seen Beetlejuice! It’s on my must watch list. I love Winona Ryder.
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One of my parents’ friends WAS the gobbledock!!! Now I think about it there were never any chips when he came over to BBQ! lol
