Fer sure, there's all that stuff and more on the pages of Agata & Pierre Toromanoff's new book, but when that book is called Iconic Objects of the 1980s, I expect all the pics to be from the eighties! So, like, what's up with that He-Man action figure (don't call it a doll!) from 2002? Last time I checked, 2002 was not in the eighties. What about that bizarre Garbage Pail Kid sticker that looks nothing like a Garbage Pail Kid sticker... you know, the one I could only find on-line on a stock photo site, suggesting that it's probably some kind of bogus fan art or whatever. In fact, a lot of the images used in Iconic Objects of the 1980s are stock photos. That might account for why a shelf of VHS tapes includes Kill Bill, Resident Evil, and some Harry Potter movie. Those are some great movies from the eighties... Not!
Even some of the objects selected to be in the book don't exactly scream "EIGHTIES!!!" in my face. Water beds and bean bag chairs? Aren't those, like, from the seventies? Ikea furniture? That's so 2000s. Bread boxes? What are you? My grandma? Phone booths? What are you? Superman?
That doesn't mean there's no eighties in this book about the eighties. I'm down with the E.T. toys, the awesome Pac-Man arcade game, the Smurfs, and the pics, of Madonna, Julian Lennon, and The Boss. But using his "Born in the U.S.A." as an example of an eighties song that exemplified the decade's "optimism and ambitious mindset"? What are you? Reagan?
