Ah, the 80s and 90s! A time when shoulder pads were bigger than your hopes and dreams for the future and mullets were, for some reason, a fashion statement. But if there's one thing we can all agree was bang-on in that era, it's the abundance of epic crime-detective TV shows.

So… 2020 eh?!!

I’m not even going to go into how much of a MARE this year has been but the fact that the blog hasn’t been updated since March when Covid-19 hit… speaks volumes! Finding inspiration and motivation was hard and novel ideas became as interesting as banana bread and Zoom quizzes!

Things have been fairly glum at Fresh Retro Juice HQ but alas… we gotta get back on it! PLUS I’ve missed our retro rambles on all things 80s and 90s pop culture!

The classic movie montage is a clever cinematic device filmmakers employ to show the audience how the hopeless lead morphs into a triumphant hero! Yes, the director could have taken the time to weave believable sub-plots, nuanced character traits or dropped subtle hints that foreshadows the journey of our protagonist BUT THAT IS ZERO FUN!

The golden age of retro arcade games is somewhat debatable but what can be agreed, is that it exploded into the mainstream from the lates 70s and early 80s with popular iconic games like Pong, Space Invaders and Asteroids. The rise in retro video games soon began to leak into popular culture with cartoons, songs and cult classic 80s movies like Tron and The Last Starfighter. Here are 17 of the best arcade games that would leave a lot of retro gamers with a warm fuzzy glow!

Although Facebook continues to be the giant of social media since its inception in 2004, effortlessly suplexing cheap imitations into submission, many people are now seeking to quit Facebook in favour for alternative forms of online communities. Fresh Retro Juice has decided to take a sidestep away from the warm but restrictive embrace of Facebook!

I was born and raised on classic martial arts movies and watching one of the greatest 80s action stars of the time, Jean-Claude Van Damme. As a big JCVD fan I decided to rank his top movies and await the internet to scream at me in CAP LOCKS for being wrong! So here are 12 of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s best and worst movies!

Whether this big adventure was making a fort out of a mattress dragged from my bed then propped up against a wardrobe with a bed sheet and a broom as a weapon… or going on a bike ride with my friends as an attempt to replicate the entire movie of The Goonies! I longed to fight my way out of danger, slay the dragon and rescue the princess!

Life in the 1990s were full of some truly glorious times like getting tired from playing instead of getting tired from adulting or pulling a back muscle from ‘sitting down wrong’! But also, the 90s had its fair share of really frustratingly awkward times.

So as Christmas creeps forward and we start financially ruining ourselves for the sake of our loved ones, I decided to hit rewind and make a Christmas list of the top 12 toys of the 1980s!