Secret Chocolate Bar

Who'd have thought a humble chocolate bar would have created such a stir on the DYR website? It seems people are still salivating at the thought of Nestle's Secret Chocolate Bar. So far we have had over 230 comments added on the site from Secret Chocolate Bar addicts who still seem to be suffering withdrawal symptoms.

One of DYR's visitors has set up a petition calling for the return of the Secret Chocolate Bar and hundreds have people have signed up already. If they get enough signatures, maybe Nestle will bring it back. After all, a petition to bring back the Wispa bar persuaded Cadbury's to begin production again.

BLOBS! a DYR exclusive!

Anyone who was a child in the early Seventies must remember these beauties.
Trebor's Blobs. A boiled candy with a chewy centre.
Must have been my favorite sweets at the time along with Spangles.
What made them so good was the zany flavours used...
Toffee Apple,Fizzy Cider,Fizzy Cola,Raspberry & Sherbet,Strawberry & Cream and by far the best..Apple,Banana & Pear!
I can even remember sending off wrappers for two inflatable dolls of Patch and the Blob Monster.
Surely a candidate for revival? See 1976 advert here

Thanks for the t-shirt guys...

The nice people over at 101tshirts.co.uk sent me a gift a few month's back - a retro Spectrum 48k t-shirt. I've only just got round to wearing it because I'm normally wearing my A-Team or Battle of the Planets shirts!

Thanks guys! Now everyone who sees me will know I'm a geek ;)

Return of the Wispa Chocolate Bar

HOT NEWS!! I have just got off the phone from a BBC Radio 4 broadcast journalist who has told me that Cadbury's are going to relaunch the Wispa bar for one month due to an online petition calling for its return. The BBC employee was searching the web for source of the petition and came across DYR's Wispa page which includes comments calling for a petition.

Another comment left shortly afterwards details Cadbury's response to an email from one DYR's visitors: "This product has been discontinued. Consumer preferences do change from time to time and as a major manufacturer it is important that Cadbury maintain a wide range of products that meet consumer demands. There are no plans to re-introduce this product in the immediate future, but there is a chance that you may see it again at some time. Thanks again for your E-mail. Charlie Cadbury Consumer Relations Department".

A hint that the Wispa might return was clearly given "...but there is a chance that you may see it again at some time...".

Another DYR visitor called "Shaun" urged visitors to sign an online petition for the return of the Wispa bar.

Is this the petition that has persuaded Cadbury to bring the Wispa back?

Rubik's Cube solved by computer

Nerds at Northeastern University in Boston have used a a supercomputer to prove that a Rubik's cube can be returned to its original state in no more than 26 moves. The computer spent 63 hours crunching numbers before coming up with this underwhelming result. In contrast a human can solve the Rubik's Cube in 16.53 seconds.

Who pays these nerds to do experiments like that anyway?

DoYouRemember on the radio

I was just sorting through some files and came across a few MP3s of radio interviews I've done for BBC local radio and an Irish radio station called Spin 103.8. We get loads of requests to do interviews for radio where they need an 80s expert and we also get loads of TV researchers asking us for help as well. So, in case any of you are interested in hearing what I sound like or want to know a bit more about where DYR came from you can listen to them using the links below:

BBC Southern Counties interview
BBC Newcastle(?) interview
Spin 103.8 interview

Back to work

My summer holidays are over now and so I'm going to start working through the mountain of memories that have been contributed to the site over the past few weeks. There's about 450 memories in the queue to moderate / edit so it's going to take a while to get to the bottom of the pile! On top of this we've got a stack of new features to build into the site so there's plenty for us to do. Keep watching the site and you'll see the new memories being added...