What Discontinued Things Do You Miss?

[Moonface]

Obviously as time moves forever forward there are always things that eventually stop being a thing, whether it's due to advances in technology, changing consumer habits, corporate greed or business closures, just to name a few. So what things that aren't a thing anymore do you miss?

I don't miss this one in the sense that I want to personally experience it again, but I miss when cereal would have toys in the box or even a CD-ROM. I don't know why it changed but I feel like suddenly every cereal brand just stopped including anything in the box. I recall Kellogg's would have a promotion going on from time to time in the 90's where if you collected enough coupons from the cereal boxes you could mail them in in exchange for a cereal bowl, and it wasn't even always a piece of plastic shit either but actual ceramic.

Manuals inside the game cases was also something I loved when I was younger, and while I get why they've become completely obsolete it still feels a bit shit opening a game case nowadays and all that's inside is the disc. If you're lucky it'll come with a flyer that either has a DLC code on it or just an advertisement for another game.

This one is a bit hit or miss because it depends on where you are, but I find the loss of shopping malls to be rather depressing. It just shows the continued trend of shopping online, which just isn't the same experience at all. I remember as a kid that the mall at Lakeside in the UK had a Warner Bros. store which was absolutely superb and full of cool shit that I would just look at for hours. If I didn't feel like joining my parents while they went shopping for stuff I didn't care about I'd just hang out in that store watching Looney Tunes cartoons inside this ACME space shuttle until they came to get me. It closed down out of the blue at some point in the late 90's or early 2000's and it sucked to see such a unique store leave while the copious amounts of clothing and jewellery stores remained.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah I kinda miss the toy in a cereal box, well the idea of it anyway. Both either just shoving your hand into the box to find it, or pouring out the cereal to have the toy or what's inside fall out into your bowl. Then if you have siblings, whoever gets it claims as their own while the others are upset they didn't get it. Or share, or so on. Kinder Eggs are still a thing though so at least there's that.

Also liked the game manuals, fun to read before starting the game or while or doing something else and getting to read character bio's too.

I don't remember the Warner Bros. store, don't think I ever came across it back then unfortunately. You'd think maybe that'd survive, but nah, peeps are more likely to shop for clothes and....more clothes. Dang it. Hate the decline of interesting shops while the same type of store remained or appeared instead. 

[Moonface]

Yeah I kinda miss the toy in a cereal box, well the idea of it anyway. Both either just shoving your hand into the box to find it, or pouring out the cereal to have the toy or what's inside fall out into your bowl. Then if you have siblings, whoever gets it claims as their own while the others are upset they didn't get it. Or share, or so on. Kinder Eggs are still a thing though so at least there's that.

Monster! Whenever I wanted the toy I just pulled the bag out of the box before opening the bag so I could see where inside the toy was so I wouldn't have to dig for it blindly.
I've also never had a Kinder Egg.

I don't remember the Warner Bros. store, don't think I ever came across it back then unfortunately. You'd think maybe that'd survive, but nah, peeps are more likely to shop for clothes and....more clothes. Dang it. Hate the decline of interesting shops while the same type of store remained or appeared instead. 

There's a decent amount of images of the Warner Bros. Studio Store's online that will give you a general idea of how they were. This was a good one I found of them: https://i.redd.it/5pp39y1yvxl31.jpg
From what I can tell they all died out which is wild to me considering how many well-known and popular things Warner Bros. has the rights to. Although if they did still exist I'd worry they'd take the soul out of them like what happened to so many of the Disney store's at malls. I haven't seen any with the character models placed around the store since I was a kid and they just aren't the same. I don't get why stores just rip out the things that people love most about them when it isn't going to save money doing it since it isn't costing anything to keep them in there in the first place, at least in the case of the models in Disney stores.


Ugh, thinking of childhood things that aren't around anymore, I miss the ever-loving heck out of Flumps. Now I know they still make them, but that's just the classic swirly one that looks like this. I'm talking about these bad boys that you could get in a huge plastic tub in Makro's (Europe's version of Costco) that had all different shapes and colours: https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/marshmal...032467.jpg
If anyone ever ate those types of marshmallow shapes and didn't pull off the swirly outside strip on the pair of spiral ones that can be seen in the upper middle of the last image I linked, you missed out!

[Mr EliteL]

Monster! Whenever I wanted the toy I just pulled the bag out of the box before opening the bag so I could see where inside the toy was so I wouldn't have to dig for it blindly.
I've also never had a Kinder Egg.

Ah, did that too. Can't remember if I actually did shove my hand in without looking first just maybe or maybe my siblings did, I only remember getting impatient and shaking the box to get the toy to the top, then grab it out.

Also what, never had a Kinder Egg? I had a few, can't remember what in particular as the toys weren't kept, but sometimes they'd have special sponsored ones like Toy Story or other franchises. I probably already knew that, ah I did come across one at work where the rubbish cages and empty trays go for some reason, don't recall what it was though. Wasn't important enough.  

Ah, about the Warner Bros. store, that looks like where the Disney store is. Ah, no wonder that space was taken over by them. Yeah, them not having models of characters standing about still is a shame. I wonder if the cause was them getting stolen or vandalised somehow, perhaps in other places not necessarily everywhere but if the fact of that happening made them just remove them all. Or...just not that but a different reason. They were basically like costumed mascots at theme parks but without needing someone to fill the role, ah whatever. Sucks.

Flumps were good, I don't get the long one anymore though, the pack of the smaller ones were great too.

[Moonface]

Also what, never had a Kinder Egg? I had a few, can't remember what in particular as the toys weren't kept, but sometimes they'd have special sponsored ones like Toy Story or other franchises. I probably already knew that, ah I did come across one at work where the rubbish cages and empty trays go for some reason, don't recall what it was though. Wasn't important enough.  

Yeah, I don't recall ever seeing a toy advertised in them that I cared for so I always stuck with either Cadbury stuff or if it wasn't that then it was one of these bad boys, which I was thrilled to find at the British food store over here a few months ago:


Not me holding this, but if you intended to compliment the nails I'll take those still.

Ah, about the Warner Bros. store, that looks like where the Disney store is. Ah, no wonder that space was taken over by them. Yeah, them not having models of characters standing about still is a shame. I wonder if the cause was them getting stolen or vandalised somehow, perhaps in other places not necessarily everywhere but if the fact of that happening made them just remove them all. Or...just not that but a different reason. They were basically like costumed mascots at theme parks but without needing someone to fill the role, ah whatever. Sucks.

Flumps were good, I don't get the long one anymore though, the pack of the smaller ones were great too.

Nah, I don't think any of the shots are from the Lakeside store specifically, and the Disney store existed at the same time as that one did. Going by this map (which I wish was bigger but somehow people are expected to read this on the malls official website...) I think it was somewhere down by Debenham's because I recall it being tucked away in a corner rather than down the main walkway and it looks like that was the end with all the car parks: https://space-pro.co.uk/wp-content/uploa...-map-1.png
I also didn't know how much stuff they added to that place since whenever I last visited. There's a ton of leisure things there now like a Nickelodeon Adventure place and currently they've got a whole carnival down there for half term. It makes me curious how well the place is doing overall now because with the way it had been going I expected it to be a depressing shell of itself like the malls around here are nowadays.

[Mr EliteL]

Oh man, I haven't had Animal Bar in ages, I just kind of gave up bothering to get it since becoming an adult, but now I do kinda want to see what it's like again now.

Ah, those places near the Vue, never been in them, didn't have reason to with my family, just walked passed them to get to Vue. I remember looking in one of the windows from a distance of...Flip Out I think because the lighting got me slightly curious but didn't look closer.

Speaking of Lakeside and that Debenhams is still on the map for some reason, don't think they filled that part up yet so it's still just empty. Eh, I might be wrong though.

[Moonface]

Speaking of Lakeside and that Debenhams is still on the map for some reason, don't think they filled that part up yet so it's still just empty. Eh, I might be wrong though.

Oh dang I didn't know they went out of business. It's wild how nothing shady seemed to be their downfall like with say, Toys R Us, and that they just simply went bankrupt after 243 years of business.

Speaking of, I don't miss Toys R Us really. XD

[Moonface]

Just randomly remembered when a brand of crisps (chips) in the UK called Hula Hoops did stars instead of just hoops, and while I don't know if they got discontinued I did see an image for Hula Hoops Ridges which did get discontinued and I actually forgot all about them until now and now I miss them.

Now I'm wondering what other types of crisps in the UK stopped being made that I loved and forgot about.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah the Ridges were pretty good, my favourite is the BBQ Beef both normal and was Ridges too. The Stars I completely forgot about but it may because it was Xmas themed and is only available then, I didn't get any though if there were there. They do Giant Hula Hoops now, but wondering if they'll eventually get discontinued too. Giant Wotsits too.

I can't remember any other food or drink at the moment that may have been discontinued. Only soup that kinda did which was the Heinz Big Soup 500g line where the Chicken & Bacon variant was only available in that size, all of them went away then I saw C&B return at the normal size can, although annoyingly Asda never had C&B, still doesn't so if I want any I have to go to Sainsbury's. I liked the 500g size as it filled my soup bowl right up to the rim. Although was quite expensive.