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From "thinking televisions" to plastic go-karts you could die in! Join us as we count down the greatest product faceplants of the 1980s. Our countdown includes the infamous New Coke, the ridiculed Yugo car, Apple's overpriced Lisa computer, and more! Did we miss any spectacular 80s failures? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00After 99 years, it's a national institution.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the greatest product faceplants of the 1980s.
00:08What the hell's wrong with that? I don't smell anything.
00:12Number 10, RCA dementia.
00:14In the 1980s, people were obsessed with their odd vision of the future.
00:17RCA thought it could lead the charge into a new tech revolution with a so-called thinking television.
00:22Now every sight, every sound.
00:25There's only one problem. They got off on the wrong foot when they chose the name dementia.
00:28Dementia, only from RCA.
00:31This high-end line of TVs and components promised to be the ultimate smart entertainment system.
00:36Admittedly, they were well ahead of their time. Unfortunately, almost nobody wanted it.
00:40The system was staggeringly expensive to buy and had a confusing user interface.
00:44One remote control governs all of Dementia's seven separate components.
00:48By 1990, RCA quietly pulled the plug.
00:50Dementia was meant to be the dawn of the digital living room, but it ended up a costly punchline instead.
00:55Technology that excites the senses.
00:57Number 9, the Yugo car.
00:59If the 1980s had a punchline on four wheels, it was the Yugo.
01:02Others are trying to follow, but can't match Yugo's reliability for the price.
01:07Imported from Yugoslavia and sold in the U.S. starting in 1985, it was billed as the cheapest new car on the market.
01:12A brand new Yugo cost just under $4,000.
01:15Unfortunately, sometimes you get what you pay for.
01:17From busy traffic to rough terrain, Yugo will leave you anywhere.
01:21The Yugo quickly became infamous.
01:22It was poorly constructed and had clunky handling.
01:25Worst of all, it had an unfortunate habit of breaking down in the worst possible moments.
01:28One critic even joked it came with a rear window defroster just to keep your hands warm while pushing it.
01:33The Yugo disappeared from the U.S. market in 1992 as its American distributor folded.
01:37It's remembered as possibly the worst car of all time.
01:40Don't, don't look at me.
01:42I, I drive a Yugo.
01:44Number eight, McDonald's McDLT.
01:46McDonald's has had plenty of menu flops over the decades.
01:49Few were as weirdly over-engineered as the McDLT.
01:51I'm talking McDonald's blue lettuce and tomato hamburger.
01:54The McDLT!
01:55Rolled out in 1984, the burger came in a massive two-sided styrofoam container.
02:00It was supposed to keep the hot side hot and the cool side cool.
02:02The beef stays hot, the cool stays crisp.
02:05Put it together, you can't resist.
02:07One half held the beef and bun, the other cradled lettuce, tomato, and cheese.
02:11Apparently, McDonald's believed that to compete with the Whoppers, some consumer assembly was required.
02:15The gimmick was clunky, wasteful, and not especially appetizing.
02:18The DIY sandwich kit, novel at first, wore thin.
02:20The environmentalist backlash over the extra styrofoam trash didn't help.
02:24By 1990, McDonald's dropped the McDLT entirely.
02:27Could be the best taste in lettuce and tomato hamburger ever.
02:30New McDLT!
02:31McDLT!
02:32Number seven, DeLorean Motor Company.
02:34It looked like a car from the future.
02:36The DeLorean Motor Company, though, barely made it out of the driveway.
02:39Beautifully crafted for long life.
02:42John DeLorean's flashy DMC-12, with its gull-wing doors and stainless steel finish, promised style over substance.
02:48That's exactly what they delivered.
02:49The car was slow, unreliable, and ridiculously overpriced.
02:52As it hit showroom floors across America, the company hemorrhaged cash.
02:56I got a message saying DeLorean hadn't got enough money to pay the wages.
03:00By 1982, DeLorean Motor Company crashed and burned.
03:02Its founder getting arrested in a botched cocaine sting didn't exactly help right the sinking ship.
03:07Ironically, the car finally became iconic thanks to Back to the Future.
03:10By the time it became a pop culture triumph, the DeLorean Motor Company was already dead and buried for three years.
03:15My calculations are correct.
03:17When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious s**t.
03:23Number 6, the Apple Lisa.
03:25In 1983, Apple launched one of the most advanced PCs of the decade and one of its biggest failures.
03:30So, from Apple.
03:32So advanced it puts us right back where we started.
03:34The Lisa was the first widely sold computer with a graphical user interface.
03:38A genuine technical marvel that used icons in Windows years before its rivals.
03:43At Apple, we understand that business as usual isn't anymore.
03:48Unfortunately, it also cost nearly $10,000.
03:51That was mortgage money and almost nobody outside of boardrooms could afford it.
03:54Those who did buy it found it slow, buggy, and impractical despite its groundbreaking design.
03:59Meanwhile, IBM's PCjr and Coleco's Atom went the opposite route.
04:02Cheap but laughably horrendous.
04:04The PCjr's chiclet keyboard was ridiculed, while the Atom could literally erase its own files on startup.
04:09Apple priced itself into oblivion.
04:11IBM and Coleco cheaped themselves into the trash heap.
04:14So command the powers of Atom.
04:16Nothing near it for the price.
04:18Number 5, Sinclair C5.
04:19Nothing says cutting-edge innovation like a plastic go-kart you could die in.
04:23In 1985, British tech pioneer Clive Sinclair unveiled the future of personal transport, the Sinclair C5.
04:29A traffic-compatible mode of transport that will carry you up to 20 miles on one battery, giving 1,000 miles for the cost of a gallon of petrol.
04:37It was a tiny, low-slung, battery-powered tricycle.
04:40It looked like a cross between a pedal cart and a bathtub on wheels.
04:42At just 399 pounds, it was cheap enough to tempt curious buyers.
04:46Unfortunately, they found it wanting.
04:48The C5 had a pitiful range and topped out at 15 miles per hour.
04:51For safe, controlled stopping power, just squeeze both brake levers at once, and the rear drum and front caliper brakes will bring you smoothly to a halt.
05:00Worst of all, it was so low, drivers were practically invisible to other traffic.
05:04Reviewers practically laughed it out of the market.
05:06They only sold around 14,000 units.
05:08Today, the C5 is remembered as one of the 1980s' most laughable tech misfires.
05:12So, I suppose the acid test is, would I take this vehicle on a motorway or through a standard city rush hour?
05:19I think the answer has to be, I wouldn't.
05:21Number 4.
05:22LaserDisc Format Flop.
05:24Long before DVDs and Blu-rays, there was LaserDisc, the so-called future of home video.
05:28I'm a little skeptical, but I listen.
05:31I listen to Flashdance.
05:33I listen to Duran Duran.
05:34I listen to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
05:37First sold in the late 70s and pushed hard in the 1980s, it promised superior picture and sound quality compared to VHS.
05:43Unfortunately, it also came with discs the size of vinyl records.
05:46LaserDisc players cost a small fortune.
05:49You couldn't even watch a feature-length film without flipping the disc or swapping it out halfway through.
05:53It's the finest in home entertainment.
05:55VHS was cheaper, more convenient, and could record television.
05:58Despite its higher quality, LaserDisc couldn't compete.
06:01While it hung on as a niche format for cinephiles in schools, LaserDisc never cracked the mainstream.
06:06By the time DVDs arrived in the 90s, LaserDisc was already a relic of a failed future.
06:10All I found was something called a manual in space on LaserDisc.
06:13I couldn't watch it, but it sounded sexy.
06:17LaserDisc.
06:17Number 3.
06:18RJR's Smokeless Cigarette Premier
06:20Imagine a cigarette so bad it made smokers wish for real-deal cancer sticks.
06:24In 1988, RJ Reynolds launched Premier, a smokeless cigarette that heated tobacco instead of burning it.
06:29The pitch was unique.
06:30Fewer carcinogens, less second-hand smoke, but the same nicotine hit.
06:33All right, the way the cigarette worked was a carbon capsule that would ignite whenever
06:38you put a lighter to it.
06:40The reality was absolutely vile.
06:41Smokers complained it tasted like burning plastic or charcoal.
06:44Lighting up required a bizarre puffing ritual to heat the tip.
06:47RJR poured a whopping $325 million into its development.
06:51Premier flopped in less than a year.
06:53They all said that?
06:54Nobody liked them?
06:56Fewer than 5%.
06:57By 1989, it was yanked from shelves.
06:59It was less of a health breakthrough and more of a boondoggle for a company that certainly
07:03had it coming.
07:04And who the hell would sneak into a john to smoke one of these?
07:07Number 2.
07:08Atari Shock, an E.T. game.
07:10Few visuals capture an industry collapse quite like a landfill full of unsold games.
07:13In 1982, Atari rushed out E.T. the extraterrestrial in just five weeks, hoping to cash in on Spielberg's
07:19hit.
07:19Only from Atari.
07:21Made especially for systems from Atari.
07:24Instead, it became one of the worst video games ever made.
07:26Millions of cartridges went unsold, and urban legend claimed they were secretly buried in
07:30a New Mexico dump.
07:31The fiasco fueled the 1983 video game crash when Atari, and the U.S. market as a whole,
07:36imploded.
07:36The game became the biggest commercial failure in video game history.
07:40Demand plummeted, companies folded, and consoles gathered dust.
07:43In 2014, a landfill dig confirmed the myth, unearthing the lost copies of E.T.
07:47Atari's empire crumbled and was buried in the desert like a failed, geeky mafioso.
07:51E.T. is definitely here.
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08:10Number 1.
08:11New Coke
08:11It's not easy to enrage your entire customer base in one fell swoop, but Coca-Cola managed
08:16to pull it off.
08:16In 1985, desperate to out-sweet Pepsi, the company scrapped its century-old formula.
08:21Tomorrow, Coca-Cola company will tell a thirsty world it's putting a smoother, sweeter taste
08:26into the most instantly recognizable bottle in the world.
08:29They rolled out new Coke, leading to a full-blown cultural meltdown.
08:32It just goes down your stomach like a dead glass of water, whereas the old Coke just bites.
08:39Fans revolted, hotlines were flooded, and protest groups with names like old cola drinkers
08:43of America sprang up overnight.
08:45Within just 79 days, Coca-Cola caved.
08:47They re-released Coca-Cola Classic, cementing new Coke as one of the most infamous product
08:52flops of all time.
08:53I like Coke and the old Coke.
08:54Pepsi wasn't all top 10 hits either.
08:56They tried to compete with coffee as a source of caffeine in the morning.
08:59Pepsi AM was an epic face plant, but nothing could match Coca-Cola's self-immolation.
09:04Coke is it, Coke is it!
09:06Have we been unfair to the Yugo or new Coke?
09:09Did another 80s product deserve the crown of 80s biggest belly flop?
09:12Let us know in the comments below.
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