RetroDaze

Be my
ghoul
friend.

RETRORATING: 10

90's Vs: Bill Nye the Science Guy vs...

RETRORATING: 11

The Mini & The Mighty

RETRORATING: 13

Top 5 Best and Worst things to get in...

Don't mess
with the bull.
JOIN!!!

2 COMMENTS

RETRORATING: 8

FAVORITED 2 TIMES

Do You Remember: HyperColor Shirts

By: mickyarber

Once upon a time, we saw the future, and it changed color with heat!

Really, you practically couldn’t afford not to buy a HyperColor shirt. I mean, it changed color, right? That was like getting two shirts for the price of one. So that price tag you saw? Remember, that was 50% off what it should have cost you. You should probably buy two then, since you’re such a great bargain shopper.

What wasn’t to love about HyperColor shirts? Well, a few things, but we’ll get to those later. For now, let’s talk about how rad they were. Introduced by Generra at the tail end of those color-crazy 80’s, HyperColor promised a t-shirt revolution. A patented “Metamorphic Color System” caused the shirt’s color to change when it came in contact with heat. Press a warm hand onto your belly, and your purple shirt would have a temporary pink handprint. How cool was that?

Body heat, hot breath, blow dryers… any heat source was enough to change green to yellow, blue to green, and so on. It was like a Mood Ring for the body, and matched up with acid wash jeans, it made you one of the coolest kids in your school! Or maybe not judging by my experiences :-(. These kids below know what I'm talking about.

Unfortunately (and here’s the “what’s not to love” part), there were some drawbacks. Like the fact that wearing a HyperColor shirt seemed to give everybody the right to put their sweaty palms all over you or breathe on you. Or the way your shirt reacted to all heat, including the kind produced by your armpits (no volunteering to answer questions in class on HyperColor t-shirt day). Suddenly, the idea of a heat-sensitive shirt just wasn’t all you had dreamed it would be.

The HyperColor craze faded like a bad tie-dye by the early 90’s, and Generra had to lay off one-fourth of its staff by the spring of ’92. Apparently, the world just wasn’t ready for odd-colored sweat spots and rampant personal space invasion, even for the sake of a chameleon fashion statement.

For me, I thought wearing one of these would be awesome. But the truth was, I was still a nerd but in a cool shirt. No one wanted to touch it, which defeated my plans of getting touchy feely with girls in school. I guess it was a cool concept in theory, but didn't translate too well in execution. But still, I at least have fond memories of waiting anxiously to get my hands on one when the marketing buzz kicked in.

Did you have HyperColor clothing? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below.

Mickey Yarber is a freelance writer and lover of all things fun from our childhoods. He has a blog where he shares childhood memories of tv shows, toys, movies, games, cartoons, food, school days, and a host of other things. Stop by and check him out at:

How I Spent My Childhood

And be sure to follow me on Twitter at @yesterdayville for constant retro goodness!

Looking for more from mickyarber?

READ 159955 TIMES

Bill and Ted's Excellent Merchandise

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure was a sleeper hit on VHS in the late 80’s thanks to the non-heinous tale of two would-be rocker buddies surfing...

Vintage WWF Merchandise

If you were a kid in the 80’s it was hard not to be drawn in by the larger than life characters an...

Action Figure Reclamation Project Phase 6

It’s been a while but I’m back again with the 6th installment of my ongoing Action Figure Reclamation Project series. For the uninitiated, through...

Vintage ThunderCats Merchandise

In 1985 ThunderCats were loose on TV screens in syndication and capturing the imaginations of elementary school age children across the worl...

GoBots Merchandise Revisited

Let’s face it, GoBots never had the staying power of their fellow transforming robot vehicle competitors The Transformers. From box art, t...

Retro Antique Store: Las Vegas

Whenever I travel I make it a point to seek out the local antique stores, thrift shops and if I’m lucky, a garage sale or two. Recently whil...

RoboCrap: The Weirdest RoboCop Merchandise

In 1988 movie audiences were introduced to The Future of Law Enforcement, RoboCop. Despite being a hyper-violent satire of action movies by ...

Weirdest Ghostbusters 2 Merchandise

The 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters 2 flew under the radar this year, overshadowed once again by the hype over Tim Burton’s Batman, in a case of ...

Batman 1989 Movie Merchandise

“What are you? I’m Batman” and with those immortal words in the opening moments of Tim Burton’s 1989 blockbuster, Batman, the campy 60’s er...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: