Soju (소주) is not only the most popular alcoholic drink in Korea, but the best selling in the whole world. Never heard of it, or at least never drank it? Well that'll be because Koreans have the highest consumption of spirits per capita in the world. And soju, and in particular the Jinro brand is the most popular drink of choice. Jinro soju regularly sells 3 times as much as popular whiskey brand Johnny Walker, and over twice as much as Smirnoff vodka, globally! On highest selling brands of spirits globally, two soju brands have held 1st and 3rd place for may years. And most of it is consumed in South Korea.

Traditionally made from rice, wheat or barley, soju is essentially water and ethanol. That's it! In fact these days, with the high consumption, manufacturers have tankers pure ethanol shipped in, which they water down and filter. ABV varies from around 16.7% to 45%, with 20% being the most popular.

Soju was first distilled around the 13th century, during the Mongol invasions of Korea. The Mongols brought the technique of distillation with them, and the Koreans quickly adopted the technique, and have been getting hammered ever since. These days everywhere in Korea posters advertising soju featuring young sexy ladies, enticing Koreans to drink the liquor (not that they need enticing). Back in 1959, they used frogs, sailors and of course sexy ladies!

Newton the robot, which appeared in 1989, was manufactured by SynPet. Advertised as a "practical" personal robot, it's a bit of a mystery exactly what Newton was, part from a PC on wheels. A bad R2-D2 rip-off, or a Metal Mickey without arms or the sense of humour. Newton was also an answering machine and a smoke detector. As far as being a "robot", Newton had motion sensors and could move around "autonomously" on "plush carpet" and even on a "5 degree incline". The best part of Newton was the cheesy 80s promo video for him. Check it out below.

Kids TV: Metal Mickey (1980 - 1983) - Designed by Johnny Edwards, Metal Mickey was a robot that got his own prime-time UK TV show in the 1980s. Directed by Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees.

Best Of British: Comic Book Robots - A look at the comic book history of the UK through the eyes of robots. From Robot Archie and Brassneck, to the robots of 2000 AD and C+VG.

Randy Retro Robot Romeos - Redressing the romantic balance, with Weird Retro's romp through the Romeos of the robot world. For all the ladies who like a love-bot.

It's well documented that the Japanese have an odd fetish for tentacles. There is evidence going back to the Edo period, of artwork depicting sexual activity between women and tentacled sea creatures, usually an octopus, but squids get a look in too. Early illustrations include those for the 1814 novel, The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, by the artist Hokusai Katsushika. But where this bizarre fetish for tentacles first started is anyone's guess. But it's there, and even in the mainstream.

How the hell did I miss this one, when I did my list of Xmas Games: Festive Freebies & Christmas Cassettes? A give-away licensed game for the Commodore 64 from 1986, would have easily made the list. Only if I'd have known about it earlier. To be fair, this game was only a give-away to retailers of American Greetings, who manufactured the jolly gaudy coloured quasi-marsupials come teddy bears that could be turned completely inside-out. So how would I know?

It really doesn't get any creepier than Remco's Baby Laugh A Lot from 1971. This doll literally laughed like a maniacal serial killer, and even came with a rocking chair for added creepy effect. Stick some batteries in her and children would be exposed to the laugh of an insane maniac, but wait until the batteries started to run down. And then Baby Laugh A Lot entered a whole new world of weird, as she turned from a rocking high-pitched crazy doll to a low-pitched satanic nightmare doll. However you played with her, Baby Laugh A Lot must have seriously damaged a whole generation of little girls who were unfortunate enough to be given her as a present.

The Flintstones first appeared on our screens in 1960, as an animated prime-time family sitcom. It quickly gained mass appeal, and so was perfect for advertisers to exploit its popularity to sell their products. Now the most infamous product that The Flinstones pushed on the viewing public of America was for Winston Cigarettes. Not so unusual at the time to have cigarette commercials on prime-time TV, though due to The Flintstones being a show that was watched by children there was some controversy. The end-of-show sponsorship bumper was pulled in 1963, when the character of baby Pebbles was introduced.

At the time it wasn't the fact that the commercial pushing the virtues of cigarettes was on a family show, watched by impressionable children. No, one of the biggest issues with the commercial, and the whole Winston campaign was one of grammatical error. The slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." has more people up in arms than anything, with its grammatically incorrect use of "like" rather than "as", as a conjunction. 

Clowns are creepy, fact! The fear of clowns if known as coulrophobia, as term invented some time in the 80s. From Lon Chaney's creepy clowns in Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) and the depressing He Who Gets Slapped (1924), to the infamous image of serial killer John Wayne Gacy, clowns are creepy! Many of us have childhood nightmare memories of seeing clowns at the circus, and on late night TV, in cult movies like IT! (1990) (with child-killing Pennywise) and Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988).

Clowns were a regular part of kids TV in America, in the 50s and 60s. There was Bozo the Clown, at one time played by Willard Scott, who also played and claimed to have invented the first incarnation of Ronald McDonald. Not forgetting the creepily 'mute' Clarabell the Clown, on Howdy Doody, first played by Bob Keeshan, who later went on to create the famous kids TV character Captain Kangaroo. And let's not forget Rusty Nails, supposedly the inspiration for Krusty the Clown.

Clowns also appeared in TV commercials, before the appearance of Ronald McDonald on our TV screens, the creepiest of all the TV clowns to send shivers down the spine was Krinkles the Clown. Krinkles was the mascot for Post's Sugar Coated Rice Krinkles. His manic face was more than enough to put you off your cereal in a morning.

The Weird Retro Creepy Circus Clowns facebook page archive has an ever growing collection of some of the best creepy clown images to be found.