If you’ve ever looked at your phone and thought, “This would’ve melted people’s brains in 1985,” you’re not alone. Graphic designer Luli Kibudi basically took that shower thought and turned it into a whole art series — imagining modern apps like Instagram, Netflix, and Spotify as chunky, plasticky 1980s gadgets. The project, called “Once Appon a Time,” has been making the rounds online again, and it’s hitting that perfect nostalgia–meets–tech sweet spot.
It’s not just a fun aesthetic exercise either. It actually says a lot about how gadget design has changed, what we’ve crammed into our pockets, and why our sleek rectangles sometimes feel… a little boring. So let’s talk about why these fake 80s gadgets are secretly some of the smartest tech commentary of the year.
1. One App, One Gadget: When Devices Actually Had a Personality
Kibudi’s concept is simple: take a single app and imagine it as a standalone 80s device. Think Instagram as a toy-like instant camera, or Spotify as a neon cassette player that looks like it came with a free mixtape and a sticker sheet.
Back then, hardware had one main job: a Walkman played music, a Polaroid took photos, a VHS deck annoyed you with tracking issues. That mission-focus made gadgets weirdly charming. They came in wild shapes, colors, and slider knobs — because form followed that one function. Compare that to now, where your phone is a camera, console, TV, notebook, and wallet all at once. Efficient? Absolutely. Playful? Not so much.
These fake 80s versions remind us what we lost when everything merged into a single slab: personality. Dials, chunky buttons, ridiculous logos — stuff that made a device feel like a thing you owned, not just another app icon.
2. The 80s Aesthetic Is Basically a Cheat Code for Viral Gadget Content
There’s a reason this series keeps blowing up on social feeds: the retro aesthetic is algorithm catnip. Bright primary colors, plastic shells, fake brand decals, analog displays — it’s instantly recognizable, even if you were born after dial-up died.
We’re in a full-on nostalgia loop right now: cassette-style Bluetooth players, “Game Boy” phone cases, Polaroid cameras that are more decor than tool. TikTok is full of people buying retro-styled keyboards, fake CRT filters, and brick phones that barely do anything… on purpose.
Kibudi’s art taps into that vibe perfectly. These “devices” look like something you could’ve spotted in an 80s Toys “R” Us catalog between a Talkboy and a Tiger Electronics handheld. It’s no accident that modern gadget makers are copying this: companies like Teenage Engineering, Analogue, and even Fujifilm (with its Instax line) are building new hardware that pretends it’s from the VCR era — and people are obsessed.
3. Your Phone Replaced a Backpack Full of Retro Gear
Another reason these imaginary gadgets hit so hard: they basically expose how absurdly powerful your phone is, without lecturing you about it.
Scroll through the series and mentally add up the gear:
- Camera for photos and videos
- Walkman or boombox for music
- VHS player for movies
- Radio for news and music discovery
- Game console for casual games
- Map, calendar, alarm clock, address book… you get the idea
In the 80s, this was an entire room of electronics and a backpack full of tapes, film, and cartridges. Now it’s 180 grams of glass in your pocket.
Seeing each app as a separate gadget makes the tradeoff obvious: we gained convenience but lost the ritual. Loading a cassette, flipping a record, swapping film — all replaced by a tap. That’s why these fake devices feel strangely cozy: they remind us of when using tech meant physically doing something, not just scrolling.
4. The “What If” Factor: Why Fake Gadgets Feel More Creative Than Real Ones
One underrated reason this project resonates with gadget nerds: it scratches that “what if hardware was weirder?” itch. Real gadgets are stuck dealing with regulations, supply chains, cost, and durability. Fake gadgets? Pure vibes.
Kibudi leans into that freedom. The imagined 80s app-devices don’t worry about battery life or FCC labels; they just try to embody the feeling of each app. A social app might look like a pastel plastic camera. A streaming app becomes a chunky tape deck. The design language actually tells you what the “gadget” is for without needing a startup-y tagline.
It lines up with a very real trend: concept gadgets and renders go viral constantly — folding phones that bend into bracelets, AR glasses that look like designer frames, modular consoles that probably wouldn’t survive a backpack. Are they shipping next year? No. Do they influence how real companies think about design? Honestly, yes. Stuff like this sets the mood board for the next wave of hardware.
5. Retro-Inspired Gadgets Are Quietly Becoming a Real Product Category
Here’s the twist: while Kibudi’s series is art, the market around this idea is very real. We’re already seeing modern gadgets that look like they stepped out of the 80s, just with USB‑C ports and Bluetooth tacked on.
A few examples tech enthusiasts have been drooling over:
- **Modern cassette-style players** that stream Spotify but still have fake “tape” animations
- **Game Boy–inspired handhelds** that run indie games and emulators with pixel-perfect screens
- **Digital cameras with fake film dials** and big, tactile shutter buttons (looking at you, Fujifilm fans)
- **Retro TVs with curved-style displays** that are actually flat panels with old-school shells
Kibudi’s “Once Appon a Time” sits right in the middle of that trend: it shows how comfortable we are mixing analog looks with digital brains. Gadget makers are watching. The more this kind of art goes viral, the more likely it is that some hardware brand says, “Okay, what if we actually built this?”
Conclusion
Luli Kibudi’s 80s-ified app gadgets aren’t just Instagram candy — they’re a reminder that tech doesn’t have to look soulless to be powerful. Under the neon plastic and fake labels is a pretty sharp point: we’ve squeezed an entire era of devices into one ultra-optimized slab, and in the process, we flattened a lot of the fun out of gadget design.
If you’re into hardware, projects like “Once Appon a Time” are worth watching. They show where people’s imaginations go when you take away specs and focus on vibes. And if the current wave of retro-inspired gear is anything to go by, today’s viral “fake” gadgets might be tomorrow’s limited-edition drops.
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if your next favorite device looks like it escaped from a dusty 1980s catalog — just with Wi‑Fi, a battery indicator, and way too many notifications.
Key Takeaway
The most important thing to remember from this article is that this information can change how you think about Gadgets.
