[Benjamin]

ROUND 5 - RESULTS

Happy Thursday!

With only 3 rounds to go after this, the scores are incredibly close for the crown!

But has this round changed the leader?

First up, you were tasked to find the best thing from the 90s. Did you bring nostalgia to the TM, or did they prefer you left the item back in the decade it belongs?…

[Benjamin]

Jake

Spoiler:

My best 90s thing was this...a Blockbuster membership card.



Can you get any more 90s than on a Friday night wandering the aisles of Blockbuster for your weekend treat. Tough decisions to make as you could only choose three and more often than not the biggest movies had already gone. But the thrill of when you got there on time for it to be in stock. But the disappointment and horror if someone has put the wrong tape in the wrong box. Thats even worse then breaking the fundamental rule of be kind rewind!

And the sadness after the two nights rental when you had to return it through the slot. But you probably watched the movie twice to make it worth it.

In these days of hundreds of streaming channels we feel like we have nothing to watch a lot of the time. Ironic really when you had a choice of just three films for over the weekend. But making that decision made the films feel so much more special

Oh and you could get your popcorn, sweets and drink while you were there too. How convenient!

We all were so sad that we lost Blockbuster. Id be so happy if it ever returned.

But to do any of this you needed the membership card so thats my best 90s item.
I must admit I try and feel that nostalgic feel nowadays as I Google the best new books. Then I use my library card to reserve them. I get excited when they arrive at the library desk and it looks and smells new and the librarian looks jealous as they stamp it for you and tell you to make sure you get it back in three weeks time as theres many others who have reserved it and I look back to my Blockbuster days when you had 2 nights to watch three films and when they stated video games and stocking those PS1 games you had one weekend to complete them. So thats no challenge to me!

[Benjamin]

Maru

Spoiler:

I'm required by corporate to provide a reason and so here it is. Portable CD players felt like the future but still kept you feeling present in the 90s... and because 90s music was lit.



Only thing missing is a black and white Nokia with a polyrhythmic ringtone to the latest bop to go with. In the US, I had the kit that had ALL the phat serial cables to every phone in existence at the time just so I could put fun graphics and funny ringtones on my phone.

Without the transition to CDs, I don't think transitioning to a high tech era would've felt the same.

[Benjamin]

Niamh

Spoiler:

This was a difficult one for me, having lived my teens through the 90's, you would think it would be an easier mission but somehow it made it more difficult. This task required extreme soul searching.

I finally settled on the humble Mix Tape, I decided on this because when I remembered back, for teenagers of the 90's when there wasn't smart phones and Social Media, where most teenagers channeled their angst and insecurity and identities really was through music. Many hours I spent in my bedroom lost in the songs from my favourite bands, If I had to sum up the 90's as a teenager it was music and the Mix Tape was a massive factor in that.

The hours spent sitting by the radio waiting for a song to record, praying the DJ wouldn't talk over the end of it or cut it off too soon. The Ultimate gift to a close friend or the object of your desire would be a mixtape, it was a labour of love and to receive one from someone? It felt so special.

The nostalgia bursts my heart just seeing the image below. For me, it's the Ultimate symbol of the 90's as the last decade to really have cassettes and so mix tapes. It's a symbol of a lost innocence in todays modern world :')

[Benjamin]

Mock

Spoiler:

Who wouldn't want to be on the menu of Hannibal Lecter? You could nice and ripe for the good ole chap.

And who wouldn't want the love and tender treatment from Buffalo Bill?

[Benjamin]

Annie

Spoiler:

I present to you not just a phone…but a cultural icon of the 90s.

This is the Nokia 3310 — the Queen of all mobile phones. Forget pages long texts...."C U @ 8" was all we needed on this baby.

In the 90s its battery lasted longer than most marriages. You could drop it down the stairs, throw it across a playground, possibly use it to build a house underwater and it would still have three bars of signal and a full battery.

And let’s talk about entertainment. Before Netflix, before TikTok… there was Snake. Hours of pure, pixelated tension. One wrong move and it was game over - character building at its finest. People lost days of their lives trying to beat their high score.

This phone didn’t need Face ID. It didn’t need WiFi. It didn’t need updating every six minutes. It simply worked. Endlessly. Relentlessly. For ever.

The Nokia 3310 represents everything great about the 90s - simplicity, durability and absolutely no group chats of nonsense. It was the Trailblazer, and superior master of phones to come.

Taskmaster, in a world of fragile smartphones… I give you a brick of greatness. The undisputed heavyweight champion of all 90s things. The Nokia 3310

[Benjamin]

Lets see how the TM rated these…

[Benjamin]

2 points

Spoiler:

Mock

Silence of the Lambs is a great film, it has a great cast, it was a great book before the great film. On another day, in another list, this might come higher but you’re up against some stiff competition.

[Benjamin]

3 points

Spoiler:

Annie

The Nokia Phone came to us between mobiles being born and them taking over everyone’s lives. I had a friend who dropped their Nokia into snow in a car park and when it was found weeks later, still worked. The world would be a batter place if phones were still like this. Great choice.

[Benjamin]

4 points

Spoiler:

Niamh

I still have mix tapes from the 90s. I don’t have anything to play them on anymore but I keep them because one day, I will buy something to play them on. You can get all the tracks on these tapes on various platforms, but nothing beats the hiss of the tape, the five minutes you had to reflect while the tape ran out before turning and playing the other side. Nostalgia to the max.

[Benjamin]

So we find ourselves with Jake and Maru left. One of you got the top marks and the other beaten down in their prime by the TM…

[Benjamin]

Spoiler:

1 point

Maru

This doesn’t deserve to be last. Nothing on this list deserves to be last. But I remember swapping my trusty Walkman for a portable CD player. It wasn’t portable, if you jogged it it’d skip. If you turned it on its side, it wouldn’t play properly. If there was a problem with the disc you couldn’t wind it back with a pen like you could with a tape.

5 points

Jake

The Blockbuster membership card, to me, was a passport to . I loved it. I miss it. Blockbuster was the height of quality entertainment. For less than the price of a cinema ticket you could take out three or four great films (and sometimes a turkey or two) for the weekend. I miss the nerds who worked there who’d get to know you and say, “we’ve just got this in and you’re going to love it!” They got to know you, they got to know what you liked… and they sold popcorn. Undoubtedly the ‘A-No.1’ best thing about the 90s.

[Benjamin]

Next up were two tasks, both with points up for grabs. Spot the difference you had to find the all the differences.

There were 9 in total…

[Benjamin]

And here is how you scored…

Spoiler:

5 points - Niamh (9 differences)
4 points - Mock (8 differences)
4 points - Maru (8 differences)
4 points - Annie (8 differences)
3 points - Jake (6 differences)

[Benjamin]

and lastly you had to find how many times the word task appeared in a grid. This was timed in case you all got the same answer (turns out none of you did. )

The word appeared 9 times

[Benjamin]

And here is how you scored…

Spoiler:

5 points - Maru - 9 (11 minutes)
4 points - Annie - 6 (7 minutes)
3 points - Jake - 20 (12 minutes)
2 points - Niamh - 40 (7 minutes)
1 point - Mock - 45 (6 minutes)

[Benjamin]

Below are the scores. This is the last round you will see the total overall scores until the final…

Spoiler:

Round 5

Task 1

5 - Jake
4 - Niamh
3 - Annie
2 - Mock
1 - Maru

Task 2

Part 1

5 points - Maru
4 points - Annie
3 points - Jake
2 points - Niamh
1 point - Mock

Part 2

5 points - Niamh
4 points - Mock
4 points - Maru
4 points - Annie
3 points - Jake

Total from round 5

11 points - Jake
11 points - Annie
11 points - Niamh
10 points - Maru
7 points - Mock

TOTAL OVERALL

47 - Annie
47 - Niamh
46 - Jake
42 - Maru
29 - Mock

[Benjamin]

Round 6 will be posted in a bit

[Benjamin]

ROUND 6

Task 1

Something which isn’t designed for sitting on but you’d want to sit on it anyway

As usual send me a picture of your choice and pitch.


Task 2 - TEAM TASK

10 celebrities (alive) who you’d invite to a dinner party and why

You’ll be in the same teams as last time (seeing as Shaun and Palmy are not playing now).

You have until Saturday evening to get your answers in.

****
@Niamh. @Maru @Strictly Jake @Mystic Mock
@AnnieK

[Niamh.]

I was finding the word Task all over the place, I was looking at it from a Strands perspective

Also you have my name down twice in the Total from Round 5, Annie should be one of me

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I was finding the word Task all over the place, I was looking at it from a Strands perspective

Also you have my name down twice in the Total from Round 5, Annie should be one of me

Ooh good spot

Where was that attention to detail for the word search

[Niamh.]

[Benjamin]

Did you print it out.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Did you print it out.

Yes sir

[Parmy]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

Next up were two tasks, both with points up for grabs. Spot the difference you had to find the all the differences.

There were 9 in total…

There's a few books diffferent