Stranger Things cult objects: the 15 accessories that tell the show, from the waffle to the walkman
Universe · Objects · Accessories
A waffle, a string of lights, a walkie, a nail bat: the show tells itself through its objects, all period, all become symbols. Here are the fifteen cult accessories, with the scene that made them famous and the character they point to.
The essentials
- The simplest: the Eggo waffle, Eleven's food
- The most useful: the walkie-talkie, the party's radio
- The most copied: Steve's nail bat
- The most moving: Max's Walkman, and her tape
Contents
The group's objects
| Object | Character | The scene | What he says |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Eggo waffle | Eleven | Mike's freezer, Season 1 | The first gentleness of a girl without a childhood |
| The walkie-talkie | Mike, Dustin, Lucas | The calls to Will, Season 1 | Friendship before phones |
| The lights and the alphabet | Joyce | The wall, Season 1 | A mother who believes |
| The nail bat | Steve | The Byers house, Season 1; then every season | The pretty boy become a protector |
| The cap | Dustin | All the seasons | The child who does not change |
| The bandana | Lucas | The woods, Season 1 | The group's soldier |
| The slingshot | Lucas | Against the Demogorgon, season 1 | David versus Goliath |
The show's accessories, to collect them.
In the shopKids' Steve's Babies T-shirt24,90 €See the product
Seasons 2 and 3
| Object | Character | The scene | What he says |
|---|---|---|---|
| The skateboard | Max | The arcade, Season 2 | The newcomer, who goes faster |
| The Heathkit radio | The audiovisual club | Seasons 1 and 3 | The kids' science |
| The Hawaiian shirt | Hopper | Summer 1985 | A father who tries |
| The Scoops Ahoy uniform | Steve and Robin | Starcourt, season 3 | The funniest summer |
| The cherry slushie | Alexei | The fair, Season 3 | The happiness, too short |
Hopper's Hawaiian shirt and the Scoops Ahoy uniform are the two season 3 objects that became costumes: you do not wear them, you play them.
Seasons 4 and 5
| Object | Character | The scene | What he says |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Walkman and the cassette | Max | The cemetery, Season 4 | The song that saves |
| The patch jacket | Eddie, then Dustin | The roof, Season 4; the quarantine, Season 5 | A friend's legacy |
| The guitar | Eddie | The trailer roof | The most metal concert |
| The grandfather clock | Vecna | The visions, season 4 | The time left |
| The axe | Joyce | The Abyss, Season 5 | The mother who finishes what she started |
Eddie's vestIt is the object that crosses two seasons: on Eddie in 1986, on Dustin in 1987, like a grief you wear. The show never explains it; it shows it.
What they tell
The show's objects are all of the period, and all at a child's height: what you find in a 1983 kitchen, garage, basement. No futuristic weapon, no gadget: a bat, a string of lights, a radio. That is what makes the show believable, and what makes its objects collectible: each one is a memory the viewer could have held.
For fans
The objects come as replicas, wearable accessories, figures that hold them, and décor. The most requested are Steve's bat as a replica, Mike's walkie, Max's Walkman, and Joyce's lights for the wall. The rest, the cap, the bandana, the shirt, you find in a thrift store or in a 1985 closet.
The Steve figure, bat in hand.
In the shopLego Steve Harrington mini figure14,90 €See the product
The objects, season by season, in one table
| Object | Season | To whom | What it tells |
|---|---|---|---|
| The abandoned bike | 1 | Will | The show's first clue, intact at the roadside |
| The wall of lights | 1 | Joyce | A painted alphabet and light bulbs: talking through the walls |
| The Eggo waffle | 1 and 2 | Eleven | Freedom, then the language of an adoption |
| The walkie-talkie | 1 to 3 | The party | The private channel, and Mike's 353 calls |
| The nail bat | 2 and 3 | Steve | The babysitter become a fighter |
| The Walkman | 4 and 5 | Max | Kate Bush against Vecna, then the song on headphones at the hospital |
| The Hellfire Club T-shirt | 4 and 5 | Eddie, then Dustin | The uniform of a “cult,” become a flag |
| The pick | 4 | Eddie, then Wayne | Returned to his uncle by Dustin, in the 1986 epilogue |
| The grandfather clock | 4 | Vecna | The curse's signal |
| The briefcase | 5 | Henry | The origin of the evil, opened in a mine |
| The twenty-sided die | 1 to 5 | All | The November 6, 1983 roll, and Holly's new campaign in 1989 |
The last season's objects
The last season adds few objects, but it turns them into relics. The Hellfire Club T-shirt, which Dustin wears alone in 1987 and for which he is harassed. Max's headphones, at the hospital, where Lucas plays her song. Holly's book, A Wrinkle in Time, which gives its name to Mr. Whatsit and to Camazotz. Robin's radio, WSQK, and its tower, become the ladder to the Abyss. And the briefcase, whose contents you only see for an instant.
In the epilogue, one last object: the Dungeons & Dragons binders the group puts away before going to dinner, and that Holly takes out again for her own campaign. The show starts with a die roll and ends with a binder you reopen.
Why the show tells through objects
The Duffers come from a cinema, that of the 80s, where an object is worth a scene: E.T.'s bike, the Goonies map, the DeLorean. They applied the method every season: one object per character, held on screen, that says what the character does not say. Joyce speaks through the lights because she cannot speak to Will; Max survives through the Walkman because she cannot forgive Billy; Dustin wears the T-shirt because he cannot bring Eddie back.
That is also what explains the shop: the objects from the show are symbols before they are products, and a fan who wears Eddie's pick or Dustin's cap is wearing a scene. The faces, for their part, belong to the actors.
The Max figure, Walkman at her ear.
In the shopSteve, moms' number 1 keychain12,90 €See the product
TakeawayThe waffle, the walkie, the lights: Season 1. Hopper's shirt and Scoops Ahoy: Season 3. Max's Walkman and Eddie's vest: Season 4. Joyce's axe: the end.
Frequently asked questions
What are the cult objects of Stranger Things?
The Eggo waffle, the walkie-talkie, Joyce's lights, Steve's nail bat, Dustin's cap, Max's Walkman, Eddie's jacket, Hopper's Hawaiian shirt, the Scoops Ahoy uniform.
Why does Eleven eat waffles?
Because they are the first she tastes, in Mike's freezer in 1983: the first sweetness of a girl raised in a lab.
What is the most copied object?
Steve's nail bat, as a replica, and Eddie's patch jacket, remade patch by patch by fans.
What object crosses the most seasons?
Dustin's cap, there from 1983 to 1989, and Steve's bat, from Season 1 to Season 4.
What is the last object of the show?
The Dungeons & Dragons binders, put away by the group before the 1989 dinner and reopened by Holly for her own campaign: the last shot, before Mike closes the door.
What object from the last season became cult?
The Hellfire Club T-shirt, worn by Dustin alone in tribute to Eddie, and Holly's book, A Wrinkle in Time, which gives their names to Mr. Whatsit and Camazotz.
What object from the show is the most reproduced as merch?
The Hellfire Club T-shirt, as soon as Season 4 came out, ahead of the Eggo waffle and the twenty-sided die.
Where does Eddie's pick end up?
At his uncle Wayne's: Dustin returns it to him in the season 4 epilogue, telling him Eddie died a hero.