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Variations of the Pop Pack

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 5:56 pm
by Beta 5
I've just been thinking about all the variations of the Thorn pop pack, does anyone know when the various changes happened?

I know the grey sided ones are from the 60's, when did they change to all white painting? Then the 70's design was dropped in 1980/81? for the oval ended version, then again in the 80's (when exactly?) the starter holder was changed from the square one and the turnbuckles became plastic.
Finally the most recent T8 design came about in 1991/92 I believe? Any further variations after that (aside from the cheapening down of materials etc.)?

It would be interesting to put together a rough timeline of what designs of it were around and when, and when changes were made.

Re: Variations of the Pop Pack

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 6:45 pm
by Slyspark
There were some more subtle changes too. I think by the end we were on something like MK16 or so...

Re: Variations of the Pop Pack

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 6:51 pm
by Beta 5
Yes I recall it was something like that, I guess another change was the fitting of ballasts on those clip brackets rather than screwing them in.

Re: Variations of the Pop Pack

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2026 7:44 pm
by Slyspark
There were a lot of very minor changes, such as the inside of the spine on the later ones going from golden to white painted. Not all the different versions were that noticeable

Re: Variations of the Pop Pack

Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2026 4:40 pm
by Beta 5
I have some 2ft's from 1995 with the gold/green colour inside, will have to see what mk number those are too.