You are correct in noting the difference between blimey and yikes. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned ‘gosh’ - which, perversely, can be used in many situations that may need either a milder blimey or a milder yikes.
English is nothing if not subtle. 
hot dang!
You’re bloody fucking right, you are.
Which reminds me: The fucking fucker’s fucked the fucking fucker and now the fucking fucker’s fucking fucked.
(You can go fuck your buffalo, too. Yikes!)
With all due respect to our wonderful cousins across the big pond… I’ll stick with “Yikes”, thank you.
The fucking babies fucking cry
The fucking flowers fucking die
The fucking food is fucking muck
The fucking drains are fucking fucked
– John Cooper Clarke, “Evidently Chickentown”.
Most versatile word in the English language. Functions as interjection, noun, verb, adjective, adverb. One could make an argument that “smurf” could be more versatile, but that is a very limited universe where that works. Gotta fucking love fuck.
Golly!
Gee willikers!
BTW: National Lampoon magazine used to (assuming they no longer do) run fake, spacey, Hollywood talking head style reviews where – in that same style – they’d start out with some brief, offbeat exclamatory. My personal favorite: “Celestial Mules!!”
Golly gosh!
And golly gosh, oh gee.
Lugubrious smorgasbord!
This must be nipped in the bud before @beschizza makes “yikes” the new “■■■■■”.
And then there’s yoicks
(…not a New York yikes.)
Every Steeler fan knows yoiks!
You may need to explain this to a Brit.
(I was going to ask - tongue partly in cheek - what a Steeler is.)
Wiki apparently recalls Myron`s signature as “yoi!” I distinctly recall "yoiks"from my childhood, but that’s how childhood is!
I must concede defeat. There’s not much that can beat Malcolm Tucker.
