Toys tagged with 70s - 2/11

Candyland

Not since the days of the historical chocolate and peanut butter merge has there ever been a pairing so heavenly as that of board game and candy. Images of gooey confections, locales that would bring a diabetic to their knees, all wrapped in an easy-to-play board game – is it any wonder that it caught on with the little ones?

Chutes Away

4 Comments

The lives of the survivors are in your hands. Do you have what it takes – the ability to line up your crosshairs successfully and the timing necessary to drop your paratroopers at precisely the right moment and save the day – the pressure to keep your cool when lives are resting on your piloting skills? Chutes Away gave you a chance to be a hero – actually ten chances if you want to get technical about it – and see if you had the intestinal fortitude to emerge victorious.

Click Clacks / Clackers / Kerbangers

19 Comments

It's a shame that the very thing that makes a toy attractive is the one thing you can't advertise: the danger factor. If the makers of lawn darts had been allowed to write on the packaging, "The toy that could kill you if you use it wrong!" then nearly every kid in the world would be begging for a set. So it was with the simple, seemingly harmless 70's toy called Click Clacks (or, depending on where you grew up, Knockers, Knocker Bockers, Clackers, Ka-Bangers, Knicker Knackers, etc.). Had they worked only as the toymakers intended-as a noisy little twist on paddleball games-then Click Clacks might now be collecting dust in the Hall of Forgotten Toys. But no, these little spheres had a grander destiny: the much cooler Hall of Dangerous Toys.

Colorforms

10 Comments

"They stick like magic!" Actually, magic had very little to do with what made a Colorform stick, rather it was just the adhesive quality of the thinly-cut plastic. The real magic lay in their ability to encourage the imagination. Colorforms were mere props, whether they resembled geometric shapes or a sitcom star. The box provided the stage; it was up to you to choose and arrange the props and, most importantly, concoct the story. Perfect for rainy days and long car trips, generations of kids have created millions of Colorform settings over the years.

Cootie

Creepy Crawlers

5 Comments

Many boys harbor a fondness for bugs. Not only are they fun to play with, but there is also the realization of the sadistic havoc you can wreak with them. Every family member had a target on their back and if you played your cards right, you could evoke a scream of blood-curdling fear with just the right placement. Of course, like all of God’s creatures, the little critters wanted nothing more than to escape your clutches and, therefore, weren’t the most cooperative accomplices. If only someone could invent a bug that didn’t run away. Even better, if only you could manufacture an endless supply of inanimate insects all for yourself, imagine the terror you could induce. Mattel Toys, always plugged in to the secret desires of youth, came through by offering your very own bug factory. You know them as Creepy Crawlers.

Dawn

1 Comment

Barbie may have had Ken and a few assorted friends to pal around with, but Dawn, one of the many dolls to try her hand at competing with the blond icon, had a downright entourage of cohorts. This was one popular and remarkably groovy chick with a style all her own.

Digger the Dog

2 Comments

Try to talk the parental units into a canine companion and you’re libel to find yourself battered with lectures on responsibility. And God forbid someone in the household should be harboring a dander allergy. Your hopes of bonding with man’s best friend come to a grinding halt before you even have a chance to pet the little guy. That is, until along came Digger in 1974, that lovable plastic canine that would never become infested with fleas, wouldn’t think of chasing the neighborhood cat, and required no food or water.

Don’t Break The Ice

1 Comment

At one point during the 1960s, toy companies raised eyebrows with a line of games seemingly designed to bring out the megalomaniac in every child. With Ants in the Pants, kids launched plastic bugs into a pair of trousers. Cootie taught children the value of constructing even more bugs. But of all these games, nothing came close to being as diabolically fun as Milton Bradley’s Don’t Break The Ice.

Easy-Bake Oven

7 Comments

Moms don’t generally relinquish control of their kitchen appliances to the kiddies, especially the oven, and for good reason – a 450-degree chamber isn’t the best place for kids to stick their hands. And yet, the oven is where all those delicious baked goods come from – moist cupcakes, gooey chocolate chip cookies, basically the finest treats a kitchen can offer. And what about all those future culinary wizards, eager to get a head start in the world of batter and frosting concoctions? Luckily, for the upcoming chefs of the world, and the rest of the kids who simply dreamt of their very own bakery - where they could escape the “don’t touch that” limitations imposed by nervous adults and churn out a never-ending supply of tasty concoctions, there was the iconic Easy-Bake Oven. Let’s take a look back at a toy that offered the sweetest of rewards.