"The Best Toys and Games of the 1970s"

ATARI

If your parents were willing to shell out $100 (about $600 today) to be the
first on your block with a home-gaming system, you still remember the
wonder that was Pong. A simple but addictive video game that featured
a single-pixel "ball" that bounced back and forth at increasing speeds
between two straight-line "paddles" in a televised game of ping-pong,
Pong was originally introduced by video game developer Atari as an
arcade game. By 1975, they figured out how to corral the game into
a small, home-gaming console that hooked right up to any TV. Home
Pong (released under the Tele-Games name until Atari rebranded it the
next year) debuted during the holiday shopping season and launched
a revolution -- plus a successful lawsuit from Magnavox to retain the
rights to the original technology. Atari happily shelled out $1.5 million
to keep its name on one of America's first home-gaming consoles, and
more sophisticated systems followed soon after.

BABY ALIVE

Per the jingle, Baby Alive was soft and sweet. She could drink and she
could eat. Introduced by Kenner in 1973, Baby Alive had realistic features,
including a mouth that really moved and special powdered food packets
that could be mixed with water and "fed" to the doll. Specifically created
to mimic the care of a real baby, the doll also drank from her bottle and
needed diaper changes after she was fed. By 1980, up to 1 million Baby
Alive dolls were sold every year. A talking version was released in the early
'90s, and revised again in 2006 when Hasbro took over production of Baby
Alive, making the look of the doll more cartoonish and less realistic than
the original, which is prized by collectors.

CHUTES AWAY

"Chutes Away is so much fun your kids may never stop playing it," Dick
Van Dyke shared in TV commercials for the 1970s parachute game. The
electronic game had a spinning wheel map where you looked through a
view finder and piloted a plane (using hand controls) over a target; once
aligned, you'd drop an air rescue parachute into the bucket and yell 
"Chutes Away!"

CLACKERS

With a simple design and a small price tag, Clackers held plenty of charm,
even if their repetitive noise could wear on a nerve. The version that 
became every kid's obsession in the early '70s featured two brightly
colored, tempered glass balls secured at the ends of a sturdy string. Users
grabbed a tab in the middle of the string and bobbed it up and down,
causing the balls to bang together with an addictively satisfying clack-clack
sound. With some practice, players got good enough to bang the orbs
together over the top of their hands, too. It didn't take long for the balls to
present problems, banging small hands and arms into painful injuries. The
toys were eventually taken off the market, but a safer version emerged in
the 1990s and is available today.

EVEL KNIEVEL/DERRY DARING STUNT DOLLS

In the late '60s and early '70s, cycle riding stuntman Evel Knievel held
adults and kids alike in his thrall. The seemingly fearless former insurance
salesman was willing to risk life and limb to pilot his custom Harley-
Davidson motorcycles over broader obstacles and wider chasms, all in the
name of entertainment. And just in time for the 1973 holiday shopping 
season, Ideal Toy Co. debuted the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle play set, which
consisted of a posable Evel action figure, a windup replica of his cycle and a 
red plastic launcher to send the mini Evel flying. By 1975, girls could get in 
on the action, too, with the introduction of the Derry Daring doll, based on 
stunt cyclist Debbie Lawler. Though the toys were popular, both play sets 
came with a comparatively hefty price tag. As both cyclists increasingly 
battered their bodies, and their televised performances became less 
frequent, the toys' popularity waned. But you can still find official Evel 
Knievel toys online.

GAME OF JAWS

This 1975 game from Ideal was created as a tie-in with that year's biggest 
movie blockbuster: Jaws. It was one of those nerve-wracking games, like 
Operation and Perfection, where you had to use a skillful touch to both 
achieve something and prevent another thing from happening. If you didn't, 
the game would end quickly and surprisingly, perhaps even startling some 
players. In this case, players used a hook to remove various objects from
the mouth of a plastic, cartoony-looking great white shark. The shark's jaws 
were held open by rubber bands and kept open by the weight of the objects in 
them (items like a shoe, a gun, a wagon wheel, a jug, a camera, a car tire, a 
walkie-talkie and an anchor, and more ominous thinks like a fish bone, a 
human bone and a human skull). As objects continued to be removed by 
players, the shark's jaws kept closing ever so slightly -- before they 
ultimately snapped shut altogether on some poor player's hook.

MASTERPIECE

"Your favorite Rembrandt is on the block and you are bidding for it against 
a dazzling array of eccentric art speculators. Should you go even higher? 
What if it's a worthless forgery? You'll find out when you play Masterpiece, 
an exciting, suspenseful trip into the elite world of the international art 
auction," shared Parker Brothers (now owned by Hasbro) of its 1970 hit 
board game. Bluffing and luck certainly came into play, but the real bonus 
was that the game helped many young players pass their future art history 
college courses with ease.

MATTEL ELECTRONICS FOOTBALL

The late '70s/early '80s was a golden age for handheld electronic 
games, and among the most popular of those were sports games. Once of 
the most enduring favorites was Mattel's electronics football game. The 
handheld device had an illustration of a football field on it, across which 
users, playing against each other or against the computer, would use buttons 
to design plays, and maneuver, little red dashes of light representing players. 
The incessant beeping noises made throughout the game were heard during 
many school recesses in that era and may have led to the game being among 
the toys most confiscated by annoyed teachers.

MERLIN

The same year that Simon (see below) debuted, Parker Brothers introduced
another battery-powered wonder -- the bright-red, phone-shaped Merlin. 
Invented by NASA employed Bob Doyle, his wife Holly and his brother-in-law 
Wendl Thomis, Merlin is one of the first true handheld games, and its 
similarity to a touch-tone phone made it easy to learn for most players. Unlike 
Simon, which offered players an increasingly challenging version of the same 
gameplay, Merlin (sometimes called Merlin the Electronic Wizard) offered 
players six different games, including tic-tac-tow, blackjack, a follow-the-leader 
game similar to Simon, a code-breaking game called Mindbender and more. 
Merlin and Simon ushered in the era of electronic toys and shared the cover of 
Newsweek's 1978 Christmas issue. Both toys retailed for around 
$25 and took the holiday shopping season by storm. In 1995, Parker Brothers 
offered up a single-player version called Merlin: The 10th Quest that expanded 
the game options to 10 and talked to its players. Plenty of the original Merlin 
consoles can be found for around their original asking price on eBay.

PET ROCKS

Advertising copywriter Gary Dahl was listening to some friends complain 
about the money and effort required to care for their cats and dogs when he 
jokingly suggested a rock might really be the ideal pet. Wondering if he could 
actually make that work, Dahl convinced coworkers to front him some cash, 
bought a bunch of rocks from a local supply store (which sourced them from a 
Mexican beach) for a penny apiece, and housed them comfortably in cardboard 
pet carriers complete with ventilation and straw bedding. He hauled his pint-
sized creations to a trade show for new toys in August 1975 and was overrun 
with orders. Kids and amused adults clamored for the novelty pets, which sold 
for $4 apiece and fit nicely on a desk at school or work. Dahl sold 1.5 million 
Pet Rocks, earning a buck on each sale and becoming a millionaire in just six 
months, before the fad lost steam. Since the early 2000s, Dahl's original Pet 
Rocks have experiences a renaissance, selling for seven times their original 
price from online retailers and the official Pet Rock website. The rocks have 
appeared in films, video games and on Sesame Street, and are a popular 
accessory for K-pop stars, taking the trend worldwide.

PUNCH-ME!

If you were an energetic kid in the early '70s with an unquenchable urge to 
pop Popeye in the nose or bash Batman in the belly, Punch-Me inflatable toys 
were the answer to  your parents' prayers. Punch-Me's were tot-size vinyl 
bags, weighted to the bottom and printed with a life-size version of popular 
kiddie characters. Give 'em a good sock and they'd bounce back up for another 
round. Also marketed as Bop Bags, the walloping wonders came in several sizes 
and let kids go toe-to-toe with clowns, superheroes and their favorite cartoon 
characters. A few were admitted head-scratchers, such as Flintstones toddlers 
Pebbles and Bam-Bam, a darling dolphin, and even poor Frosty the Snowman. 
But any toy that could keep kids from beating on their siblings was sure to be a 
hit with Mom and Dad, and a version of these inflatable boppers has stayed on 
the market ever since.

ROCK FLOWERS

What groovy gal could resist famed disc jockey Casey Kasem telling her that 
show could "get your own rock scene together with the groovy new Rock Flowers 
from Matell." All she had to do was convince her parents to buy her the three 
"outta sight fashion dolls dressed in WILD rock costumes," pop the plastic record 
that came included onto her record player, snap the 7-inch dolls into the posing 
stand atop the record... and boogie! A neon-clad, funked-up, rock star answer to 
Deluxe Reading's Dawn dolls, which were introduced the year before, Lilac, 
Heather and Rosemary cost $2.50 and spawned their own line of paper dolls. 
Though Mattel tried to bolster sales by forming a real-life Rock Flowers band 
(Rindy Dunn, Ardie Tillman and sometimes-actress Debra Clinger), who charted 
the cheesy love tune "Number Wonderful" at No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 
1971, the Rock Flowers wilted by 1974. A full set, including late additions Iris 
and Doug, could now set you back moore than $100 on resale sites.

SHOGUN WARRIORS

Matell's Shogun Warriors line of toys, produced mostly from 1977-80, consisted
of various large and small robots based on characters in Japanese TV shows.
Some of the Shogun Warriors were among the ultimate "You'll shoot your eyes 
out!" style of '70s toys, given that kids could press a button and shoot out the 
robots' flying fists of fury, sometimes sending them across the room! That 
feature was also on one of the most notable additions to the Shogun Warriors 
line: Godzilla. Along with being able to shoot his fist out, kids playing with Godzilla 
could press a level on the back of his head to have a strip painted with flames 
come out of his mouth.

SHRINKY DINKS

It isn't often that your mom and dad actually allow you to put your toys in the
oven. Such was the case with Shrinky Dinks, the superstars of the 1970s arts and 
crafts world. Shrinky Dinks were invented in 1973 by Wisconsin housewives Betty 
Morris and Kathryn Bloomberg as a project for their Cub Scout troop. Thin sheets 
of polystyrene plastic were printed with kid-friendly images that children could 
color with markers, colored pencils or acrylic paint, then pop into the oven. Heat 
caused the plastic to shrink and become thicker and more rigid, all the while 
retaining the color the kids applied. A hole could be poked into the plastic before 
baking so the finished products could be made into jewelry, keychains or 
ornaments. The finished Shrinky Dinks could also be turned into pins or magnets 
with a dab of glue. The ladies set up a table at the Brookfield Square Mall during 
the holiday shopping season, sold more than 3,000 kits in 10 days, and raked in 
$50,000 before they knew it. Less noxious than their chemistry cousin, Super 
Elastic Bubble Plastic (see below), Shrinky DInks are still loved by parents and kids 
today.

SIMON

The makers of one of the most popular toys of the late '70s were so certain their 
product ould be a hit that they hosted its 1978 launch party at New York City's 
star magnet disco, Studio 54. Blending the skills of toy designers Ralph Baer and 
Howard Morrison with the software programming talents of Baer's business partner 
Lenny Cope and Temple University computer science instructor Charles Kapps, the 
brightly colored, circular simon used sight and sound to addictively challenge players' 
short-term memory. The game could be enjoyed by a single player or groups up to 
four and got progressively more challenging as players' skills improved, which meant 
Simon fans rarely tired of the game. Simon retailed for $24.95 -- equal to about 
$125 today -- when Milton Bradley first introduced it. But its portability, ability to 
appeal to all family members and lasting entertainment value made Simon one of 
the hottest sellers of the '78 holiday shopping season and beyond. Over the course 
of several decades, Milton Bradley and its successor Hasbro introduced larger and 
smaller versions, but kept the same musical follow-the-leader premise. An original 
Simon handheld game can still be purchased -- for less than its original price!

SPEAK & SPELL

If you're a youngish grandparent currently telling the grandkids that you learned to 
spell with blocks and flashcards -- none of these newfangled apps and devices -- 
well, that's possibly stretching the truth. In 1978, Texas Instruments, whose 
handheld calculators were new making math class much more palatable, debuted the 
Speak & Spell. Operating on the same idea as a calculator, the notebook-sized 
learning toy "spoke" to its user, asking them to use the lettered keys to spell specific 
words. Get it right and reasonably human-like voice would say so, then offer you 
another world. Get it wrong and you had to try again. Eventually, the original 
technology became outdated, and the games were discontinued. Toymaker Basic 
Fun reintroduced a version of the classic Speak & Spell in 2019, and it's still 
available today.

STRETCH ARMSTRONG

Admit it: If you owned a Stretch Armstrong doll back in the late '70s/early '80s, 
chances are you eventually let curiosity get the better of you, and you just had to 
find out what was inside of this little blond-haired, bare-chested, wrestler-like 
action figure. Debuting in 1976, the rubber man filled with gelled corn syrup was on 
everyone's holiday list. You could stretch out Stretch to ridiculous lengths without 
breaking him, no matter how hard you and a pal may have pulled. If you ever 
performed exploratory surgery on old Stretch, after cutting into the muscleman's 
latex rubber out of skin, out spilled a gross, jelly-like substance that could retain a 
shape for a short period before reverting to its original shape. You didn't know that 
at the time; all you knew was that the cutting open of the doll marked the end of 
Stretch Armstrong's stretching days.

SUNSHINE FAMLY

For moms and dads fresh off the flower child scene, rural families who found 
Barbie and Ken just too hoity-toity, and Little House on the Prairie obsessives, 1974 
was a banner year. Courtesy of Mattel, doll aisles now included The Sunshine Family, 
a trio of countrified dolls that included brunette papa Steve, mama Stephie (a 
Melissa Sue Anderson lookalike who wore simple sandals if she wore shoes at all), 
and their towheaded baby girl Sweets, who came clothed in a rustic cloth diaper. 
Unlike Barbie in her towering townhouse, The Sunshine Family lived in a simple, 
one-story home and ran a craft store, which they filled with macramé goodies and 
stuff they created with their potter's wheel, spinning wheel and repurposed items -- 
"homey family activities" according to the ad. The sets encouraged kids to be crafty 
too, turning fast-food boxes, tuna cans and toothpaste boxes into furniture for the 
family. The dolls were an instant hit, and additional play sets, family members and 
friends soon followed. But by 1978, yuppies were popping the collars of their Izod 
polos, disco ruled the airwaves and the sun had set on The Sunshine Family.

SUPER ELASTIC BUBBLE PLASTIC

What comes to mind when you're asked to name the most memorable smells from 
your childhood? Dad mowing the lawn? Mom's pot roast and cookies? Play-Doh and 
Crayolas? How about polyvinyl acetate known as Super Elastic Bubble Plastic? 
Introduced by Wham-O in 1970, the rainbow-colored goo came in a tube that tots 
formed into a small ball and jammed onto the end of a straw. By blowing for all they 
were worth, kids created multicolored orbs with a texture somewhere between a 
bubble and a balloon that could withstand a roll across the grass, a game of catch 
or even a couple of gentle kicks. But, oh, those fumes! Breathe them in or make a 
bubble too close to Dad's grill and disaster loomed. The toy was discouraged for 
kids under 5 and pregnant ladies, and most parents opted out well before the 
product was discontinued in the mid 2000s. But for those of us who lived to tell 
the tale, core memories were made.

- REMIND magazine, Nov./Dec. 2025.

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