Spacehoppers and Choppers
The Retro Toy and games you put on your Christmas List

Remember the old retro toys you used to play with? Did you bounce about on spacehoppers, play pong or ride around on your cool Chopper? Can you recall the heroes Twirling Tim and Hurricane Hank, and who they used to do battle with in the arena? Did you used to come home from school with bruised knuckles from trying to beat 100 clacks on your Klackers? Or was you the studious type carefully making lovely patterns with your Spirograph which, no matter how careful you were, always seemed to cut through the paper turning your masterpiece into a mess.
No matter if you can’t remember, for you are cordially invited into my toybox to take a look at some of the things that used to keep you amused in those good old days. Hopefully seeing the old retro toys may bring back some happy memories and if you still have a pair of Klackers I would love to have them. I never did get a proper set of my own See below what I had to make do with. One thing before we go, make sure your pet rock is well fed and watered!
If you have a favourite that isn’t here, please let me know so I can add it to the list.

		Batmobile – I had one of these and did I love it. It’s funny how things just disappear, get thrown out without you knowing. I loved the flaming exhaust
		Choppers – What a bike this was. Truly a seventies Icon. When I ask people what they remember most about the seventies they say, flares, big hair and Choppers. Unfortunately I was one of the few that didn’t get one. I had to make do with my 20” bike who’s pedal kept falling off. Luckily I had some good friends who let me have a go and what a dream it was, Easyrider eat your heart out. There is a limited edition available to buy now but without the characteristic crossbar gear change., apparently health & safety wouldn’t have it there for the new version. Still, a very cool bike and one I wouldn’t mind riding down the seafront on now suitably adorned with the tassells and playing card rattle of course.
		Etch-a-sketch - Had one of these, it’s funny how you could never get that diagonal line as good as the picture. Still, did enjoy playing with it until my brother shook the thing after I had spent hours on a picture. Funny how it got broken shortly after that!
		Klackers - How to explain these to someone who would never have seen them? You would start by gently getting the two balls to bounce against each other until you thought the timing was right. At that moment you would sharply lift and drop your hand forcing the balls to bounce together both at the bottom and at the top of the arc. When you got it right they would bounce very quickly up and down. The idea was to see how many Klacks you could do before one of the balls smashed your knuckles. My dad, the ever resourceful dad that he was, decided he could make me a set out of wood. Hmm wood doesn’t bounce dad……….. not one of his better ideas ended up in my cupboard with my conkers.
		Hot wheels – Cool cars raced along on a specially designed track which could be manipulated into various shapes making some very exciting tracks. The favourite section no doubt being the loop the loop. Of course, boys will be boys and the track would inevitably be dismantled straight after the loop so the car would do the greatest stunt jump in the world over the fish tank and into the bread bin.
		Magna Doodle – Cool writing tablet that you were able to rub out by moving the slider. Great for leaving notes to tell Dad you’d be late for tea.
		Pet rock - Why do some things catch on and some don’t? Who on earth said ‘let’s make some pet rocks’ and more to the point who went along with it? The things people buy really does amaze me sometimes. You have to laugh though, I would like to have a read of the training manual.
		Pong – Totally fascinated by this game when it first came out. I can remember first seeing it on Tomorrow’s World and thinking then it was such a cool idea. Simple things please simple minds my dad would say.
		Rock em Sock em - Great fun this one. Two players would move their boxer about the ring looking for an opening to unleash a good right hander which if timed right would land on the opponents chin knocking his block off, or to be precise, making it pop up like a Jack-in-the-box.
		Simon – Late 70’s toy. Basically a memory game. The colours would flash in an ever increasing sequence requesting you to repeat it.
		Space Hopper - Great toy for strengthening your leg muscles.Good fun when you have 3 or more people playing bumper hoppers and ending up in a huge pile up. How fun would exercising be if you used these down at the gym?
		Spud Guns – War was great with these guns. A good upgrade to the cap guns because these actually fired. Cheap ammo too, just nick a large King Edward from the larder and it was fully loaded. All you had to do was push the nozzle of the gun into the totty and break it off. Just pull the trigger and it would fire, was great fun until my dad went mad seeing all these bits of totty all over the place. Definitely an outside toy. Definitely a retro toy I should have kept.
		Wizzer - Enjoyable little spinning top which you used to wind up by rolling the bottom bit on the floor.

Play the original retro games online in our arcade! Remember playing Asteroids and invaders at the pub on a Sunday afternoon? Relive those lazy 70s days on this very site! Just don't blame us for the hours you'll lose!