Were you a Red Rocker or a Blue Bomber?

Either way, if you were a kid in the 70s, you probably played this game at some point.

It came out in 1964, but they’re even re-manufacturing it today!

Marketed just like live pets in 1975, they really were just rocks – rocks that came with a 32-page care manual.

After hearing people complain about caring for pets, the creator decided to give people something they didn’t have to feed or walk.

The Magic Slate was perfect for secret messages, drawing practice, or writing out the names of people you hated and being able to make them disappear quickly (the names, not the people – it wasn’t THAT magical).

Just lift the top page and no one will know what you wrote to get out your aggression.

Speaking of getting out aggression, Hands Down was the game that required you to slap something over and over again.

But this one also started a lot of arguments when you tried to fake someone into slapping their paddle too early.

KerPlunk came out in 1967 and really just involved and plastic tube and rods (and gravity – the ultimate childhood enemy).

Sometimes, no matter how careful you were, there was just no way to keep those balls from going KERPLUNK!

Part toy, part accidental weapon, Clackers were made up of two hard plastic spheres attached to strings that you swung around and tried to get to hit each other.

But most people just ended up hitting themselves.

Invented in 1973, the Shrinky Dink activity kits were sheets of polystyrene that you could cut into any shape and heat up. Once heated, they became much thicker but also shrank horizontally and vertically.

So you ended up with a baked object about 1/3 of the original size.

And for some reason, we were all really amused by that.

Stretch Armstrong probably let us release a bit of pent-up frustration that we didn’t even know we had as kids. And while he was fun to stretch, somehow we were always really aiming to pull him apart.

Hasbro even re-released the toy a few years ago, so maybe he really was as cool as we all thought.

Technically, the first toy designed to make simple but beautiful spirals was introduced in 1827, but the brand-name Spirograph came out in 1965.

As 70s kids, they were still available and they were a blast to play with because even if you had no discernible artistic talent you were still able to create something really cool.

At least until your mom told you to stop wasting all of her paper.

This electronic game was the ultimate test of memory and you could practice alone or play with frinds.

The toy was manufactured starting in 1978 and stumped many kids after just a few rounds as it became more and more complex.

The little Japanese stuffed monkeys were first released overseas in 1974, but after getting their own American cartoon in 1983 it was only a matter of time before the merchandising madness began.

Our parents didn’t get the appeal, but that only made them more appealing.

Having your own camera was a big deal before the iPhone came out!

From bad photos with our thumbs in the corner to blurry pets and awkward close-ups of just about anything we could find, little did we know we’d be preparing ourselves for Instagram rather than a career in photography someday.

There was something so satisfying about popping that die in the center of Trouble.

In fact, more than one kid probably broke the game by doing it over and over again just for fun (or was that just us?).

It doesn’t take long to learn what all the animals say and yet somehow we managed to keep these around for years.

They were pretty sophisticated electronics back in the day!

The action garage was the ultimate toy.

Remember that little bell that rang as you would roll up the care elevator just to practice parking?

Who knew finding a parking spot IRL would turn out to be such a drag?!

You sank my battleship!

You couldn’t have been a kid in the 70s OR 80s if you didn’t utter those words.

Then electronic Battleship came out in the late 80s, ensuring your little brother couldn’t cheat anymore.

Behold, the first electronic educational toy!

Kids might laugh at the lack of sophistication, but the Little Professor was much-coveted among the under-10 crowd.

We hardly noticed it was educational.

These were invented well before the 70s, but it seemed as though every house had a set by then.

It definitely stoked our interest in architecture (at least of the log cabin variety).

And it’s no wonder – Lincoln Logs were invented by architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John!

Chrissy made red hair cool.

But she was wildly popular because you could lengthen or shorten her hair with a knob.

And for whatever, that seemed like really amazing in the 70s.

Simple but mesmerizing the Whee-Lo was just a sphere and some magnets. And yet we could entertain ourselves with it for quite some time.

Turns out we were fairly easily amused in those days.

Sending more than one kid to the emergency room if they weren’t properly monitored and causing more than a little barfing in the rest, the sit and spin let you do just that.

Companies still make these toys, insisting that they encourage balance – but you definitely have to learn the hard way.

Mr. Mouth snapped his mouth closed at different times, preventing us from getting the coins in there and sail to victory of our siblings.

Some of us also learned that trying to imitate Mr. Mouth was a very dangerous chocking hazard.

The Speak & Spell was introduced in 1978 but even 90s kids will remember them.

They stopped being manufactured in 1992, but are responsible for many of our spelling abilities (at least until spell check came along and ruined us).

There was something deeply satisfying about Lite Brite – at least until you eventually lost one of the tiny bulbs or parts of the board failed to light up.

Some of those designs felt so sophisticated that you could work on them for hours.

The only bad part about the Lite-Brite was being asked to clean it up.

Billed as “the world’s first indoor ball” any kid who had one knew it was just as capable of breaking a lamp as any other thing you were throwing in the house.

And knocking something over while trying to peg your sibling with it probably introduced you to a few choice phrases from your parents’ mouths – including “false advertising.”

The subject of many fights between siblings in houses that only had one, the Viewmaster allowed you to scroll through 3-D photos on special reels.

For some reason, it continued to be fun even after you had seen all the photos 20 times.

Watching the legendary Even Knievel pull off his stunts could make any child’s eye pop. Remember when we all thought “stuntman” was a viable career option?

Cheers to those who’ve made it one!

The rest of us settled for driving our stunt cars off of pets, refrigerators, siblings, etc. with a whole lot of “mom, look at this!”

Sure, they’re back in style now, but 70s kids were the original daredevils (probably because of all those Evel Knievel television specials!).

Even if you never got great at skateboarding, it always felt pretty cool to try or to learn tricks.

And one thing’s for sure – we came home with a lot more scrapes and bruises than kids today. And probably some concussions too.

Over 40 million of these have been sold since 1974!

While most of us never made it past the straight lines and angles stage (“Look, mom, it’s a skyline!”) there was always that one kid who could draw something really amazing with it.

And boy did it feel good to shake it out like a petty brat when they did.

Atari released the ultimate video game in 1972. And while it seemed like the coolest thing ever, Pong was really just table tennis – but slower.

At least we can all say it helped improve our hand-eye coordination!

Somehow we managed to be entertained by moving two lines and a sphere.

Ok, Transformers are cool, but before we had those we had to settle for Micronauts.

And they were a true 70s toy, manufactured between 1976 and 1980 (when the company that made them went out of business).

Buoyed by an interest in sci-fi storytelling, the Micronauts gave us a peek into what the future would look like.

And apparently we suspected we’d have a lot more robots by now.

It was really just a music box that played two songs, but the picture moved along a belt and that made it feel a lot more sophisticated.

The only real problem is that you’d have Row Row Row Your Boat stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

Mattel’s Electronic Football was one of the first handheld console games.

Released in the mid-70s, it would spark a revolution in electronic games that reached its height in the 80s.

And that’s when no one looked up from their device ever again.

Anyone who got to see Star Wars in the theater probably has a pretty vivid memory of the unbelievably sophisticated visuals (for their time).

And who couldn’t walk out of the screening a huge fan?

You might have had to do some begging and pleading, but chances are you got your hands on at least an action figure or two.

The Millennium Falcon is in a class all its own. It still counts as a 70s toy because it was released in 1979 and was pretty much immediately deemed the greatest and most desirable toy ever.

If you managed to get your parents to buy one, chances are your friends harbored some serious resentment towards you.

In mint condition, you can now get many hundreds of dollars for them on eBay. But who didn’t play with theirs?

And let’s not forget that 1979 was the year that started The Great Debate: Star Trek or Star Wars?

Sure, you could like both, but as a kid, you were forced to choose when asked.

And if you were a kid on the cusp of the 80s you know you simply could NOT play with a lightsaber and a phaser at the same time. That was sacrilege.

You couldn’t play just one game of Hungry Hungry Hippo because it was over in about 20 seconds, tops.

And while things could get rowdy with all that smacking and yelling, it was still a really fun game to play. That is until someone started tipping the board.

Only your richest friend could afford the $200 Atari 2600 console when it came out in 1977.

For many of us, it was also the ultimate test as to whether there was or was not a Santa Claus.

If you still believed in him after he didn’t bring you one, it definitely shook your faith in his ability to know what you wanted – or your sense of justice when he brought all the rich kids better toys.

Undoubtedly purchased to keep you busy for hours, the Rubik’s Cube brought some fun but lots of mild to moderate frustration to kids as well after it was released 1977.

Raise your hand if you didn’t throw it on the floor in frustration a few times.

And what was up with those kids who could solve it in minutes?!

Weebles wobble but they won’t fall down.

And if you don’t get that song stuck in your head, then you were definitely born in the 90s or later.

Introduced in 1971, these were a quintessential 70s toy for little ones.

Big Jim was the 1970s follow-up to the original action figure, GI Joe.

He wasn’t military-oriented, but he came with multiple outfits and occupations – from spy to karate master.

He even had a button on the back that allowed him to karate chop, even when he was just dressed in his swim trunks.

And if you think Barbie set unrealistic expectations for girls, Big Jim came with a muscle band so boys could stress out about their bodies as well.

Boggle is still around but it came out in 1972.

If you had the earlier version you know the frustration of having to deal with the Q when it came up since that was a few years before they just went ahead and put Qu on the same piece.

In the end, it really challenged us to build our vocabularies – or at least try to convince other players that the words we were making up were real.

This 1974 game went as fast or slow as your opponent would allow it and many of us remember that kid who put just a little too much thought into each move and dragged the game out longer than necessary.

But remember how satisfying it was to release the bottom and watch all the coins come tumbling out?

We all wanted one, but why?!

It seemed pretty cool at the time to have a doll that could eat. Then again, she also pooped and threw up – and somehow we found that appealing.

The original version came out in 1973 but she was re-released many times in subsequent decades and there are even talking version of her around now.

Toy cars are still a favorite among both boys and girls, but if you were old enough to stay up and watch the detective drama as a kid, chances are you considered Starsky’s 1976 Ford Gran Torino in a class of its own.

Those of us lucky enough even got to own our own mini versions.

Swing it around your ankle and jump over it – it’s great exercise.

Too bad we all tripped on it so many times that it should have come with its own pack of Band-Aids.

Most of us wanted an Easy-Bake Oven because we assumed it meant that we could make a tiny batch of brownies whenever we wanted.

But most of us ended up with an oven that our parents didn’t want to keep buying mixes for.

While it was introduced in 1963 and the newest version was released in 2017, the 70s and 80s kids will remember these personal bakeries quite fondly.

First introduced in the late 60s, Operation really tested our hand-eye coordination and led to more than one adult word being shouted as our tweezers touched the side of an organ chamber.

It turns out being a surgeon was harder than we thought!

They might still be around today, but 70s kids were the first to get their hands on the Big Wheels bike.

Part tricycle, part totally rad motorcycle, everyone felt cool on one of these low riding beasts.

It didn’t matter how uneven the pavement was, you could usually get yourself down the street pretty quickly (and probably a lot farther away than parents would allow their kids to go now).

A bit earlier than the 70s, the Mr. Potato Head many of us know and love was released in 1964.

Before that, there was a version that required an actual potato, but parents didn’t seem to like having rotting vegetables in their kids’ toy boxes.

Go figure.

For some reason, expandable water toys had a real moment in the 1970s.

While most of the toys were reptiles or water creatures, there were human figurines as well.

They never quite grew the way the box promised, but it was still fun to wake up in the morning to see a whole new, waterlogged toy.

You would have had to be pretty young in the 70s to enjoy the rideable Inchworm.

But think of all the exercise we got propelling that little guy around!

If you thought Legos were too mainstream, you may have asked your parents for Loc Blocs instead. Somehow, they were pointier and even more painful to step on as well!

But you could build more sophisticated things with these so it was a surprise when Legos were the only one to survive past the 80s.

Mastermind was a code-breaking game that came out in 1970.

You had to agree to some things ahead of time so this one required a co-player you could really trust.

One of the most popular handheld games of the 70s, Merlin was the brainchild of a NASA engineer and came out in 1978.

The best part of Merlin was that you could play 6 different games on the device.

Most of our parents knew that the Shaker Maker was probably going to ruin a piece of furniture at some point, but occasionally some kid on the block would get one.

The kit consisted of powders that you would add water to and then put in a mold until they dried.

If you could get them out in one piece, you could even paint them later! (At least we imagine that’s what happened to the rare person who got them out in one piece.)

Never meant to be a toy, Silly String started out as a way to try and make a spray-on cast for broken bones.

Those cans contained all sorts of bad stuff and are now largely banned in many places. But 70s and 80s kids sure did have a fun couple of Halloweens before that!

If you weren’t a kid in the 70s this is one you probably won’t recognize.

They were basically just a beady-eyed worm on a string, but for some reason we loved them anyway.

What goes up must come down – and that was part of the problem with Stomp Rockets. They never came down in quite the right place and you generally had to dodge them once you stomped on the button and launched them into the air.

Then again, some of them never came down if you managed to launch them into a tree or gutter.

Despite the damage that can be done by projectiles, these toys are still around.

Requiring roughly the same skill set as cornhole (which is to say you need to be able to toss a bean bag in the general direction of the game), Toss Across was a giant tic-tac-toe board.

But the strategy game in when you could hit any of the Xs and Os and change them right back to prevent the other player from winning.

Considering how much time we all spend avoiding phone calls these days it’s amazing to think we used to covet them as toys.

Then again, it was Mickey Mouse on the other end, so that was really the fun part.

Who doesn’t like a little make-believe and button pressing?

Produced by Tyco in 1970, this could entertain any kid for hours.

Putting it together (and then putting it away) were no fun, but those wonderful moments of watching your cars race around the track in between were totally worth it.

These rag dolls were launched in 1975.

The cat-loving, modestly dressed doll was a hit among the younger set or those whose parents thought Barbie seemed a little mature.

Holly Hobbie even had her own Easy Bake-style oven – and a whole set of TV shows about the character and her friends.

For those of us who wanted to bring out our inner Bobby Hull but didn’t have the equipment to play hockey ourselves, this late 60s/early 70s tabletop game was the greatest.

One nice part is that it was hard to commit penalties since all the players moved along pre-determined slots.

Released in the late 60s but creating awkward moments among friends throughout the 70s and onward, Twister is a game that seemed fun until you were trying to contort yourself into a pretzel shape without falling on someone or getting a less-than-desirable body part in your face.

Then again, we still play it – it just usually comes out after a few drinks.

A lot like Jenga, Don’t Break the Ice was one of those games that led to maximum humiliation if you were the one to end the game.

It required a lot of difficult maneuvering or else a nice, confident hit.

And sometimes it was just fun to take a hand and smash them all in.

Oh no, Mr. Bill!

If that doesn’t sound familiar, then you weren’t alive in the 70s.

Not necessarily a children’s toy, it was born from a Saturday Night Live sketch and Mr. Bill was always at the mercy of the evil Sluggo.

Perfection wasn’t that hard, but it did help us with our dexterity when we were young.

It also helped us learn what anxiety meant as each second passed while we tried to stick the shapes in the correct slots as quickly as possible.