A Controversial Toy From The 1970s

Clackers, a toy that was banned in the ’70s because it could cause injury if you broke one. Clackers were made of either plastic or glass, and when they shattered due to being broken, a shard would fly out with high velocity; this is what led to them eventually getting taken off shelves for safety reasons. This story shows how easy it can be for things like toys gone wrong to lead towards government intervention as well as a parental concern by sparking something such as injuries from clacking noises.

The clack-clacking sound of the banned children’s toys known as clackers was loud, but were they ever dangerous? If you played with them in the ’60s or ’70s, you remember how one plastic sphere would smack against another. Did any of us witness a famous shattering incident and watch glass shrapnel fly dangerously all over? 

Evidently, it happened enough for there to be documented cases where injuries occurred due to fractured parts breaking off from these toy spheres, so they took them off store shelves entirely. This is the story about a toy that sparked parental concern and government intervention, even though we had fun playing around with it back then!