A 1970s Kid’s Longing for Clackers, Pong, Battleship & Other Retro Gems

"I think I'll put my phone away for a game of Battleship," said NO ONE EVER. Well, maybe this isn't entirely true! Many phone fanatics are excellent multi-taskers who are open to anything, so if you're one of them, more power to you. But, for the rest of us, if we had to choose between our phones and a game of Battleship, it's safe to say our beloved devices would win the "battle". Pun intended. There's also the case of some people not knowing what "Battleship" even is, and that's why we're lucky to have search engines on our phones to find out. Yes, still on the topic of phones. Lol. Respectfully, if cell phones existed in the 1970s, Battleship would lose its luster just the same because everyone would; what? You guessed it, be on their phones. (more talk of retro below)

Yet, as a product of the 1970s, there's still a longing to reminisce about toys from a decade that offered a limited selection of electronics. Not to mention nothing that resembles the technology we have today. With the exception of retro toys such as Simon, Speak & Spell, Pong, Atari 2600, Baby Alive, Easy Bake Oven, and Mattel's Electronic Football, most that held a child's undivided attention that did not require an electrical outlet or batteries 50 years ago were Rubik's Cube, Pet Rocks, Weebles, Clackers, Big Wheel, Connect Four, Uno, Barbie, G.I. Joe, Nerf Football, possibly Hungry Hungry Hippo and of course, BATLLESHIP.  As for Cabbage Patch Dolls, they were manufactured in mass consumption in 1982 by Xavier Roberts. So, unless you were able to purchase an original prototype created by Martha Nelson Thomas in 1976, we'll save discussion of that trendy doll for an article about toys from the 1980s. So, what toys did you embrace growing up in the 1970s?

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