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Toys from Our Past: Clackers - Parents - Families.com

The really dangerous parts of the toy were the two large acrylic balls that dangled from the end of each string. Mine were purple. I thought they were great. They were like the "in" toy at that time. Since I did not have too many of the "in" toys while growing up, this was fantastic and I felt so important.

When you put the ring around your finger you would get the balls into a swinging motion so that they would bang into each other thereby producing the "clacking" sound. If you were really talented you were able to swing them in an upward direction producing clacking above and below simultaneously. I could only do the first one, but that was still good for me, I thought.

Unfortunately, one too many kids got it in the eyeball because the toy was taken off the market. They were also prone to shattering while they were "clacking" together, which caused even more injuries to children.

What I found interesting is while researching the famous Clacker I read that a similar device was used in the nineteenth century to scare birds away. The Clacker also resembled a boleadora, which is a Spanish weapon....

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Electric Pix: Retro Toys: Clackers.

by Ian56

Of bruised wrists and cracked knuckles, here was a 70's toy that left more kids in pain than any I can remember. Think of a clock face: hold the gizmo by the plastic tab with the two glass balls hanging at the six. Flick the wrist up and down to swing the balls in opposite directions up to 12 and back again to the 6 - and again - only this time faster and keep that rhythmn up for as long as you can. Impossible to describe, but it had that "this is going to hurt like hell but I'm going to beat my time if it's the last thing I do." something which kept you coming back for one more try. I think my record was about 35 seconds before the devil decided I'd had enough and had me running around my backyard, rubbing my knuckles and yelping in pain. A simple idea and a black and blue classic retro toy.

Source: Electric Pix: Retro Toys: Clackers.