When you close your eyes, you can probably still hear the distinct, machine gun sound that echoing across your school playground. Clack… Clack… CLACK-CLACK-CLACK.
Golden years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Clackers, which are alos known as Ker-Bangers or Click-Clacks, were considered as the kings of the recess yard.
Every kid who lived in that era had a pair, and every parent hated the noise of it, and every teacher feared them. Kids were the only ones who loved it.
If you owned a pair, you would remember only one thing for sure. That is Pain.
Clackers were not lightweight toys like today’s ones. They were heavy, solid acrylic spheres. They swing at high speeds on a thin nylon cord, making a loud noise.
If you missed your rhythm even by a fraction of a second, those heavy balls slammed directly into your wrist bone with the force of a hammer. That was so much pain.
Because of having clackers in our hands, we always walked around with bruised forearms like a badge of honor. They made us proud. Funny right?
But when we look back on those days, we can realize those bruises were the least of our worries.
Before the clackers got a nationwide ban, they didn’t just bruise, they exploded.
Let’s look at the story of how our favourite toy became a public safety crisis in those days.
What Were We Thinking? (The Mechanics)
It’s hard to believe that Clackers were sold in toy stores and not hardware stores. Because they had all the specifications to be in the hardware store shelves.
The design of Clackers was super simple. Just two heavy balls attached with a nylon string. But the materials that were used to make them were the problem.
Those balls were not made of foam or hollow plastic. The original Clackers were super solid, heavy, and tempered acrylic. Sounds rough and tough, right? Yes, there were.
Simply, those heavy balls felt like giant marbles the size of plums. Terrifying.
The target of the game was all about momentum and rhythm. You just have to hold the plastic tab and jerk your hand up and down. Simple as that!
If you were good at it, those balls would smack into each other below your hand.
If you were really good or reckless, you can pump your arm faster and faster until those heavy balls swung a full 180 degrees. This made them smacking together above your hand as well. Pro play!
Clack-up. Clack-down. Clack-up. Clack-down.
In order to get a top-class collision, you had to provide high velocity to those balls.
This was just like you swinging a medieval weapon. Just like Argentine “bola”, inches from your own face. Now you know how dangerous it was.
There were no helmets or safety guards. Just you, gravity ,and two heavy balls moving at high speed with a lot of force.
From Fun to “Shrapnel” (The Real Danger)
Yes, all the kids who played Clackers had bruises. Having a swollen forearm made you proud.
But bruises weren’t teh actually reason that the government stepped in to ban it.
Silently, Clackers were a ticking time bomb. But how? Let’s see…
Now you know balls were made of hard acrylic plastic. They are made to withstand thousands of high-impact collisions. The plastic would weaken with use.
The micro- fractures can be happen upon regular use and those fractures were not visible to human eyes.
Then one day, suddenly, CRACK.
Since they are made of acrylic plastic and move at high speeds, they didn’t bounce off each other with a crack upon impact. They didn’t just crack and break. They exploded.
Suddenly, you became the victim. After the crack, you were not playing the game anymore. You were dodging shrapnel.
Sharp shards of jagged plastic start to fly in every direction, mostly right at the user’s face, because that’s what was nearest.
Emergency rooms were starting to fill quickly, not due to the bruises that happened during Clackers play, but due to chipped teeth, cuts on the face, and most terrifyingly, eye injuries.
Kids were getting beaten up by their own Christmas present.
The reports took a while for the FDA to determine that this popular game toy was simply a grenade on a nylon string.
The FDA Steps In (The Ban)
As I told you, the reports took a while to reach the FDA, and by 1971, the fun was officially stopped.
The number of injuries was too high, and govenment was shocked and couldn’t ignore it.
A rare and broad move by the FDA, which was regulating toy safety at the time, stepped suddenly and declared Clackers as a “mechanical hazard” item.
Based on the reports, it wasn’t just a warning sticker on the box. It was a purge.
The government suddenly ordered the manufacturers of Clackers to get approval by testing the shatter resistance of balls.
But most manufacturers couldn’t meet the strict safety standards. That was mainly due to the materials they were using to make them.
But rules were essential because they were used by our next generation. Kids.
However, overnight, the “Click-Clack” sound fell silent across America. That was pretty quick.
As I remember, schools acted faster than the government. Principals across the country banned Clackers from school grounds. This made Kids stop using Clackers during school hours.
The danger was not the only problem, but the noise was driving teachers nuts.
If you had a pair of Clackers after 1971, you were holding contraband.
Quickly, they disappeared from dime stores and eventually left kids treasure their battered, chipped, and illegal pairs like gold.
That was one of the major incidents that happened due to a toy because it was considered “too dangerous” for the American public.
The “Safe” Comeback (Why It Wasn’t the Same)
In the 1990s and 2000s, the toy companies took several actions to bring Clackers back.
I know you can remember seeing them in dollar stores. They had bright neon colors and had a triangular plastic handle instead of a ring.
If you bought one for your grandkids to show off your old clacker skills, sorry, you might probably disappointed.
The latest versions were safe. Made from lightweight materials with hollow plastic. Plus, they wouldn’t crack, just thudded.
Because of not having the heavy, solid weight, you couldn’t get the exact momentum and rhythm going like those old days.
No satisfying ear spitting noise anymore. But most importantly, they didn’t give you bruises like the previous ones. The thrill was completely gone.
They took off the danger of the Clackers, but with that, they took their souls too. They just didn’t feel like the Clackers that we used to have.
But that’s ok. New ones are safer for our grandkids.
We Were Built Tougher
When I look back, Clackers can be considered a symbol of our childhood. They were fun, loud, and yes bit dangerous as well.
We grew up in the era of no bicycle helmets, no rubberized playgrounds, and no warning labels on coffee cups.
We learned physics that way by example. Trial, error, and occasional bruised wrist.
Actually, it is a miracle we all made it to adulthood with our visions, but luckily we did.
Honestry we survived the Backyard Ballistics” era, and we have the good stories (and maybe a few faint scars) to prove it as well.
Let us know whether you mastered perfect rhythm with Clatters? Did you end up wit bruised arm? Share your memories in the comment section.