You wanna hear stupid? We used to take the small steel tipped darts and found that and if you pinched it it the leather pouch of your WHAMMO slingshot with the plastic flights pointed up, and the pointy steel end towards the slingshot frame, you could "safely" launch them straight up skyward without hitting your hand. They would quickly soar out of sight while we all stood around with MUCH anxiety and nervous anticipation as to who might get a dart burried in the top of their head!


never tried that one, I can imagine the speed they came down at, we did the same thing with bow & arrow sets, playing chicken with arrows coming straight down. :)

Here in New South Wales (Australia) fire works have been banned. I remember playing with Jumping Jacks (also known as Crazy Jacks). Youd light one end and then run, and about 20 small fire crackers would shhot off in all directions. We used to have Jumping Jack wars where we'd seperate all the small crackers, light them, and then throw them at each other in a mock war.

We also had 'Throwdowns' which were small bullet shaped contraptions with gun powder inside. Youd throw them down onto the ground and they'd make the sound of a gunshot.

I also remember my Godaiken dinasaur (much like Godzilla). He had hands that would shoot off when you pressed the button in its arm. It also had plastic rockets that were ready to launch from the remaining stump left by the hand. I also remember something about his head and you pressed a button on the back of its head...I cant remember what it did, but I do remember my Mum telling me to never play with that toy while on my own. (Of course, this warning ensured that I actually did play with it on my own, and often aimed it either at my friends or my pets).




AN

In my section of the country Clackers were called Click Clacks.  I can't tell you how many times I smacked myself in the head with those things. 
We always went to visit relatives down south where you could by fireworks on just about every corner and even though my dad restricted what I was allowed to buy, my cousins had no restrictions so I occasionally got to shoot off some potentially dangerous stuff when they would allow me to hang around with them. (I was a lot younger and a girl which was even worse in their eyes)
Also had a cousin who let me shoot his BB rifle, I looooved doing that.

With all the safety crap we have now, it makes me wonder how us kids of the '70s and '80s survived at all. ::)

With all the safety crap we have now, it makes me wonder how us kids of the '70s and '80s survived at all. ::)
I'm pretty confident that the strong "Safety" concerns are not so much the personal saftey of the kids, but the personal safety of the manufacturers from lawsuits.