Super 70s Archives : Page 2 of 6 : The Retro Network

Stretch Armstrong: The Indestructible Icon of Childhood

Stretch Armstrong was the toy that felt almost alive. Heavy, rubbery, and endlessly bendable, he turned every living room into a science experiment and every kid into a believer in indestructible heroes.

Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon Jump Disaster

Mickey Yarber

Evel Knievel’s Snake River Canyon jump was part stunt, part spectacle, and pure American bravado. For one brief moment in 1974, he aimed a rocket at the sky and tried to make history.

Superstations: How Local Television Quietly Went National

Mickey Yarber

Superstations reshaped early cable by turning local broadcasters into national channels, expanding viewer choice and introducing regional sports and culture to millions long before dedicated cable networks dominated the television landscape.

Spider-Woman Was Marvel’s Early Animated Pioneer

Mickey Yarber

Spider Woman brought mystery, sci fi, and superhero adventure to Saturday mornings in 1979, giving Jessica Drew a bold animated debut that still feels like one of Marvel’s forgotten gems.

Atari: The Rise and Fall of the Company That Built Home Gaming

Mickey Yarber

Atari built the home video game industry from the ground up, rose to unprecedented dominance, and then collapsed under market saturation, corporate missteps, and shifting competition, leaving a legacy that continues to shape modern gaming.

Racing Through Childhood: The Rise of Slot Car Tracks

Mickey Yarber

Slot car racing turned living rooms into speedways, evolving from simple electric loops to wild themed sets that defined childhood play from the late seventies through the nineties and fueled imaginations for generations.

The Birth of a Universe: Star Wars and Its Endless Impact

Mickey Yarber

Star Wars didn’t just debut in 1977. It exploded, sending kids back to theaters again and again and launching a pop‑culture universe of toys, books, sequels, and memories that never stopped growing.

The High‑Adventure Legacy of Jonny Quest

Mickey Yarber

Jonny Quest burst onto TV in 1964 with globe‑trotting danger, bold design, and stories that treated kids like they were ready for real adventure, not just Saturday‑morning silliness.

A Brief History of the TV Test Pattern

Mickey Yarber

Long before streaming menus and twenty‑four hour programming, television had quiet hours. Stations signed off at night and returned in the morning, and in the space between those two moments lived one of the most

Two-Way Déjà Vu with ‘70s Sci-Fi Flicks

Ernest Dempsey

Sci-fi cinema almost habitually broke the bounds of human comfort and convention by engaging with alternative scenarios of life. Many of these alternative worlds have crept into the real world around us over the years.

The Great Cartoon Games: Remembering Laff-A-Lympics

Mickey Yarber

Laff A Lympics brought together the entire Hanna Barbera universe in a globe spanning cartoon competition that turned Saturday mornings into a playful mix of sports, chaos, and crossover magic.

The Night the City Went Dark: New York City’s 1977 Blackout

Mickey Yarber

In the summer heat of 1977, New York lost its lights and revealed its soul, a city shaken by darkness yet held together by the stubborn resilience of people who refused to let it fall apart.

How Tang Became the Flavor of the Future

Mickey Yarber

Tang turned breakfast into a tiny Space Age adventure, a glowing orange drink that made kids feel like astronauts and turned an ordinary morning into a sip of the future.

The Brief Reign of the 8 Track

Mickey Yarber

For a brief moment in the seventies, the 8 track felt like freedom itself, a plastic passport that let music spill into every mile of the open road before cassettes quietly pushed it aside.

Freshen‑Up: A Tiny Innovation with a Huge Pop‑Culture Footprint

Mickey Yarber

Freshen‑Up wasn’t just gum. It was a tiny, juicy shock that turned an ordinary chew into a playground moment, surprising kids, delighting friends and earning a permanent place in 70s snack‑time nostalgia.

Silly Putty: The Gooey Classic That Never Gets Old

Mickey Yarber

Born from a lab accident and raised in a plastic egg, Silly Putty became the stretchy, bouncy little miracle that soothed fidgety hands, lifted comic strips and earned a permanent place in America’s toy‑box history.

Real American Hero: The Story of G.I. Joe

Mickey Yarber

G.I. Joe’s journey spans generations, from towering sixties action heroes to the explosive eighties revival of comics, cartoons, and toys that shaped childhood, leaving behind a legacy fans still treasure today.