Space Hopper

Photo: Cristian Bortes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Remember this?

Space Hopper

Five quick questions. See how well you really remember, then find out what happened to it.

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The story

The Space Hopper was an inflatable orange ball with handle-like 'ears' that children straddled and bounced around on, hopping across gardens, parks and school playgrounds throughout the 1970s. It began life in Italy as a fitness gadget called the Pon Pon, but British firm Mettoy rebranded it with a space-age name to cash in on the moon-landing excitement of the era, and it became one of the decade's must-have toys. Space Hoppers never really vanished — they're still sold in toy shops today, and every so often nostalgic grown-ups gather for mass hopping events just like the one on Westminster Bridge.

Come back tomorrow for a new quiz!

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The story

The Space Hopper was an inflatable orange ball with handle-like 'ears' that children straddled and bounced around on, hopping across gardens, parks and school playgrounds throughout the 1970s. It began life in Italy as a fitness gadget called the Pon Pon, but British firm Mettoy rebranded it with a space-age name to cash in on the moon-landing excitement of the era, and it became one of the decade's must-have toys. Space Hoppers never really vanished — they're still sold in toy shops today, and every so often nostalgic grown-ups gather for mass hopping events just like the one on Westminster Bridge.

Come back tomorrow for a new quiz!