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The 10 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time 404

Ant writes "An article at the Radar lists the ten most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, the editors excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars, and anything else actually intended to inflict harm." My favorite: 'Feed Me!' begged the packaging for 1996's Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kid. And much like the carnivorous Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, the adorable lineup of Cabbage Patch snack-dolls appeared at first to be harmless. They merely wanted a nibble--a carrot perhaps, or maybe some yummy pudding. They would stop chewing when snack time was done -- they promised. Then they chomped your child's finger off."
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The 10 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time

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  • Warning (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:12AM (#17266736)
    Do not reach into Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kid with remaining fingers.
  • by PixieDust ( 971386 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:14AM (#17266742)
    This article seems to think along these lines as well. To steal a quote from a friend of mine (and where he got it I've no idea)...

    The problem with (America) is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity, let's just remove the warning labels from products and let the problem solve itself.

    And yea, after reading the article, hehe. Wow. I wish I'd had the Atomic lab. Oh the fun I'd have had with that! Those bastards that snapped my bra in high school would have MAJOR issues now...

    *Maniacle laughter followed immediately by a chase scene involving a bunch of men in white coats*

  • Happy FUN BALL!

    -only $14.95-

    * Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Ball.
    * Caution: Happy Fun Ball may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
    * Happy Fun Ball Contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
    * Do not use Happy Fun Ball on concrete.

    Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:

    * Itching
    * Vertigo
    * Dizziness
    * Tingling in extremities
    * Loss of balance or coordination
    * Slurred speech
    * Temporary blindness
    * Profuse sweating
    * Heart palpitations

    If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.

    Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.

    When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...

    Failure to do so relieves the makers of Happy Fun Ball, Wacky Products Incorporated, and its parent company Global Chemical Unlimited, of any and all liability.

    Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.

    Happy Fun Ball has been shipped to our troops in Saudi Arabia and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.

    Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

    Happy Fun Ball comes with a lifetime guarantee.

    Happy Fun Ball

    ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!
  • Oh, honestly. It's people like you that make it so that we can't have cool toys anymore.

    Have you looked in a chemistry set lately? They've taken all the fun stuff out. What fun is a chemistry set supposed to be when you don't even have any potassium nitrate? Lame.

    Now, you can't even get an alarm clock with radium dials on it anymore, because "oh noes, the terrorists will get it!" Well, let me tell you: if a kid can't play with radioactive materials in the privacy of his parents home anymore, the terrorists have already won.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:34AM (#17266834)
    I'm not saying there should be capital punishment for stupidity


    It's called Darwinism [darwinawards.com].
  • by Ridcully ( 121813 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:40AM (#17266866)
    For some reason I'm thinking of the following exchange in "Hogfather":

    The mother took a deep breath.
    "You can't give her that!" she screamed. "It's not safe!"
    IT'S A SWORD, said the Hogfather, IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE.
    "She's a child!" shouted Crumley.
    IT'S EDUCATIONAL.
    "What if she cuts herself?"
    THAT WILL BE AN IMPORTANT LESSON.

  • by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:41AM (#17266874) Homepage Journal
    Well, you mentioned your bra being snapped on slashdot, so while you might not get chased by a bunch of men in white coats, you might just get chased by a bunch of men with yellow "cheetos fingers".....
  • by arivanov ( 12034 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:50AM (#17266902) Homepage
    Bleah... Americanised list. Softy toys for softy boys all of them (except the darts)

    As far ast the U238 set, I would say that it was a safe toy compared to my "Junior Chemist" chemistry set which I got when I was 8. The thing had the lot - KMnO4, NaOH, NH3 solution, S, HCl and many other wonderfull things. In reasonable quantities and concentrations (where in solution). The floor of my room kept the scars from some successfull experiments for years to come.

    Same for the cannon - it is a joke compared to my neighbout T34 remote controlled battle tank (my parents bluntly refused to buy me one). That thing could shoot plastic rounds circa 5 mm in diameter and move. Both on remote control. Ideal toy for an eight year old and a six year old to chase the family cat. The only advantage the cat had was that the tank while remotely controlled had a manual reload so we had to fetch it after every shell to pull the reload lever. The fun continued until the cat found out that he should attack the person with the remote, not the tank. After that we called a truce.
  • by kfg ( 145172 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:55AM (#17266922)
    I've injured myself with airsoft guns many times and I'm pretty careful and since you're actually shooting at other people with them unlike BB guns

    Pussy.

    KFG
  • by Rakshasa Taisab ( 244699 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:03AM (#17266950) Homepage
    Is your friend's name by any chance bash.org?
  • by sporkme ( 983186 ) * on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:07AM (#17266976) Homepage
    I am actually disappointed that the old model rockets did not make it onto the blacklist! Those freaking things really were dangerous. I had a quad-E engine 2-stager that could lift several hands full of nails over 500 feet into the air, and then dump them when the chute was deployed. Don't ask me why I know this... ask the local police. I also used them as "nukes" in bottle rocket fights with the other one-eyed freaks in the neighborhood. Counterbalance a duct taped egg onto one of those babies and gauge the trajectory properly, then you were invincible!
  • by OfficeSubmarine ( 1031930 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:07AM (#17266980)
    Even adults can barely contain their jealousy when the little brat from down the block whizzes by on that shiny plastic hog.

    Much like Seinfeld and people who owned a pony as a child, so am I and people who owned these things. My cousins had not one, but two of them. A fact that they never seemed to realize meant that they should give me one. Despite the fact that I told that to them constantly.
  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:10AM (#17266992)
    I used to have the cheap hammock when I was a kid - is was great, because without a bar you really could wrap it around yourself like a cocoon and then have someone swing you for a full 360 loop. I'm rather surprised they were strong enough to hold...
  • by SnprBoB86 ( 576143 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:13AM (#17267000) Homepage
    I prefer Wild Wacky Action Bike: http://mrbucket33.tripod.com/ [tripod.com]
  • Wham-o (Score:5, Funny)

    by the_tsi ( 19767 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:54AM (#17267120)
    Wham-O had at least two products that should be good candidates for the above list, but I didn't see them.

    First (and more obvious), the Slip N Slide, and all of its various incarnations and copycats.

    Second, was a sort of tetherball variant they sold in ~1985 called "Zing Zang". It featured an adjustable steel pole with a spike on one end (designed to be inserted into the ground), and a wire coil on the other end, onto which a cord with a captive tennis ball was attached. The tennis ball cord would theoretically start in the middle, with each player (holding a hard plastic "raquet") assigned a different direction (clockwise or counterclockwise). The goal was to get to the top or bottom of the coil to win. But most kids I knew would just swing the pole around like a giant two-handed flail, bringing down tennis ball torture on opponents... while trailing a steel spike behind them that would often go forgotten until it lodged in someone else's knees or groin or chest.
  • Sure but... (Score:2, Funny)

    by brit74 ( 831798 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @06:11AM (#17267170)
    Sure they may be dangerous, *but you haven't lived* until you've driven your Power Wheels Motorcycle through a barrage of uranium tipped lawn jarts while navigating an obstacle course of hammocks.
  • by kfg ( 145172 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @06:51AM (#17267310)
    While you have a point. . .

    Exactly.

    When your mother laid your egg, did she leave you to fend for yourself completely?

    Leaving my egg on a mountaintop taught me to fight off the wolf cubs for best tit and made me the man I am today. A flea bitten cur.

    KFG
  • by gijoel ( 628142 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @07:02AM (#17267340)
    Hey kids!

    Sick of being bullied.

    Too many enemies saying nasty stuff about you.

    Then you need the Russian Mafia Chemistry kit. Now with Polonium 210!!
  • by raphae ( 754310 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @07:07AM (#17267362)
    Two of my favorite all-time toys were M80's and H100's (quarter stick of dynamite). Me and my friend would spend a whole day trying to see how high we could blast a coffee can into the air. At the time it seemed normal and fun. Now I look back and think about how no one in our suburban neighborhood seemed to care that we were methodically blowing stuff up all day long in various places.

    Another "toy" that was a fad: burning plastic. Yes, just the simple fun of watching pieces of plastic combust and form sizzling, bubbling, congealed masses dangling from the end of a stick. I remember my friend moronically started whizzing the stick around with the sizzling plastic dangling and some flew on his hand causing a blister.

    Buy maybe our ultimate crazy passtime required no toy whatsoever: one summer it was all the craze with the kids on our block to hyperventilate. All it took was one kid knowing how to do it and very quickly the "technique" was transmitted among all us kids as though it were some kind of esoteric rite, and we were all doing it. How fun to breathe heavily and then hold your breath and then suddenly wake up moments later after having lost consciousness.

    Oh yeah, I also remember the time in gradeschool when I "discovered" this really cool powder in a cabinet - if you left it on your skin it would cause it to become dark for a really long time (like a few days). It was silver nitrate.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @08:00AM (#17267572)
    You make the fatal assumption that just because 'bra' is mentioned, the parent is a girl... This is, after all, slashdot..
  • by BakaHoushi ( 786009 ) <Goss DOT Sean AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday December 16, 2006 @08:23AM (#17267668) Homepage
    It's not just this. I remember a Christmas special a year or two ago called "Merry F***ing Christmas" or something along these lines that demonstrated the true purpose of Christmas:

    Natural selection through Christmas presents. Got a kid that was dumb enough to stick his hand in an EZ Bake oven? That one's a moron. Better try again! What about another boy who ducks when someone aims a BB gun in his direction? That's a keeper!

    The real terrorists aren't the ones with bombs strapped to their chests. They're in our law firms, preventing our children from blowing themselves to tiny bits with their "Actual Working Holy Hand Grenade" when they don't listen and count to 4. This is not what God intended. God gave us Jesus and Christmas and all that so we could kill off our dumbest kids and raise only the smartest.

    Let me tell you, the terrorists have already won, my friends. They won long ago...
  • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @09:35AM (#17267988)
    I'm wondering if it really chomped the fingers OFF

          Yup. 35 fingers and one penis. Uhh, don't ask...
  • by udderly ( 890305 ) * on Saturday December 16, 2006 @10:05AM (#17268164)
    True story:
    After begging and pleading with their parents for years, my friend Pete and his older brother finally got BB guns one Xmas.

    Of course, the first thing they did was go into their room and had a shootout. Pete's brother nailed him direct in the eyebrow over the left eye. Pete scraped the BB our of his eyebrow, at which point a little fountain of blood began flowing. Pete's first words were "I'm going tell!"

    Since they both knew that they would lose their precious armaments, negotiations ensued about how things could be amicably worked out. In the end, Pete settled out of court for the opportunity to shoot his brother in the ass three times.
  • by Minwee ( 522556 ) <dcr@neverwhen.org> on Saturday December 16, 2006 @10:29AM (#17268302) Homepage

    Where is the Bag O' Glass [jt.org]? Pretty Peggy Ear-Piercing Set? Mr. Skin-Grafter? General Tron's Secret Police Confession Kit? Doggie Dentist? How about Johnny Switchblade, Adventure Punk or the Teddy Chainsaw Bear?

    What kind of kist is this?

  • by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @11:09AM (#17268506) Journal
    Let me tell you, the terrorists have already won, my friends.

    And just so you can spot them, they wear three piece suits and like to use code words in Latin for critical parts of their communication.
  • by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @12:55PM (#17269228) Homepage
    Whatever happened to 8th grade physics?

    Oh, that's a college level course these days. 500 or 600 level in most places. 8th graders have to pass tests these days. No time for learning.

  • by nytes ( 231372 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @04:39PM (#17271170) Homepage
    No radioactivity. Less explosive power than a Sony battery. Lame.
  • by identity0 ( 77976 ) on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:48PM (#17271630) Journal
    I realize you're probobly one of the rare "female geeks", but please refrain from saying things like "Those bastards that snapped my bra in high school", most people here are guys and it gives us a wierd mental image to hear that. Like a pudgy, cross-eyed boy geek with gender issues being picked on by jocks in the locker room for wearing his sister's bra. That poor bastard.

    "Hey cut it out guys! I'm just *different*, okay?" *snap*

    Memories of high school are traumatic enough without imagining these horrors, okay?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 16, 2006 @05:50PM (#17271642)
    oh crap! My priest is a terrorist!

"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs

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