Forums Archive Index > General Chat > The 10 Worst Toys Ever Sold

Author: AZinOH

Date: 16 Dec 2006 8:18 am

http://www.radarmagazine.com/features/2006/12/toys.php


Did play with the lawn darts once. Would've liked to try the cannon.

AZ

Author: Marshall

Date: 16 Dec 2006 8:57 am

Ah, the good old days. Back when you could play with toys that actually required you to use your noggin for something besides a hat rack.

We had Lawn Darts but we kinda figure they might hurt like hell if they hit our head so we did something unheard of like actually paying attention when we played with them and tried not to place our brain directly underneath a the falling 50 caliber lead projectile.

Why isn't the Red Ryder BB gun on there? We all know no one can play with those without loosing both their eyeballs. In fact, that was the game wasn't it? Let's see if we can shoot the punk kid across the street that always wears a yellow rubber slicker and black golashes, even when the sun's out? Hell, he had four inch thick glasses, no BB is going through them things!

See, back in the good old days we learned from watching dumb kids get hurt. Wow, that looks that that hurts like hell, so we didn't do that. Today kids grow up with so much protection they turn out stupid at 21 years old. If Timmy played with BB guns in his childhood, he would have known better than to unknowingly point that loaded shotgun gun at his hunting buddies head while walking corn rows on a Phesant hunt and ending up having to drive his friend, now pizza face, home and explain why he's an idiot.

Author: OldToroOwner

Date: 16 Dec 2006 10:47 am

Dang!
Not the creepy crawlers thing!
I loved that toy and wish I could find one now..

Then again, I remember as kids we would shoot arrows up in the air with a 40lb. bow and wait for them to come down.. :D

Ahh..good times...good times..

Author: sonofjabba

Date: 16 Dec 2006 12:21 pm

I had one of those Hammocks Now I know why it was so uncomfortable...

I would love to get my hands on one of those Gilbert Atomic energy lab Sets!! That looks cool! They made the coolest toys! I need a Dr Emmet Brown Radiation suit to screw with it!

Author: newjerseybt
Subject: Safe toys...

Date: 16 Dec 2006 12:41 pm

Here are some others that can cause serious injury if you do not use some
common sense. (they were fun though)

1) Carbide Cannons: You mix water with the powder which creates an explosive gas. You then push a plunger on your 2 foot cannon and a blast like a small cherry bomb came from the front. Real loud! I guess if you put it next to your baby brother's ear you will blow out his eardrums or do worse.

2) Water Rockets: Yep I liked to pump them up an additional 10 times.
I think they left the launch pad at 200 MPH! Somehow I knew enough to extend my arms before launching.

3) Gas model airplanes: OPE has nothing on these babies regarding safety. That prop would spin at 10,000 RPM with no guard, lol and that little engine would get hot enough to raise a blister. Some of the newer radio control models with jet engines can actually reach speeds of over 200 MPH.

4) Baseball bat: Just too many of these deadly devices produced. No recalls though.

Here is a do it yourself toy project I believe was from Popular Mechanics back in the late 50s: It involved a pipe and end cap, A model "T" coil, a spark plug, a rubber ball....and yes....some gasoline. (I am not kidding)

Author: Chris S

Date: 16 Dec 2006 2:03 pm

Had the lawn darts, cool game, we knew not to stand in front of it but then again as Marshall mentioned, we were not over protected, if you did something stupid you got hurt, paid for it and learned.

Have the Barbie Whirly thing up in our playroom, that thing was too cool and man can she still fly lol..., sucker hurts if she hits you, not that I ever fired it at my kids lol.... :twisted: .... :wink:
My wife just informed me that we gave this gift to my young neice lol.... :shock: not knowing lol....she wants me to call them.....naaahhh.

Had the Creepy Crawler, it was OK, kinda disgusting as I recall but still fun.

We have the Power Wheels Motorcycle in my Dad's basement and it works slick and my kids use it now lol..., it is not a recalled unit though and it works fine and is not very fast....

I thought that disco ball looked familiar, it is in my daughter's room as we speak lol.... :shock: , hmmm, is it still plugged in?...... :shock:


C

Author: Dave

Date: 16 Dec 2006 7:56 pm

I think everyone had lawn darts. People who got hurt were probably the same ones who let their kids ride with them on their mowers while mowing the lawn, like the idiot who lives down the street from me. For myself, I would like to have one of those BB firing tanks www.arroyorc.com/tank.htm (not a toy)

Author: ramit
Subject: Re: Safe toys...

Date: 16 Dec 2006 8:20 pm

newjerseybt wrote:


3) Gas model airplanes: OPE has nothing on these babies regarding safety. That prop would spin at 10,000 RPM with no guard, lol and that little engine would get hot enough to raise a blister. Some of the newer radio control models with jet engines can actually reach speeds of over 200 MPH.

Carbon fiber or wooden props, 20lbs 80mph, 6hp, either way cut a man in two. The smaller ones @ 5lbs / .75hp still take someone out and fingers off. The parents never understood it. We wouldn't let the moms and dads just drop the kiddie off at the field to learn. They had to stay. Parents just didn't get it.




Author: Vangellis

Date: 16 Dec 2006 8:26 pm

OldToroOwner wrote:


Then again, I remember as kids we would shoot arrows up in the air with a 40lb. bow and wait for them to come down.. :D

Ahh..good times...good times..

Man that was fun. :P :D And it was a 40 lb. bow.

Had the Johnny Reb Cannon too. Hours of fun :twisted: :)

Really when you look back, ya wonder how ya made it this far. LOL

Kevin

Author: ramit

Date: 16 Dec 2006 8:27 pm

BB gun wars in the woods!

Author: Bill_D

Date: 16 Dec 2006 10:06 pm

NJ and Ramit, I fly to. Been flyin helis for a while now, they are wicked!!!! I have a 90 Raptor that could easily lop off a head clean. :shock:

Author: newjerseybt
Subject: Re: Safe toys...

Date: 16 Dec 2006 10:26 pm

ramit said:

Carbon fiber or wooden props, 20lbs 80mph, 6hp, either way cut a man in two. The smaller ones @ 5lbs / .75hp still take someone out and fingers off. The parents never understood it. We wouldn't let the moms and dads just drop the kiddie off at the field to learn. They had to stay. Parents just didn't get it.

-----------------------------

I always wanted a Byron F-18 Jet. ( 9ft long) I had no experience flying one but wanted one anyway. That is like never skiing in your life and trying out a 90 meter olympic ski jump.

-------------------------
Also had the BB gun experience. Two accidents. One was a direct hit on a 1/2 thick steel plate. The BB came straight back and hit me square in the forehead. It felt like someone hit me with the round side of a ball-peen hammer...what an egg I had! I told mom that I hit my head on a low beam in the basement. Yep..she fell for it.

The second was multiple BB richochetes in which the BB landed in a relative's eye. Amazingly no damage! End of BB gun.

Author: RalphS
Subject: Lawn Darts

Date: 17 Dec 2006 12:09 am

Years ago, I had a woman that worked for me that was injured in a game of "throwing the Lawn Darts up as high as you can directly over your head" when she was a kid. I think she was hit (in the head) by her own dart.
When she worked for me, she wasn't the brightest bulb, but I don't think the Lawn Dart was the cause of that.

Author: Termy

Date: 17 Dec 2006 12:37 am

Ramit...I like your plane, thats pertty cool! :wink:

Author: Yukon

Date: 17 Dec 2006 1:32 am

I liked that civil war cannon. Hrmmmm modify the spring, steel ball bearings or pool balls :twisted: :shock:

I used to make a cannon out of the older style beer cans (before they went to aluminum) I would cut baffles (semi circles) into the ends, line them up opposite each other and duct tape about 6 of them end to end. Punch a pen sized hole in the bottom can (bottom can had bottom still and top one was cut off fully open).

Squirt some lighter fluid (ronsons liguid type) in the pen hole, shake it a bit to distribute the explosive mixture then pop a tennis ball in the top, butt it against the ground and light your lighter just outside the pen hole (and get yer hand out of the freekin way). BANG!! :shock: that tennis ball would shoot hundreds of feet depending on the amount squirted and distribution. It was always a guess. Would keep my dog going for HOURS though! 8)

I made a few spud guns in my time too using hair spray as the fuel. They make them shoot with compressed air now~adays... takes all the thrill out of it though. Heh heh heh (look up spud guns, they got some pretty wild units) Mind you I still see hairspray spud guns, they use bar BQ igniters to light the fuel chamber.

Author: sonofjabba

Date: 17 Dec 2006 1:39 am

Dry Ice Bombs were pretty cool. Some dry ice with a little water in a 2 or 3 liter soda bottle. Lots of noise.

Air horn cans and full cans of spray paint on the railroad tracks were cool too. Lots of Noise.

Author: mrmom

Date: 17 Dec 2006 8:10 am

Too bad my kids won't be able to experience those toys. I'm sure I'll be able to find some alternatives.

Author: ramit

Date: 17 Dec 2006 10:31 am

Those were the days when we were expected to keep ourselves safe, not the state.

Bill_D, I never started into the heli's.
Probably was the next step.
I got into large scale, but after a few years for a few reasons I had to stop. Been a few good years since I've flown.
Sold all my big stuff right after I stopped.

We've lost soo many fields around here and buffer zones.
The electrics are getting more popular so as not to loose the few fields that are left.

Author: bbwb

Date: 17 Dec 2006 11:44 am

Wow Yukon...I did not know anyone else did the same thing as me.
We called them polish cannons. The old pop cans would do the same trick, just had to make sure the seams were well taped.

I still have my pointed lawn darts. Should teach my daughter how to play it (not the lawn dart tag game in my previous post)

Seeing as we are pointing out dangerous toys...what about model rockets with the Estes solid propellant engines, could be a problem for the stupid ones

bbwb

Author: Bill_D

Date: 17 Dec 2006 2:55 pm

Ramit, I've been thinkin about converting my raptor to electric. I've seen a few guys do it, and it works great, expensive though. Hacker 50 xl motor, and like 30 cells, and new controller, and she's good to go.

Author: ramit

Date: 17 Dec 2006 5:31 pm

I've not see it done Bill. Heli's weren't big on the few fields I flew on.

But I could imagine it's not $heap.
Wifey had said a few years back "why dont I go into electric?".. I said you moaned about that money spent on the gas and nitro.. forget about the electric!
Quality motors, packs, speedcontrols, chargers, maintainers.......

Author: newjerseybt

Date: 17 Dec 2006 7:05 pm

"Seeing as we are pointing out dangerous toys...what about model rockets with the Estes solid propellant engines, could be a problem for the stupid ones"
-------------------------------------
Yep, we qualified as the Estes "stupid ones". We liked to build the rockets but also liked to watch them blow up about 1000 feet up after the chute ejection charge lit a fuse. (they were prepared with "lacing cord" cardboard tubes packed with about 15 M80s worth of flash powder). Hell of a report...not to mention a huge waste of money that I wish I could have back now. :roll:

We launched them in the (Giants) Meadowlands dumps so just in case it landed it could only land on us or Jimmy Hoffa. :shock: When you get older and look back, you can't believe you did this dumb stuff.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

ramit, Bill_D

My BIL said you will cause about $1,000 worth of damage before you get good enough to fly an electric Heli. I guess that is what it cost him. :D

Author: ramit

Date: 17 Dec 2006 7:58 pm

Grew up doing the rockets too.
Also used the rocket engines with left over fireworks on older model boats that we didn't want anymore in the pond. :twisted:

Author: bontai Joe

Date: 19 Dec 2006 11:29 am

I had a chemistry set as a kid and did most if not all of the experiments in the instruction book. Still have the microscope that came with it, 40 years later. I also used to shoot arrows up in the air to see how high they would go.... until one thwacked into the ground about 3 feet to my left. Also had water rockets, all manner of kids guns that shot all manner of projectiles, but the most dangerous thing I owned as a kid was probably a bicycle in the pre helmet, knee pad days. I could go over 30 MPH with no more protection than shorts and a "T" shirt could offer as did every other kid I knew. Heck if one of my buddies had shown up with a bike helmet?, he'd have been laughed out of our group as unworthy.

Author: newjerseybt

Date: 19 Dec 2006 4:48 pm

Chemistry sets were a heck of a lot of fun!

I remember one experiment (45 years ago), where I mixed a bunch of chemicals together and the liquid turned different colors.

One chemical turned the solution I had in my test tube black as coal.
I just had to try my own "custom" mix and dumped in some white powder. To my horror, the solution started to fizz like soda pop and climbed rapidly up the test tube. In a blink of an eye I placed my thumb over the top of the tube so the inky black liquid would not spill on the floor. That was like trying to put your thumb on the end of a garden hose to stop the water....with the same results.

Thhwwwwwwwwit!!!!!

Oh NOoooo!!! My moms brand new curtains!! Blotches of black ink were everywhere! Yikes!.. what do I do now? I started thinking. Wheres Mom?Thats right!..mom is outside talking to our neighbor...Let me think! let me think!

I know! I'll reverse the process and find a chemical to turn the ink clear again! Frantically I located the proper chemical in my set and put a drop on the ink stained curtain.

It worked!...a clear spot returned to a small section of curtain! BUT.. do I have enough to do all the curtains? No!..I didn't! ..but it is the same chemical as the minus PH that we put in our swimming pool and there was a bunch downstairs in the basement!

I whipped off all the curtains, ran to the basement, dumped the curtains in wash pail with water and added the minus PH. PRESTO! Not a sign of an ink spot! I pulled out the curtains, placed them in the washer and spun them out. MOM was STILL outside yakking....Looking good!

OK ...throw them in the dryer...quick run upstairs and dab the walls and floor with the same stuff. Bingo! Clear walls! Floor perfect! Almost there... but time is running short.

I know! I will air dry them the rest of the way! I ran back downstairs frantically grabbing the damp curtains and hung them back up!

BEAUTIFUL!! ...............No one will EVER know!

That warm summer night I left the windows open and climbed into bed with a clear head. I had dodged a bullet.

The following morning as I sat up in bed, the room seemed brighter than usual. I couldn't believe my eyes! I felt a lump in my throat.

The minus PH chemical had eaten the curtains away like battery acid. Shreds of curtain were blowing around the floor like dust bunnies in the gentle morning breeze. All that was left hanging were the metal curtain rungs! Hell was to follow. :cry:

Author: mrmom

Date: 20 Dec 2006 8:08 am

LOL! Good one!

Author: Highwind

Date: 20 Dec 2006 9:10 am

newjerseybt,

:lol: Good one. Too bad acid rain hadn't been "invented" back then. Could have given you a possible, but not likely believable, explanation.

Author: Highwind

Date: 20 Dec 2006 9:14 am

My son made a compressed air spud gun. Was electrically fired using a garden sprinkler solenoid, door bell button, and 3, 9 volt batteries. That thing fired spuds a good football field plus distance.

Used to take spent 410 shells and put 2 inch firecrackers in them. Launched them from 1/2 inch copper tubing for my first recoiless rocket launcher.