From kids choking to death with magnets to hammocks that can strangle you, and to the dangerous slip and slide that injured children and adults. Today, we’re going to take a look at 15 banned toys that can kill. Part three. Let’s get started. Number 15.
Magnetics Magnetics turned into a nightmare in 2007. The toy contains little metal magnets with tiny steel bearing balls. Kids loved building beautiful geometric patterns with different shapes and colors, but some kids decided they wanted to eat the little magnetic balls. It was enough to send 28 kids to the hospital, and unfortunately, one died. The manufacturer recalled 4 million kids only to resell them with a choking hazard label.
Can that prevent kids from swallowing you’d be the judge. Number 14. Hammocks that Hang What could possibly go wrong with mini hammocks for kids? Kids love to hang out at the hammock. What they don’t realize is that these hammocks may actually hang them.
Unlike adult sized hammocks, these kids sized hammocks did not have an opener or a wide bar at the two ends to hold it open. It was easy for children to get tangled in the ropes and roll up into a ball. Ten children died of strangulation throughout the 1980s and 1990s after being entangled in this mess. While 3 million hammocks were recalled, the illfated children remained gone forever. Number 13.
Slip and slide. Slip and slide and die. Oh, no, that’s not exactly what happened. We’re just messing with you. But it did lead to a lot of bad injuries.
In 1993, one child and seven adults were left paralyzed from severe neck injuries. How did it happen? The slide comes with an abrupt end, so you don’t have the smooth landing you expect at the end of the slide. These slides went back on sale after being recalled. Since the early 2000s, a huge safety warning has been flashed across the packaging and labeling.
The risks are yours to take. Number twelve. Poisoned by a Card Game can a card game pose any sort of risk? The Hannah Montana Pop Star card Game was randomly tested for lead levels in December 2007. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, no children’s toys should have more than 40 parts per million lead.
But the cards came out strong with 75 times the permissible limit. That’s like 3000 parts per million. There you go. A new means of poisoning. 6 million toys were recalled thereafter.
Number eleven. Toy Guns That Kill I know. Let’s sell guns to children. Toy guns are always a hit with kids, but this one really hit them bad. The Austin Magic Pistol was anything but a toy.
Why you ask? Well, the gun fired for real. A little drop of water would cause the magic crystals inside to blow up and propel plastic balls up to 70ft or more. This toy gun is no child’s play, and we can’t believe it was ever allowed to be sold. Number ten.
The Rude doll in 1998 kids loved talking Dolls after the launch of the Red Teletubby, complaints began to flow in instantly. Parents complained that the doll was saying bad words like fatty fatty and even worse, getting nasty out here, isn’t it? It’s Bitsy Entertainment Co. Which licenses Teletubbies, jumped in to clear the air, saying the doll was actually saying fit. It fitted a nonsensical phrase, the character frequently sings on the show.
What you hear. Number Nine Quick Click to Quick Sick every kid wanted to own a range of these colorful mini dolls. Mattel’s Quick Click Polly Pockets, however, did come under the scanner rather quickly. Mattel had to recall more than 4 million of these tiny dolls after some of the magnets fell off and found a way straight into tiny tummies on scanning medically, these magnets were shown to pose a major risk of internal injury. Once they attracted each other, they could snap at the internal lining of the intestines, leading to perforations and unwarranted surgical intervention.
So much for unsupervised playtime. Number Eight Hot Wheels That Burn Kids love to get behind the wheels. And with radar toys of their favorite make and model, there is no stopping them from stepping on the pedal. Here comes Fisher Price Power Wheels battery powered vehicles that can hit speeds of two to 5 mph, designed for children aged two to seven. At first it was all excitement.
And then came worry. Several users reported either a break fail or a lack of steering, leading to bruised and unhappy kids. Property damage worth $300,000 was estimated. There were also reports of severe Burns due to the electrical components overheating while the cars were either parked, stored or driven. Hot Wheels indeed.
Strange, right? We till year out. Number One seven Kite Tubes When it comes to kite tubes, you can see how people didn’t realize how dangerous they were until after the product had been released for sale. To be propelled into the air, a ten foot wide tube would tag along behind a speedboat and lift you into the air. Once the user was airborne, there was no ability to control the tube at all.
Tragically, two people lost their lives as a result of this uncontrollable adventure ride in 2006. Sports Stuff, the firm that made the tubes, voluntarily recalled them. Six Flubber The flop in the 1960s Hasbro’s Flubber, one of the most popular slime based toys, was soon ridden with complaints pouring in. Kids who played with this saline gellike toy apparently reported rashes and sore throat. 1600 such incidents were reported.
A subsequent FDA inquiry was able to rapidly pinpoint the problem. The material, dubbed as an irritant to the delicate lining of our body. Flubber was too dangerous to burn. So Hasbro buried it under a parking lot outside of one of his warehouses in Rhode Island. At least, that’s what he wants us to believe.
Number Five Swing Wing These neck twisting streamer hats were formerly a fashionable fashion accessory. Even the 60s kids appear to be in excruciating pain as they jank around their heads in the World’s stupidest Hat launched in 1965, these neck supported hula hoop headgears resulted in some extremely serious injuries. If you have to swing it, you would have to toss your head around back and forth in a twisted jerk. This sudden, awkward movement of the neck, apart from making you look like a jerk, also led to brain hemorrhage and spinal damage, and we called it fashionable back then. Four Atomic Laboratory Kit There has been no toys.
Infamous as the AEL. One of the most startling items on this list, it contains actual radioactive materials. Although sciencebased toys are still a favorite among parents, we’re guessing that this specific 1960s chemical kit isn’t going to cut it these days. When the Sets creator designed it, he expected children to produce chemical reactions, observe them, and be inspired to pursue science careers. Four types of uranium ore were included, each possibly more dangerous than the choking hazards.
It was stripped off the racks because children didn’t like it, not because it was radioactive. Starting now, things get serious. It’s now time to take a look at the small beads that are dangerous, the magnets that might Pierce your bodily parts, and ultimately the toy that can bite your finger off, which we’ve been discussing throughout this one. Number Three Aqua Dots Aqua Dots were a popular toy in 2007. The craft toy came with small, colorful beads or dots that were coated with nontoxic glue into shapes, and all you had to do is spray it with water to fix them together.
As expected, reports about the adverse effects of ingesting these beads soon surfaced. Children were seen vomiting and some even slipping into a coma. What’s with the beads, you ask? Scientists discovered that the glue included in the components transformed into a drug called gamma hydroxybutrate. This has some untoward effects, leading to seizures, unconsciousness, and respiratory depression.
Stay clear of these dots. Number two. Bucky Balls Buggy Balls can be made into all kinds of wonderful designs by sticking together. Unlike other toys of these similar kind, they were manufactured from an alloy of Neodynium rather than the ferromagnetic materials. Like most others on ingestion, these magnets somehow make a way to find each other, even if they have to break through bodily tissues to achieve that, accidental ingestion is absolutely possible.
In 2012, a three yearold child from Oregon swallowed 37 magnets, causing four holes in her digestive system. 37 magnets looks like buggy balls turned unlucky balls. Now we move on to the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Number one, Cabbage Patch Kids. The Cabbage Patch Kids came with their own adoption certificates, and famously squishy bodies were popular in the 1980s and appeared to be harmless.
One among them, the Snack Time Kit, had a motorized mouth at eight plastic treats provided to it. It just couldn’t differentiate between its plastic fish fingers or the tiny human fingers feeding them since there was no way to turn it off at the lack of a switch the toy continued munching on hair or cute little fingers leaving to kids in horror this true life garbage pale kid was eventually taken off the stores. Sounds more like another avatar of Annabelle, doesn’t he?
Thanks for reading.