Buzz
It’s often said that fun and games can quickly lead to harm when someone gets hurt. This is true not only for eye injuries, but also for skull fractures, poisoning, and severe burns. Over the years, toy manufacturers have come up with some alarmingly unsafe products (lawn darts, anyone?). Given today’s lawsuits, you would think these issues would have been addressed. However, the rush to create the next big thing like the Slinky, Etch A Sketch, or Tickle Me Elmo continues to drive manufacturers to release dangerous designs into the market.
In the infamous toys listed here, a simple tantrum to get one could quickly turn into a serious medical emergency. Some of these banned toys were the result of simple oversights, while others were so clearly hazardous that it’s a wonder they were ever allowed into children’s hands.
10. Snap Bracelets
Snap bracelets are spring-loaded metal strips encased in brightly colored plastic or fabric. These bands can be straightened out, and then when slapped against a wrist, they curl back into place. The snap (or slap) bracelet craze peaked around 1990. Like many other toy trends, they became a huge hit in schools. You might think kids would quickly tire of repeatedly slapping flashy leopard print or neon pink designs around their arms, but you’d be mistaken.
Sadly, it didn’t take long for the lower-quality versions of these toys (often priced under a dollar) to start causing significant issues. The metal band would eventually wear through its covering, cutting into kids' skin. This led to several schools banning the bracelets. The cheap knockoff versions were investigated across the country and recalled in large numbers. But they made a comeback in 2012 when some animal-themed designs were recalled for the same reason as before.
9. Monster Science Colossal Water Balls
Do you remember those tiny capsules that promised to magically transform into massive dinosaurs, just like the ones on the packaging? When placed in water, they would only expand into misshapen, vaguely dinosaur-like blobs. Now, imagine telling your childhood self that there existed a marble-sized ball that, when soaked, could expand to 400 times its original size. Fun, right? Now picture these colorful, marble-sized objects somehow making their way into your small intestine.
This frightening scenario came true with Monster Science Colossal Water Balls. Unsurprisingly, many children consumed the appealingly tiny toys, which their creators had designed to grow inside the body. Worse yet, some kids also ingested the ominously labeled “Growth Powder.” This led to life-threatening episodes of vomiting and dehydration. To make matters worse, these little monsters couldn’t be X-rayed and required surgery to remove them.
8. Aqua Dots
As our previous example showed, it’s no secret that kids love to put random objects in their mouths. With this in mind, ensuring toys are non-toxic should be a basic standard. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. While some lapses in judgment might involve slightly toxic paints or plastics, others are far more serious—like making a product out of a substance that, when ingested, turns into a date rape drug.
When Aqua Dots were arranged into colorful designs and sprayed with water, they would magically lock into place. The unfortunate downside was that kids could experience severe side effects such as respiratory depression, coma, or seizures from the toxic chemical used in their production. Over four million units were recalled after it was discovered that the so-called 'magical' beads were not worth the potential dangers, including one child being hospitalized for five days.
It was later revealed that Spin Master, the company behind Aqua Dots, was aware that their product contained a controlled substance. After several reports of life-threatening reactions in children (and even a dog), Spin Master was forced to pay over $1.3 million in fines for their 'magical' toy.
7. Kite Tube
Simply slapping a skull and crossbones and the slogan “Never kite higher than you are willing to fall” on your dangerous airborne toy does not protect it from being banned. This is what happened to the Wego Kite Tube. It didn’t help that two people lost their lives and several others were seriously injured, including a broken neck and punctured lung.
The Kite Tube, which was 3 meters (10 ft) wide, was designed to allow a rider to be pulled by a boat while yanking a cord to send them soaring into the air. However, once airborne, riders had little control over the tube. While the idea of mixing a parasail with an inner tube may sound thrilling, flying at heights equivalent to a three-story building was a risky venture. And unfortunately, it wasn’t just kids who were hurt by this dangerous toy.
The recall happened almost willingly, with the company admitting they couldn't pinpoint the exact cause of the accidents. However, they decided to recall the tubes ‘out of an abundance of caution.’
6. Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids Dolls
Do you remember the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards that horrified parents back in the '80s? They were tame compared to the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls that seemed to have developed a strange affinity for children. The Snacktime Kids doll had a motorized mouth that let it ‘consume’ plastic foods. However, kids being kids, it didn’t take long before fingers and hair were caught in the doll’s relentless jaws. While the doll itself wasn’t deadly, parents weren’t thrilled about their children’s new toy yanking their hair out by the roots.
What made these terrifying eating machines particularly eerie was their lack of an on/off switch. This design flaw resulted in at least one girl nearly losing her scalp along the back of her head. While Mattel didn’t identify any immediate dangers in their testing, they wisely decided to pull the dolls off store shelves. Sadly, though, the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids dolls continue to haunt your nightmares.
5. Buckyballs
Desk toys are clearly intended for an older crowd, but that doesn't mean they always succeed in keeping kids away from harm. Buckyballs were incredibly strong magnetic balls that could be used to make intricate desk sculptures or even ‘play darts’ on your fridge. While that part was true, the marketing as a ‘stress reliever’ was rather ironic. Unfortunately, these powerful magnets were all too easy for young children to swallow.
Swallowing multiple magnets could result in them snapping together through the walls of the intestines, causing serious complications such as organ tears, blood poisoning, intestinal blockages, or even death. With so many pieces in each set, it was easy for parents to overlook when one or more magnets went missing inside their child. And it wasn’t just kids who got into trouble—teenagers often used them to imitate piercings on their lips and tongue.
The government declared Buckyballs a dangerous product for consumers. However, despite the 1,000 children who had to undergo surgery to remove the toy, the company behind Buckyballs refused to recall their product voluntarily. Instead, the government sued. When the inventor decided to shut down his company rather than finance a recall, the government pursued him personally to recover $57 million in expenses. After lengthy negotiations, the inventor settled for just about 1 percent of that amount. One thing was certain—the inventor had guts.
4. CSI Fingerprint Analysis Kit
Though it might seem unsettling that children are playing with forensic investigation kits designed to replicate the collection of evidence from a murder scene, at least it's all in good fun. Kids have always come up with some rather dark games. The CSI Fingerprint Examination Kits, inspired by the popular CBS crime series, let children wear latex gloves and search for 'evidence' by dusting for fingerprints. Unfortunately, the fingerprint powder included in the kit contained a highly dangerous substance: one of the most deadly forms of asbestos.
The fingerprint powder was found to contain as much as 7% asbestos, a kind known to cause lung cancer after even a single exposure. So, what about all those kids who were using the dust on everything from doorknobs to cookie jars and then inhaling the airborne powder? It's easy to see that this was a health hazard. Not surprisingly, the company that produced the toy eventually went bankrupt.
3. Easy-Bake Ovens
For some unknown reason, many kids through the years have not realized that baking cookies doesn't need to be a part of their childhood. The Easy-Bake Oven, which actually uses a real heating element to bake treats, was especially popular in 2006 when it earned a spot in the National Toy Hall of Fame. However, Hasbro, the maker of the Easy-Bake Oven, didn’t get to celebrate for long. Just a year later, they had to recall one million of their plastic models after discovering a design flaw that caused the oven to trap heat and severely burn children's fingers.
This situation was clearly a disaster waiting to happen, especially since the ovens could heat up to a dangerous 200 degrees Celsius (400 °F). Altogether, nearly 250 incidents were reported, including 16 cases of second- or third-degree burns. One unfortunate five-year-old girl even had to undergo a partial finger amputation due to the burns.
2. Aqua Leisure Baby Boats
Babies have an innate love for water. They enjoy splashing in it, waddling through it, drinking it, and even letting it spill out into their diapers. For parents who wanted to let their babies float in style, the Aqua Leisure Baby Boat seemed like the perfect solution. Unfortunately, these inexpensive inflatable boats were prone to tearing easily, leading to multiple incidents where babies fell right through.
Aqua Leisure was eventually hit with a $650,000 fine for being aware of the problem for six years but choosing to ignore it with the old excuse of 'no babies have drowned yet.' Each time they received complaints, they would make slight adjustments to the design (and sometimes even the product's name) and continue selling them. They even went as far as withholding critical information about the defect from federal authorities, which is, of course, illegal.
1. Splash Off Water Rockets
Do you remember earlier in this list when kids accidentally ingested toys coated with date rape drugs and ended up in comas? The manufacturer had to pay out $1.3 million because they were aware of the danger but did nothing about it. Well, Spin Master had a history of making terrible toy choices even before that incident. Besides their toy airplanes that could burn users or the ones that disintegrated mid-air, in the late '90s, they produced a toy rocket that had the potential to explode. Just like the real hazards of space travel!
The Splash Off Water Rocket worked by using water pressure from a hose to build energy until kids or hobbyists could stomp on the launcher and send the rockets soaring. Unfortunately, at least 37 incidents were reported where the rocket either exploded due to pressure or shot off in unpredictable directions, causing serious lacerations to hands and faces.
