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Today's toy manufacturers must adhere to strict safety guidelines. Thanks to the ASTM F963: Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety, U.S. toymakers are required to follow detailed rules to ensure safety.
However, things were different in the past. Before safety regulations shielded children from hazards like lead-painted figurines, older generations were given some pretty wild toys and told to enjoy them outdoors. This list highlights ten toys that show just how tough your grandparents' childhoods were.
10. Belt Buckle Derringer Toy Pistol
In 1959, Mattel introduced a toy gun that could be fired without using your hands. The Belt Buckle Derringer Toy Gun could be used in the traditional manner, or, if your hands were busy, it could be attached to a belt buckle and fired by thrusting your hips forward.
What could possibly go wrong with young boys running around, waist-deep in toy cap guns that shot plastic bullets whenever they wiggled their hips? As you'd expect, the guns often fired at unpredictable moments and in unexpected directions, although the intended misfires must have created enough chaos in themselves.
9. Gilbert Glass Blowing Kit
“I’ve never once wished for my young daughter to have a kit for shaping and molding molten glass.” Yet, someone must have thought this was a good idea at some point because there used to be a real glass-blowing set designed for children.
The A.C. Gilbert Company, now defunct, was well known for its erector sets, train sets, and chemistry kits—things that were typical for children’s play. But in the 1920s, A.C. Gilbert introduced something extraordinary: a functional glass-blowing kit.
Labeled the Experimental Glass Blowing Kit for Boys, this set came with a blowtorch to heat glass until it became soft enough to shape, tubes for blowing and molding the glass, and a manual full of “fun” experiments that included instructions to handle the hot glass with bare hands. For reference, glass needs to be heated to at least 1500°F (815°C) to be shaped.
8. Austin Magic Pistol
Toy guns were all the rage in the past, but the Austin Magic Pistol stood out as something truly out-of-this-world. This 1940s toy gun had a futuristic design and shot ping pong balls. Seems like a harmless bit of fun, right? Well, it wasn't quite so innocent when you learn that the ping pong ball was launched through an explosive chemical reaction involving calcium carbide and water.
All you had to do was mix water with the included “magic crystals,” load the gun, and you were good to go. But those “magic crystals” were actually calcium carbide, a dangerous substance that generates a highly flammable gas when it comes into contact with water. Each time the Austin Magic Pistol was fired, an explosion occurred in the back of the gun.
How our grandparents managed to survive shooting ping pong balls launched by chemical explosions is a mystery we'll never understand.
7. Creepy Crawlers
It might have been risky, but this toy surely brought tons of fun for kids to create. In 1964, Mattel launched the Thingmaker, which quickly became so popular that 15 different sets were released. The one that seems to stir the most nostalgia online is the Creepy Crawlers set.
The Thingmaker featured an oven with an internal heating element that could reach up to 400°F (204°C). To create the “things,” kids would squirt a chemical mixture from Mattel called Plasti-Goop into metal molds and heat them up. However, by 1973, toy safety regulations had become more stringent, and the Thingmaker, with its dangerously high temperatures and fumes from the chemical fluid, was pulled from the shelves.
In an effort to bring back the beloved toy, Mattel experimented with a version that utilized a 3D printer. Unfortunately, it never made it to market.
6. Sixfinger
This toy was designed for kids who dreamed of having a sixth finger that could both write and launch a variety of objects, including bombs, missiles, and messages. Created by Topper Toys, it wasn’t exactly known for its sleek design, but the idea of wearing an extra finger was an appealing concept for many kids. The TV commercial even humorously questioned how we ever got along with just five fingers!
Created in the 1960s by Deluxe Reading, a toy company from Elizabeth, NJ, which also made toys under the Topper Toys brand. On its own, the Sixfinger doesn't seem that remarkable—after all, anyone can use a pen or play with a cap gun. But add a bizarre extra finger that fits between the thumb and forefinger, and you've got yourself a winner!
5. Zero-M Sonic Blaster
Here comes Mattel once again. The Zero-M Sonic Blaster was the ultimate toy for aspiring secret agents. This 34-inch (86 cm) blaster shot hand-pumped compressed air at such high decibels that it could cause permanent hearing damage.
You can still find the vintage commercial on YouTube today. It stars a young Kurt Russell, trudging through a black-and-white world where he must fire his blaster at wind chimes and piles of leaves just to survive.
If you're wondering what stopped kids from stuffing dirt or rocks into the blaster and launching them, the answer is nothing. Kids will always find a way to do things like that. This, along with the hearing damage, is one reason why toys like the Zero-M Sonic Blaster are no longer available for today’s more protected children.
4. Clackers
Much like many toys from the ’60s and ’70s, Clackers were delightfully simple. Two balls were attached to a string, allowing children to smack them together and create a loud, satisfying (at least to the child) sound. While it doesn't sound dangerous to bang two balls together, the original Clacker balls were made of glass.
Can you guess what happens when a small child violently swings glass balls together? As you might have predicted, the glass shattered, sending dangerous shards flying in all directions. In 1971, the FDA banned the toys, and Sarah Slobin from Quartz even wrote about how the outcry over Clackers may have helped give rise to the overprotective parenting style we see today.
3. Empire Little Lady Stove
While many items on this list are considered “boys’ toys,” don’t be fooled into thinking that “girls’ toys” were any safer. The glass-blowing kit was advertised for boys, but the Empire Little Lady Stove, designed for girls, featured exposed burners that could heat up to a dangerous 600°F (315°C), proving that girls of the time had to be just as tough.
The Empire Little Lady Stove became one of the first toys to fall victim to federal safety regulations. In 1969, the National Commission on Product Safety banned the toy.
2. Baby Cages
It takes a tough individual to have spent their toddler years hanging in a metal wire cage, suspended from a 10-story high-rise window. Baby cages, which were popular between the 1920s and 1950s, were designed to provide fresh air and sunlight for children of parents living in cramped city apartments.
The concept of baby cages, invented by Emma Read in 1922, was likely influenced by the 1884 book *The Care and Feeding of Children*, which recommended that children be exposed to fresh air regularly. Surprisingly, there don’t appear to be any records of accidents or fatalities from these cages, though you certainly won't see babies hanging outside high-rise apartments today.
1. Zulu Blow Gun
During the 1950s, the Zulu Blow Gun became a popular toy among children, allowing them to blow into the device and shoot foam pellets at their friends. However, a major issue arose when a child inhaled too deeply while trying to launch the pellet, accidentally sucking the gun into their mouth and causing the pellet to shoot down their throat instead of flying through the air.
Blow dart toys are still available today, but modern designs prevent children from inhaling foam by incorporating one-way mouthpieces, ensuring a safer play experience.
