How-To Geek
Banned Children’s Toys from Christmases Past
What could possibly go wrong giving a child a nuclear science kit that includes highly poisonous materials inside? Everything of course, which is why that particular toy only lasted a single holiday.
Buzzfeed reports on some of the toys of holidays past that were quickly pulled off the shelves. In regard to the nuclear kit pictured here, they write:
Only available from 1951–1952, this science kit for CHILDREN included four types of uranium ore, a Geiger counter, a comic called Dagwood Spits the Atom, and a coupon for ordering MORE radioactive materials. One of the four uranium ores included was Po-210 (Polonium) which, by mass, is 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide. “Merry Christmas, Kevin, here’s that giant box of poison you asked for.”
Hit up the link below for more entries, including some pulled from the shelves as recently as 2007.
8 Banned Children’s Toys From Yesteryear [BuzzFeed]
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Comments (8)
Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 12/4/12
oooooooo…..i want one!
Me too, me too!!!! So cool.
Nooooooooo Bucky balls are going under?! That’s not fair those things are awesome
Order that one and you also get a free home visit from the Department of Homeland Security…
Hey, a little nukie never hurt anybody.
Hell no! We don’t glow!
You can see one of these kits on display at the National Museum of Atomic Testing in Las Vegas.
Had one. During the McCarthy hearings, Dad thought it was a Commie plot to hinder development of our A-Bombs. He took it from me and threw it down a mine shaft in Centralia, Pennsylvania. Baa!
This ‘toy’ was made by the same A C Gilbert who shamelessly ripped off the Meccano system; measurement for measurement, and hole for hole, from Frank Hornby in the UK. It cost Hornby a small fortune in international litigation to get Gilbert to ‘cease and desist’ production…