Did you ever wonder why Gen Xers are so tough? It’s because we survived lead paint, no seatbelts, riding in the beds of pickup trucks, drinking from the hose, no anti-bacterial soap, no hand sanitizer, latch key kids (home alone after school), and when we got hurt, we’d rub dirt in it as we PLAYED in the dirt! We also survived these life threatening toys!
Mattel’s Creepy Crawler Thingmaker. The Thingmaker had children create small, plastic bugs and spiders. While the process was awesome, it was also extremely unsafe since it we had to use a hot plate to melt plastic. This “toy” left many children burned and scarred. Sounds fun, right? A toy that involved the boiling of toxic material, yup we survived that one.
Lawn Darts: Lawn Darts was a backyard, summertime game that had players throw steel-tipped, long darts toward plastic circles on the ground. These darts were life-threatening to a child playing during the family cookout! They had enough force to pierce or puncture a hole in a kids skull. After many injuries were reported and there were even a few deaths, the Consumer Product Safety Commission was forced to ban lawn darts in 1988.
Clackers: Clackers were a popular toy in the late 60s, 70s and 80’s. They were made of two very hard plastic balls tied to a string with a ring for your finger. With your finger in the ring. It worked by moving your hand to try to swing the balls together to make a clacking sound. This toy not only looked like a medieval torcher weapon, but it also acted as one! Trying to clack the balls together, you could hit yourself or others in the face causing black eyes, nose bleeds, and many other blunt injuries. The balls also sometimes cracked if they struck each other too hard. Eventually, they were taken off the market after causing too many injuries.
Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kid: Remember these? These creepy dolls were programmed with “real chewing action!” These dolls had some cannibalistic tendencies as kids often got their fingers and even their hair caught in the doll’s mouth seriously injuring kids. As a result, Mattel banned them in 1997.
Yo-Yo Water Balls: These were made from flammable diesel hydrocarbons, this stretchy toy could cause strangulation if wrapped around a kid’s neck, and was banned in Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. As of December 13, 2007, the CPSC had received 409 reported injuries, 294 of which were classified as suffocation/strangulation. Yikes!
An last but not least, remember Tether Ball? That was a smack in the face, rope burn good time, right? These were on every playground in the US. The ball on the end of the rope would go round and round and round and round that metal pole?
And this is why we are so tough
