Comments on: “Deadly toys of yesteryear”

By: Fred Ranney

Fred Ranney — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 09:25:29 +0000

As a child, I made my own lead soldiers. One Christmas, I was given a “toy” melting device, lead bars and moulds which combined to allow one to melt the lead, prepare one of the moulds and fill it with molten lead to make the desired figure. Unfortunately, I never burned myself so that I could sue and retire with a large pension. My parents had enough confidence in their parenting so they did not worry about my use of a somewhat potentially hazardous toy.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:28:39 +0000

JamesT,

You do get more for the switch from lead to pewter than JUST the safety thing… do a little research into older lead figures and how they must be kept to avoid decay.

By: JamesT

JamesT — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:42:30 +0000

You have *no* idea what the move from lead to pewter did to us collectors of miniature soldiers. Prices tripled overnight, increased costs for producer and consumer alike and reduced the number of companies producing offerings. It was totally reedikulous, it wasn’t like parents were buying Games Workshop Space Marine lead minis for infants…

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:10:46 +0000

Some of the current recalls are for toys that only dangerous if misused–Mattel recalled toys with embedded magnets because when children swallowed two or more pieces, the magnets caused intestinal problems. They also caused problems when children stuck them up their nose or put them in their ears (Is there ANYTHING kids don’t try to stick up their nose? Are we going to ban pennies nd beans and gravel?), but were harmless during normal usage.

By: Jim Collins

Jim Collins — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:10:22 +0000

I miss my lawn darts. Every Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day we’d go to my Uncle’s and the first thing I did was head for that box in the garage. I’d like to see some stats on how many people were hurt by lawn darts.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:49:04 +0000

How many eyes were actually lost to Booby Trap? If you can come up with one case, I’ll be surprised.

By: melinama

melinama — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:46:47 +0000

Wow, you mean they DIDN’T stop making Booby Trap cause it was putting peoples’ eyes out? Or do the new plastic pieces have special magnetic implants (or strings) which reduce to flaccidity the otherwise dangerously vigorous springing-up action? The sudden poinging was most of the charm of this game…

By: Ted

Ted — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:25:50 +0000

Mildly related: 12 Angry Little People.