Top 10 Banned Kids Toys

Who would have thought something so cute would get yanked off the shelf. Released in 1994, these skinny plastic dolls came with foam wings and a little base to set her in. When you pulled the string on the back, the wings would spin like a helicopter and the doll would fly into the air. Incredibly popular at the time, the toys were given a recall due to the unpredictable nature of how they flew. Repeated eye injuries, broken teeth, blindness, and even severe cuts were all caused by the out of control, spinning dolls.

Sold in the 1950s, the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab gave kids the radioactive material needed to unleash nuclear and chemical reactions. From the lens of a 21st-century parent, you’d question how anyone ever thought this was a good idea. Included in the set were compounds that emitted beta and gamma rays, both of which are radioactive. Pitched as being completely safe as long as you followed instructions carefully, which we all know kids do so well. Thankfully, the $50 price tag was far too high to make it attractive in those days, forcing it off store shelves before it even sold 5,000 kits.

For the 1960s, the concept was fairly simple. Take two balls and attach them to a string and children can swing them around. When they collide, they make a big “clacking” sound, which the kids will adore. It was all fine and dandy until the balls started exploding. With enough force applied, the collision would cause the balls to shatter, sending shards of glass or plastic in any direction. Reports of facial and other injuries caused the toy to be pulled from the market before resurfacing again in the 1990s. More modern materials prevented the exploding balls from hurting anyone further.

You can market it to older kids all you want. That’s not going to stop the younger ones from playing with them. Buckyballs were a set of small, powerful magnets that would stick together to form various shapes. Each magnet was about 5mm wide: just small enough for a young kid to swallow. Countless reports of children ingesting the magnets caused a recall on the toy in 2012, forcing the company to issue $375,000 worth of refunds. That didn’t however stop Buckyballs founder Craig Zucker from trying again. Speks are essentially the same toy with a new name and logo.

Have you ever played with a paddle ball? You know, that rubber ball attached to a string with a paddle? Now imagine your hand is the paddle, the string is a bungee cord, and the ball contains a non-descript fluid. That’s the concept behind the Yo-Yo Ball. It sounded innocent enough but many issues have arisen from it. There was of course the potential choking hazard it posed if the cord was wrapped around you in the wrong way. The material it was made of was also highly flammable. If pulled too far, the snap-back could be quite painful, and the liquid in the ball was toxic. Everything about this bouncing ball said it needed to come off shelves.

When you’re done watching this video, search YouTube for “Kite Tube fail” and you’ll see exactly why this kind of “toy” has no business on store shelves. It’s essentially a modified inner-tube designed to catch air while being dragged behind a boat. Once airborne, neither the boat driver or the passengers had any control over how the tube would react to the air current. In many cases, it would flip or turn suddenly, forcefully ejecting its passengers into the air. Broken bones, punctured lungs, and damaged eardrums were all injuries sustained as a result of the violent crash back into the water. The “kite” was quickly recalled, and flying boat tubes were made illegal.

No one would ever argue that Cabbage Patch Kids were a huge wave in the toy industry. But not every new doll was a success. Released in 1996, the Snacktime Kid was intended to allow children to feed their doll any number of plastic treats. Innocent at first, kids quickly discovered the mouth wouldn’t stop until whatever it ate was fully immersed in their little friend. Combine that with an over-powered motor, kids were getting their fingers and hair stuck in the dolls, with no way to stop them from eating. By 1997, Mattel gave up on the Hungry Hungry Hippo-like doll, and offered refunds to parents who had purchased the product.

Say what you want about toy guns, but they have been a staple of the toy industry for as long as guns have been around. But for a brief time in the late 1940s, this “magic” pistol was no ordinary play firearm. Using a combination of calcium carbide and water, the gun would propel ping-pong-sized balls from the barrel for distances well over 70 feet. The biggest problem with this toy was the fact that it gave children access to a literal explosive compound that could go off with as little as a couple of drops of sweat. Combine that with the splash of sparks that often erupted from the weapon, everything about this toy spelled “dangerous.”

Similar in some ways to today’s Perler Beads, Aqua Dots, also known as Bindeez, are small beads that can be used to create creative designs on small pegboards. Like other swallow-hazard toys, younger children would accidentally ingest the beads. That wasn't however what triggered the ban and subsequent massive recall. The beads were made of Butanediol, which when ingested, converts to a sedative known as GHB, or gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid. Incidents of children swallowing, and suffering adverse effects were widely reported. Concerns were also addressed about the beads being used as a recreational drug. The ingredients were eventually replaced with safer ones, allowing the toy to be brought back to store shelves.

And you thought getting hit with a regular dart was bad. Lawn darts were a staple of outdoor games for many years. Shaped like their smaller counterpart, the metal pointed ends were quite heavy. Propelled by hand into the air in an arch to hit a circle target, the darts would have been harmless if they had only hit the grass. Thousands of injuries from lacerations, concussions, and even death were reportedly tied to the unsafe usage of this outdoor field game. They were banned in the US in 1988 and then in Canada in 1989. Less dangerous substitutes have since been released, all with no metal tips.