BANNED TOYS - TOY HISTORY - CONTROVERSIAL COMPILATION!

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: In the past two weeks, we've been discussing unproduced toys. But what about the toys that did get to the toy aisles, only to be recalled due to the outrage of certain parents and the functionalities of these toys? And later, these toys would end up going for a lot of money on the aftermarket. They could bite you. They could hurt you. They were in bad taste. They were inappropriate. Won't somebody please think of the children? And some of them were even radioactive. In this Ezra Retro Geek Out, we're going to be taking a look at seven toys that got banned from stores. So time to strap in for some toy history. It was a magical time in the 80s when the Cabbage Patch Kids line was introduced by Mattel. This happened at the 1983 International Toy Fair. The toys enjoyed blockbuster sales throughout the decade. And with great demand came several spin-offs. Like, for instance, in 1996, with the Cabbage Patch Snack Time Kids, these dolls would come with plastic food that you could feed the doll. You really choose! And little did they know that the kids that were feeding these dolls were just inches away from a pair of one-way metal rollers, sucking in anything it could get its hands on. Like hands! And hair! And I thought Chucky was the baddest, toughest doll of all. [00:01:18] Speaker 2: The killer doll! [00:01:19] Speaker 1: So after many complaints and injuries, Mattel offered a cash refund of 40 bucks to the enraged parents. They made one more attempt to still sell all of these unsold toys by simply placing a warning sticker on the box. But in January 1997, the Consumer Products Safety Commission announced that the company would pull the dolls from store shelves. Ending the feeding frenzy. And just in case you want to bite the bullet on getting one of these dolls, they're still out there and they have been known to sell for upwards of 500 bucks. Just when you thought you'd had seen it all with these cannibal Cabbage Patch Kids, Toy Biz produced a Marvel Deluxe set of Shapeshifters in 1998. The following year, the second wave would feature the Punisher, who's also known as the Crotch Rocket Punisher. As the image will probably show you quite clearly. What do you know? [00:02:11] Speaker 2: I was wondering what he and I would tangle. [00:02:13] Speaker 1: As part of the Marvel Deluxe Shapeshifters action figures line came the Punisher that would transform into a power pistol. Now, on the box, it all looks pretty innocent. But when you go into gun mode, something looks kind of off. I mean, it's like his cannon is emerging from his butt. And it didn't take long for kids to find out that when you posed them in this way, you had the Crotch Rocket. Parents were upset with the toy being too inappropriate and aimed at children, causing this Frank Castle transformer to be pulled from source. A Shapeshifter Punisher these days will set you back about 200 bucks in the box. But this isn't the only time that certain action figures would make parents their fantasies go wild. The rat-repeating Tarzan doll was released in 1999 by Disney. The movie-inspired lead character would have two features. Making sound in the form of a jungle call and the ability to move its hands up and down. Now, the original packaging allowed to test this product and its functionalities. And consumers noticed something weird. The toy would move his arm to a lower position. Now, hold on, Buster. What are you trying out there? Parents immediately made the connection of the movement in combination with the jungle cry. And one of the Mattel spokespersons soon chipped in with, I think this is where adults look at things differently. Kids have a much more innocent concept. Now, it didn't help that the sound chip for the jungle yell only made the matter more obvious. to perverted minds shopping around the toy aisles. Following the customer's feedback, they changed the packaging on the toy so he couldn't drop his arms below the waist. But then, you'd still have kids buying this toy, right? I mean, they didn't pull it from the store, they just changed the packaging and brought it back to the stores. The toy functionalities would still be the same. Now, I've seen toys in the original packaging go for around 50 bucks. Not too expensive, but still quite the oddity. I guess it taught Tarzan to keep that kind of monkey business out of the urban jungle. And the next entry in our banned toy list is an explosive one. The A.C. Gilbert Company's Atomic Energy Lab. It might not be the first, but it was the most elaborate atomic educational set out there for children. Although, the toy had quite a short lifespan, mostly due to it costing too much for kids in the 50s. It was on store shelves from 1950 to 51 for about 50 bucks. Nowadays, you're going to have to pay more than 100 times the original price for this toy. And that is if you want to go near this set. The set came with four types of uranium, a Geiger counter so you could verify that it was radioactive material in there, and a government manual on prospecting uranium. Despite the company saying that this was perfectly safe for children out there, I do have my doubts. And this is just one of many energy labs that would continue to be produced throughout the 60s. So yeah, it's pretty dangerous, and I think maybe Nintendo should have made a set and really taken that punchline to the next level. Now you're playing with power. Atomic power. And while some kids were learning to be chemists with their own little lab sets, others had their eyes set on becoming a real chef with Easy Bake Ovens. Ever since it was introduced by Kenner in 1963, the Easy Bake Oven had been a delight for amateur pre-tween cupcake chefs. However, when Hasbro started producing them as well in 1993, everything was fine until they changed something to the design in 2006. They altered the toy to be loaded from the front like real ovens. But what it also did was allow kids to stick their hands inside of the oven. They already had to recall the toy twice, but after five more reports, the toy saw cancellation in 2007. An updated version of the toy is now sold with an electric heating element instead of a light bulb. [00:06:09] Speaker 2: Creepy crawlers, you can make a bug, make a worm. [00:06:13] Speaker 1: The Creepy Crawlers was a similar toy created for kids that were more into the creepy stuff, like insects and bugs. You got some plastic goop, the consistency of syrup, and add an electric element that heats up to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit or 149 degrees Celsius. Definitely a dangerous mix, but it was necessary for the Creepy Crawlers released in 1964. Not only were kids burning their fingers on the hot plates, but also breathing in potential toxic fumes. The current iteration features an oven that cannot be open until the insides are cooled off again. And what better way to cool off with some refreshing air flowing from the Sky Dancers? The Sky Dancers and Dragonflies were both animated shows back in the 90s. And of course, you needed to have toys when you had a cartoon, so Galoop came in with a pretty cool gimmick. The toys would allow the character to fly up in the air thanks to the foam wings. However, this wasn't so safe. And after more than 100 reported injuries, ranging from temporary blindness to stitches, they recalled the toys in the year 2000. All 8.9 million of them. Now, whether you were a girl or a boy in the 80s, one of these two animated series is definitely something you'd watch. The Sky Dancers were marketed to the girls, and the Dragonflies were more marketed to the boys. Both toys would defy gravity, with their helicopter wing that would fly away at an arm's length. When a child pulled the string attached to the toy, the wings would spin, and the doll would take the most majestic flight, and maybe in the end, end up hurting you. I actually liked Dragonflies back in the day, but I never got the toys. And even the adult collector toy market that is all the rage right now has had some toys removed from distribution. For Quentin Tarantino's movie, Django Unchained, they had set out to release action figures based on the characters in the movie. When the toys were announced, they were met with an outcry on civil rights because the toys were mocking slavery. Civil rights groups saw the toys as a slap in the face of their ancestors. Django Unchained had become Tarantino's most successful film at the box office. The Weinstein Company said in a statement, in light of the reaction to the Django Unchained action figures, we are removing them from distribution. We have tremendous respect for the audience, and it was never our intent to offend anyone. Action figures had been made for all of the Tarantino films, including Inglourious Bastards. They were meant to be collectibles for people 17 and older, which is the audience for the film. And there is definitely an audience of Tarantino film collectors out there. The 8-inch toys ended up being on sale through Amazon and other sites for a brief period of time, priced at $39.99 each. And when they were announced to be removed, some already went up on the same sites by private parties for up to $5,000 for a figure. Maybe these toys should have never been made. And that was my first dive into recalled and banned toys. I want to thank you so much for watching this episode of Toy History. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and notification bell to see what I have in store for you next week. Oh, in store. Poor choice of words. Toys, toys, toys. It's all fun and games till someone gets hurt. Who knew toys could explode, cause infections, or even worse, spoil a blockbuster movie to be. And this week's Ed's Retro Geek Out, we go from 60s banned toys to 90s recall toys, and more. So be sure to not miss out on any upcoming videos and smash that subscribe button and let's strap in for some toy history. The year was 1962, and to capitalize on Disney's movie called The Absent-Minded Professor, the Hassenfeld Bros Company, now known as Hasbro, released its own version of the film's Flubber substance for kids to play with. In 1963, they had a sequel planned called Son of Flubber, so it could surely make some money out on the toy market. And just as depicted in the original movie, but also in the 90s remake with Robin Williams, there's nothing Flubber can't do. It bounces, it molds, it makes impressions. You can make models, it can be cut, it floats, it bends, it flows, it moves, and it stretches, and stretches, and stretches. The green goo was parent-approved, did not stain, it was harmless, and non-toxic. But as soon as Flubber hit the shelves just in time for Christmas 1962, people began complaining that the green globs of goo were causing rashes on their bodies when they played with it. One out of three kids who owned the toy developed some kind of rash. Hasbro ultimately determined that the Flubber caused folliculitis, a painful infection of the hair follicles. And it's speculated that an oil used in the mixture to create the Flubber was the culprit behind the rash. After lawsuits and an extensive FDA inquiry, the companies determined that indeed Flubber was causing the infection. And with 1,600 complaints filed, Hasbro recalled the product. Just like in the movie, Flubber has a mind of its own. Getting rid of the Flubber was harder than the company had anticipated. They tried to incinerate the return batches, but all that did was produced a thick black smoke without really destroying the Flubber. The nearby city of Providence, Rhode Island, complained of huge clouds of black smoke. Next, they tried to put the Flubber balls in the city dump, but kids turned up trying to steal them. Hasbro took another shot to get rid of the Flubber when they got permission to weigh them down and sink it in the ocean, but it floated back up to the top the next day. Finally, Hasbro buried the Flubber in what would become the parking lot to their new Rhode Island warehouse. And that worked for about 35 years. Then, employees began seeing Flubber rising like the undead through cracks in the pavement. Legend had it that the stuff would occasionally bleed through the surface of the pavement on hot days. I think this would have actually made a great movie, them trying to get rid of the Flubber. And as you can see, the Flubber is still unstoppable. This package of an originally factory-sealed one still has the Flubber inside. It appears to have hardened and reduced a bit in size, but it's still green and mean. But all Flubber aside, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. And in the 60s, you didn't just have bikes, you had swing bikes. Now, for a middle schooler back then, the so-called muscle bikes or wheelie bikes became a must-have. These bikes had hot-rod type styling for kids who weren't old enough to drive. Ape hanger handlebars, Dayton rims, wheelie bars, banana seats, and small front wheels that were easy to lift off the ground. These bikes weren't meant as transportation, they were just for looking cool and doing stunts. And no bike stunted harder than the swing bike. The swing bike had a second steering axis in front of the seat, meaning you could ride with one wheel on the curb and another one on the road or in a cool S shape. It was also pretty hard to steer and keep control of. It made you much more likely to fall on your face eventually. And there was also another product out on the shelves you shouldn't be using in combination with this swing bike and that is the swing wing. It's like a hula hoop but for your head. Transagram Games developed the swing wing concept in 1965. Kids that played with it didn't just have fun but also ended up having vertigo, whiplash, and neck problems for the years to come. And this does bring a whole new meaning to the swing 60s. Fast forward to 1990 where Warren Beatty starred as Dick Tracy and was to become the next big comic movie after the success of Batman the year before. The movie was released by Disney but saw some delay and that's when the toy line made by Playmates caused a problem as the toy revealed the pivotal ending plot point of the movie that the blank was indeed spoiler alert Brettless Mahoney. Since the toys were released before the film Playmates and Disney did not want the toys to ruin the ending so they delayed the blanks release but it seems that it was so delayed that when it finally hit store shelves nowhere near as many as were needed were made available to the public. It is speculated a lot of them were released in Canada and not recalled properly over there. This of course made the blank the most uncommon Dick Tracy toy out of the 14 action figures promoted on the back of the cards but the story doesn't end here. One of the characters on the backs of the cards was called the Tramp and caused a little stir as well. The story even saw some press coverage in December of 1990 as the Walt Disney Corporation was bowing to pressure from the advocates for the homeless as they had decided to stop selling a toy figure of a Tramp. The Tramp is described on the package as hardened and bitter after a life on the mean streets a lute who would just as soon take your life as your wallet and will use and abuse any young helpless prey he comes across. That's kind of weird where's this going? A church group cited Steve the Tramp was one of the most offensive toys of the 1990 Christmas season so the toy was recalled but only a week before Christmas so it didn't really make that big of a difference. Nine years later the force was strong and it could get even stronger when you had a real lightsaber but who knew lightsabers could burn you? Back in 1999 Hasbro made a line of awesome toy lightsaber toys based on a Star Wars Episode 1 movie they made a Dart Maul double-bladed lightsaber that one had two retractable red plastic light blades on both sides and a metallic gray hand grip the blades extended to a whopping five feet long they also made another lightsaber which had a retractable green light blade that extended to about three feet both lightsaber toys lit up when struck against anything and gave off a crashing sound they also made a cool energy humming sound just like the real thing but unlike the real lightsabers these toy lightsabers ran off of two C batteries the Consumer Product Safety Commission ordered consumers to stop using these lightsabers immediately because it turns out there was a faulty spring in the toy the spring in the battery compartment could dislodge causing batteries to overheat or rupture and that's exactly what it did it burned a bunch of people there were 38 reports of lightsaber batteries overheating including six reports of batteries rupturing people complained about minor burns and eye irritation and after that Hasbro voluntarily recalled about half a million Star Wars lightsaber toys for repair and you could also request a Hasbro self-repair little kit to ensure that the toy couldn't hurt you anymore they did upgrade the toy a little later and that's why the lightsabers with the sticker now with battery protector are not part of this recall and I think it's time to get our fingers dirty with the CSI fingerprint examination set the set promised kits tenon of the possibility to collect examine and record fingerprints although adult supervision was required these crime scene investigation wannabes would end up disappointed in late 2007 when Planet Toys requested that its CSI fingerprint examination kit be removed from the shelves now the reason for this request came from a whole different investigation lab where lab tests had shown that the fingerprint dust used in the kit contained asbestos the case ultimately touched off a nationwide class action alleging not only that the toys had asbestos but the tremolite variant one of the most lethal kinds the case was ultimately settled finally triggering a recall in 2009 and I wonder who is gonna crack the case on this cold case from the 1950s when they gave kits a toy that points a pop gun at their crotch a terrible idea if you ask me but acceptable at the time it seems released in the 50s the Bat Masterson Derringer belt gun was a plastic pop gun attached to a belt buckle allowing kits to shoot their friends from down below in a from dusk till dawn style problem was the gun didn't always flip before going off every so often the gun would simply shoot down endangering the wearer's crotch area so yeah there we have it a plastic gun that could potentially hurt a child you can't really call it a disaster waiting to happen because accidents did happen and the next toy is just another disaster waiting to fall down now jarts also took way too long to get banned if you ask me jarts were basically heavy lawn darts with metal spikes designed to fly in the air and they were also a recipe for disaster the toy had already been banned once but officials ruled they could come back as long as they were labeled for adults only but that didn't stop kids from using it in the late 1980s a 70 year old girl died after accidentally being hit with a dart now this prompted her father to successfully lobby to get them banned for good in 1988 and Canada followed a year later officials found that in the 8 years leading up to the girl's death a whopping 6,000 people went to the emergency room because of the lawn darts 81% of those people were 15 and younger it's probably good that this toy isn't around anymore today but it doesn't always take a dangerous toy to get something recalled sometimes there's just marketing reasons behind it and this one cost the creation of one of the most expensive NES games out there stadium events is a sport fitness game developed by human entertainment and published by Bandai for the Nintendo entertainment system this and athletic world were the two games in the family fun fitness series designed and branded for the short-lived family fun fitness mat accessory that was compatible with the NES stadium events allows players to compete in four different Olympic inspired sporting events using the mat to move as they compete in running and jumping focused gameplay now Nintendo thought that this was a great idea and they actually bought the idea the North American version was rebranded by Nintendo after its 1987 release the game was re-released as world-class track meet and the math was retitled the power pad now you're fitnessing with power original North American copies of stadium events are now considered to be among the rarest NES games leading to high prices in the secondary video game collecting market due to its rarity stadium events has achieved an almost mythical aura amongst video game collectors for years stories have circulated about copies found in thrift stores entire cases of the game discovered in an abandoned warehouse and private deals featuring secretive non-disclosure agreements in 2016 the game made headlines around the world when a sealed copy sold on eBay for a then record 35 grand and in 2017 another one fetched $41,000 today even loose copies have been known to fetch five figure sums and even though a small run of NES games means there would be 10,000 of them made the general consensus is that there's only about 200 copies of stadium events left out there so the mix keeps continuing as the price keeps climbing up on this one nicely stocked toy aisles is something we can only dream of now but even back in the day it was difficult to keep them stocked not just because the toy was popular and would fly off the shelves but because the customer is king and your parents or religious groups would go riot against certain toys being released and when a new release is a nightmare for your publicity a recall is the only thing you can really do in this week's X Retro Geek Out Heat Wave Edition we take a look at a couple action hero toys that got recalled and banned just as fast as they went up on the shelves be sure to subscribe for weekly toy videos and let's strap in for some toy history when Battlestar Galactica came to the TV screens in 78 with spaceships in space it was sure popular a franchise created by Universal Studios for ABC to rival Paramount's Star Trek and obviously catch the wave of success 20th Century Fox had created with Star Wars in Battlestar Galactica human civilization has become a group of planets they call the 12 colonies who are at war with the cybernetic race known as Cylons and their main goal is the extermination of the human race I recommend toys were made by Mattel Corporation and included action figures and spaceships even after the series had ended the toys continued to be popular at toy stores the spaceships borrowed a little gimmick from the Shogun Warriors line as they included the same spring-loaded mechanism but this time with smaller missiles now unfortunately on December 31st in 78 a 4-year-old managed to shoot one of the missiles into his mouth and it caused him to choke to death another kid was more fortunate as he also had the toy missile go down his windpipe but this time surgeons could remove the projectile from his lung in a half an hour long operation these events had Mattel initiate a recall of all the spring-loaded missiles the Colonial Viper the Scarab and the Stellar Probe were recalled from stores as well as the Cylon Raider space vehicles parents could also mail in the Little Red missiles and in exchange they would get a Hot Wheels toy for the loss in play value Mattel also redesigned the toys to have non-firing missiles and popped them back on the shelves that way the boys' debt however triggered a national outcry to remove projectiles from all toys in March of 1979 the four-year-old's parents sued Mattel but the judge dealing with the case singled out the Star Wars Kenner toys as the main culprit they were the best known and maybe he was trying to set an example this also affected the mail-away we know as Boba Fett the prototype holy grail for Star Wars collectors rocket-firing Boba Fett the firing missile was removed and it delayed the mail-away as well I guess in space nobody can hear you scream but down here on earth we could definitely hear some concerned parents a year later another space adventure came to the big screen called Alien where Edgar Giger's creation the Xenomorph got the leading role as space slasher in one of the best horror movies ever made this time Kenner had gotten the movie license to create children's toys like a board game a movie viewer a blaster target set puzzle and a highly detailed 18-inch action figure targeted to kids when parents saw it it would immediately catapult them back to the Nostromo space vessel right next to Ripley even though kids weren't allowed to see the movie parents determined it was wrong to sell this action figure to kids the superposable toy with mechanically operated inner mount that when you pushed his head would chew it out was determined to be too terrifying to play with by the parents now I think the kids would have made up their own backstory for this Xenomorph with glow-in-the-dark action after the alien hit the shelves Kenner got swamped by complaints from angry parents about this monstrosity being marketed to kids and as no parents were allowing their kids to buy them the sales were poor the alien was quickly found in the discount aisles but in the end with all the parental outrage Kenner had only one option left and that was to pull the toys from the shelves and also shelved the three and quarter inch figures they had planned on making luckily now Super 7 has made the alien action figures through their reaction line the big alien has been re-released a couple times and was also re-imagined by Gentle Giant and later we did get a whole bunch of Kenner aliens that tied in with the movie sequels but too bad for all the kids that wanted a cool alien toy back in the late 70s because for them the fearsome creature as perceived by the parents painted another picture and talking about paint the colorful lions of Voltron Defenders of the Universe had a bit of an issue with their paint not being up to USA standards Voltron like so many robot shows had its roots from Japanese series that would adapt for the American audiences the popular Voltron Defenders of the Universe we all know and love came from 4 different series Mirai Robo Daltanus Beast Goliath Armored Fleet Dairugger 15 and Speedlight Electroid Elbigus all of these were produced by Tui and had their own toy lines produced by Bandai when the license came over to the US in the 80s the toys were first made by Matchbox in 84 then Panache Place in 85 and later by LGN in 86 and it's the toys made by Matchbox that created the fuzz not by the parents doing reports of lead poisoning from the paints used but by the distributor who alerted the Federal Consumer Products Safety Commission about 1.5 million of the robots have been distributed by Matchbox since July 85 making it the biggest recall at the time but not all toys that were out there had the lead paint so they issued a warning and also included a picture on how to identify the toys one was the Deluxe Voltron line and the other were the miniature lines these were made in Taiwan and people could get their money back by calling a Matchbox toll-free number all the other Voltron toys were fine and fun the Matchbox Voltron made in Japan toys were harmless but another Japanese inspired toy proved to be lethal the Transformers slogan more than meets the eye was a bit too perfected for the Transformers Decepticon leader toy yes G1 Megatron was a robot that could turn into a too real looking gun again the toy was an already existing concept they created the American TV show around the original Megatron toy began life as the Microman figure Gunrobo P38 and you can also find him in a different color scheme as the Gunrobo P38 Uncle with extra accessories based on the Walter pistol of the 60s spy show The Man from Uncle the Uncle toy was released by Hasbro as Megatron the Microman version included a spring-loaded firing mechanism with way too small plastic bullets and yeah we already knew that was a no-go even though they released different versions of Megatron all of a sudden one year he wasn't there anymore on the toy shelves Megatron is probably the most troubled Transformer toy in all of Transformers history due to being originally Japanese he was frequently banned because he looked like a realistic gun and he was lacking the orange cap to indicate he was just one of the many toy guns out there some countries banned it or deemed it illegal due to criminals or kids misusing it as the real gun and terrorizing others or law enforcement officers mistaking it for a real firearm and shooting innocent people as apparently has happened multiple times in the past and even though Megatron as a gun was pretty badass his non-robot form was still a bit weird you couldn't realistically play with him along with the other Transformers in vehicle form next up is G.I. Joe and now surely the real American hero can be recalled or outraged parents well they did have to recall Roblox at one point no not that one no not not that one in 1992 the 11th series of Joe's we saw version 4 of Roblox the figure was true to the character we knew from the cartoons and great for Joe fans who hadn't seen Roblox on shelves in the past couple years the first issue of the figure featured some unique accessories the first was an updated heavy machine gun which was a perfect match for Roblox and fit his prior appearances the second accessory was a two-part spinning launcher that shot a helicopter disc into the air but the launcher's clutch would get overwound and break and because his accessory easily broke they actually recalled that version they replaced the version of Roblox in 1993 with the same figure now only packaged with a new spring-loaded accessory so even if we were dreaming of toys not getting recalled due to outraged parents or the toys being able to harm you even a G.I. Joe figure could get recalled basically because it wasn't working properly talking about dreams Freddy Krueger has been an iconic character ever since he came onto the scene in 1984 and would eventually join the ranks with the other slashers of the 80s and the already popular Universal Monsters it only took five years for a toy company to take his merchandising to toy form in 1989 Matchbox put out this talking Freddy doll all your favorite Freddy quotes at the pull of a string Matchbox Toys was releasing it just in time for Halloween but it didn't last long like we saw with the Toysmate for Alien there's usually an angry mob of moms ready for action in Freddy's case it was a religious group that urged customers not to buy the talking doll based on the fiend from the movies the group boycotted stores that stocked the doll and also boycotted all other Matchbox toys at the same time saying this toy is the product of a sick mind the fact that a major toy manufacturer would promote this doll is tragic we call upon concerned Americans not only to refuse to purchase the Freddy doll but to boycott all stores which sell it and to boycott other Matchbox toy products and that's what they said shortly thereafter the company removed the dolls from shelves because of the parental complaints and after all the character kills kids in their sleep now with only 40,000 of them being shipped out before the protests began they're actually quite rare to find now Matchbox also had other plans that year releasing the Max FX toy line where you would get a base character and pop on special effects to create an awesome movie monster the first one they chose to come out was the Freddy Krueger and that's why we never saw the alien Jason Voorhees or the universal monsters in Max FX form who would have thought that a toy company's dream of turning the ghoulish movie character Freddy Krueger into a popular doll could turn out to be a nightmare for business with the Halloween season knocking on the door it's time to clean up the garden toys make sure your super soaker survives the winter perhaps clean up the ankle breakers and hope the clackers you inherited from your aunt don't crack for another summer in this week's Ez's Retro Geek Out we're going to take a look at a couple toys and water guns that got cancelled banned and in some cases should have been recalled to save your company from ridicule be sure to subscribe and strap in for some toy history the year was 1896 when the first water gun was patented it was the cast iron USA liquid pistol with the ability to stop the most vicious dog or man without permanent damage the trigger would press against an interior bladder that would then squirt out the liquid inside and over the next hundred years the water gun would become a classic toy for many kids cheap clear plastic and a trigger was often enough but there were a couple companies that tried to take their water gun to the next level and with every new development of pressure technology and sometimes toy gun laws changing would cause these toys to get cancelled or make room for the next generation or version sometimes recalled or banned thanks to controversy about being too dangerous we've actually come a long way since that USA liquid pistol fired away that harmless squirt of water now for the next gun on the list a little bit of water could be potentially dangerous in the 1950s when BB guns weren't considered as dangerous as they are now it took something special for a gun to stand out and that's exactly what the Austin magic pistol did made in Port Austin Michigan is off with a bang and it's harmless and has been tested by the Detroit testing laboratory this at the time futuristic looking pop gun originally fired ping pong balls up to 100 feet by mixing a small amount of water or spit with a few of the white magic crystals that were supplied with the toy the gas created was ignited by a spark from the flint when the trigger was pulled when fired it would make a loud sound and sometimes you could even see flames escape from the barrel and sparks from the loading chamber the magic crystals in the gun were also known as calcium carbide but the problem with having these chemicals in a child's hands without any adult supervision was that if any unintended water or moisture got in there it could potentially explode you were basically carrying around a gas powered combustion chamber and it wouldn't take much for the created acetylene gas to explode now the explosive chamber is not the only thing the Austin magic pistol had going for itself sporting tree buck rogers style fins on the barrel and painted bright red and yellow the pistol had a strong visual presence virginia did ban the sale of these firearms as they said any toy gun pistol rifle or utter toy firearm that by action of an explosion of a combustible material will discharge blank or ball charges is illegal and it still is and in many states it's actually considered buying an actual firearm where the Austin magic pistol looked like a toy and ended up being an explosive device the next one was the complete opposite it looked a part of a real gun but they were just the next innovation in water gun technology from 1986 up to 1990 LJN had a line of battery powered motorized water guns these hand powered pump water guns didn't look like anything you'd ever seen before or that was around at the time they had the look the feel the sound so real enter tech you had a large variety of different sized guns and water balloon grenades a sidekick pistol water hawk rpg rocket power launcher the water guns stood out because when they were in action the motorized water pumps made noises that while not realistic added an extra level of sensation finally all of the guns except for the enforcer shotgun model boasted a full automatic rate of fire approximately 60 rpm and that on a 30 foot effective range even an AK centerfire was introduced as the world's most popular motorized water gun the realistically styled submachine gun is a must-have for every water gun lover it came with two detachable magazines for your water storage and had a nylon shoulder strap in order to create the realistic sounds it needed power so you had to place four AA batteries inside the gun now that doesn't sound too safe to have something electric in the midst of your wildest water gun battles and even a movie merchandise tie-in with Rambo's First Blood Part 2 was part of the roster now the line was hugely popular and it might have actually saved the parent company if it wasn't for all the cops shooting kids holding these realistic looking weapons in addition there were reported incidents of criminals utilizing the toy guns in robberies of retail establishments and even banks during these highly publicized incidents enter tech voluntarily began manufacturing their guns with blaze orange colored caps in 1987 and began a line of less realistic neon colored guns later that year after all all toy guns were required to be fit with an orange tip starting in 1989 and as Lgen moved away to merge with acclaim changing the entire focus on creating accessories and games for Nintendo and Sega another challenger approached the water gun game the super soaker was invented by Lonnie Johnson on November 13th 1989 the same year the first nerve blaster came out the idea had sparked back in 1982 back then he was working as a nuclear engineer and thought of a high-sec water gun for children well at least he was keeping busy during business hours it took him eight years to develop the company and to market the first blaster the super soaker 50 when it was launched it had some heavy rivalry with enter tech whose blasters were more advanced because of their use of batteries but the batteries made these blasters less reliable and they easily broke the super soaker didn't require batteries which made them cheaper for buyers they advertised it as the most powerful water gun ever shooting up to 50 feet with quick pump action extra large water capacity and safety pressure valve and so the super soaker 50 was immediately the must-have item to get through summer's heatwave season initially it was released as the power drencher but was later renamed i think every kid in the 90s got the chance to power drench or super soak their friends with one of these neon colored marvels of aquatic warfare multiple variations were released within the super soaker line each one more powerful than the next until the cps 2000 an abbreviation for the constant pressure system what made the cps 2000 controversial was its sheer power once there was a rumor going around about someone shooting a kid in the eye with the blaster and it removed the eye although it hasn't been confirmed it does seem like 1996 first model of the cps the mark 1 version was too powerful and exceeded federal safety regulations so it had to be pulled off the market soon came version 2 that packed a lesser punch now fast forward to 2006 when the super soaker family was joined by the oozenator next to the 900 milliliter of water it could hold there was also a 250 milliliter storage for bio ooze what you got was a gruesome looking water gun straight out of a garbage pill kit's collection the toy classified as a piston pressured in combination with an air pressured blaster with the upper pump you had regular super soaker action but the lower pump would access as the bio ooze ammunition which was exclusive for the oozenator when you fired the bio ooze to your target a sticky transparent looking goop came out and that was supposed to stick onto the enemy when fired it was available in its own refill pack and one came with the oozenator but both have been discontinued thanks to the soaker's unpopularity it was the height of many controversies because of the bio ooze capability which ended up looking more like a money shot than a kill shot and because of this the TV commercial of the soaker is often parodied online I mean what were they thinking at least make the goo green or orange or whatever and why do you even need goo on a water gun now in case you didn't have a water gun you could easily take the higher ground with moon shoes to get an advantage moon shoes are shoes for children fitted with trampoline like springs they were billed as mini trampolines for your feet honestly what could go wrong they even got endorsed by Nickelodeon don't leave earth without them not recommended for wear while mountain climbing tightrope walking or water skiing while they were supposed to make you jump higher which they didn't do it was pretty tough keeping your ankles from breaking kind of like the moon shoes from the 70s when they were called jump shoes that just added big springs instead of the trampoline concept take a look at these satellite jumping shoes what could go wrong with strapping stilts to your feet that double as pogo sticks these were essentially springs on sharp metal wrapped around your shoes with fabric and laces and many kids went to the emergency room in the 70s when they got the chance to try these out newer versions of these are still for sale for adults you even got the kangoo jumps looking like an inline skate on a plastic tread with a teespring to provide the tension needed now clackers seem to be popping up in all of these banned video comment sections so I might as well just talk about this novelty toy today sometimes called knockers and in other parts of the world click clacks clackers actually look a lot like the bolas a weapon from argentine which was a type of throwing weapon used to capture animals by entangling their legs and I guess you could use clackers in the same way but that wasn't the aim of the toy you would get two heavy acrylic balls attached to each other by a string the aim was to balance these together as fast and as hard as possible the toy is based on the principles of kinetic energy a force setting something in motion when you did this you could create the clack sound that could be heard on every street corner in the 60s when it came out a decade later the toy would get taken off the market due to being a major safety hazard as the acrylic balls would often crack or shatter leaving flying shrapnel everywhere and in 1971 the US Food and Drug Administration that was charged with regulating toys at the time created strict safety standards for the subsequent versions of the clackers even though they seem to have been officially banned in 1985 you'll still be able to find similar toys that are a bit smaller and made of lightweight plastic toy industry insiders have said that 90% of toy concepts never see the light of day and while on the shelves some of them got in trouble some didn't whilst doing exactly the same thing these are the stories of some controversial toys that got banned from stores or sometimes even recalled from fire starter action figures to millions of recall pocket monsters and some where we still don't know the reason for the current shortage on the aftermarket so be sure to subscribe sit back relax maybe slightly tap that notification bell because we are gonna get ready to strap in for some toy history remember walking into a toy store and having to pick one toy out of the whole bunch how do you pick the right one for toy companies you usually first got the word out for your toy line with a cartoon and the next step was standing out in the toy shelves as a kid you would get overstimulated with every color and sound coming at you as you frantically run from toy aisle over there marketing needed to get the message out with bright colors and information they could fit on that packaging the information needed to also sell it to mom and dad and provide enough information so they could explain to their kid what this toy was about the way playmates would describe their characters was often with a barrage of puns not sure if the kids read it back then but parents sure did and on every Hasbro G.I. Joe figure you had a file card giving a detailed summary of the toy you were holding even the bad guys working for Cobra got one who would have thought that his description could have been a deal breaker but that's how our real American heroes got in trouble back in 1984 with Zartan leader of the Dreadnoughts who was seen enough in the cartoon to get an action figure but how would one market this master of disguise Zartan can alter his skin color at will to blend in with his environment he is also a master of makeup ventriloquist linguist acrobatic contortionist and a practitioner of several mystic martial arts very little is known of his background and origins however they did appear to know his medical file and psychological profile which describes him as an extreme paranoid schizophrenic he grows into various multiple personalities to such an extent that the original personality becomes buried and forgotten now I guess most of that last paragraph would go over a six-year-old's head but for most Karen's and officials of the mental health association of Indiana it was enough to complain to the Pawtucket toy maker they said for years we've been trying to fight against the stigmatization of the mentally ill something like this bio would have kids believe and create a notion that everyone suffering from a mental illness is an alien enemy creature so after this protest Hasbro agreed to remove the psychological profile from future releases and even donated to the mental health research they were embarrassed but didn't recall the toy some toy chains simply banned the toy with the description to be sold in their stores nowadays checking whether a toy fits the parental value patterns has become a major part of the pre-market testing process but some cases still slip through the cracks it all depends on how you market the toy and where you're going to put it available for the Austin Powers toy line by McFarlane they had created toys targeted to adults collectible action figures were still a new thing in 1999 these toys were for novelty shops and record stores that could target the toys to older audiences now for Toys R Us and some other toy retailers McFarlane had created Austin Powers toys as well targeted to kids also based on The Spy Who Shagged Me and these came fully clothed compared to the adult collectibles who didn't wear too much conservative clothing or didn't behave the toys also came with a voice chip module so marketing decided to place the speech quotes on the package as well but when a Toys R Us ended up getting the much more X-rated versions of the toys on their peg holders some parents became outraged they couldn't believe this toy was approved for ages 10 and up while holding the Mike Myers figure in underwear with gorilla-like chest hair and in big letters the slogan Do I make you horny baby? Do I? one of the British super spies trademark lines Do I make you randy? it was just too much and to answer Austin's question for one Atlanta mom it didn't it did not but upset and outraged saying the toy was perverted and she didn't want to explain to her 11 year old what horny meant in the end it was just a mix up at the warehouse but for a voice box toy targeted to even smaller children the story was quite different a year earlier in 1998 PlaySchool released a 14 inch Poe talking doll based on the Teletubbies show that was probably the most hypnotizing show for kids at the time my sister watched it and it drove me nuts doll looked just like the TV show Poe but when they activated the voice box parents could only hear the phrase bite my butt amongst the gibberish speech they were known for while the doll spoke both English and Cantonese the phrase that it was supposed to say was faster faster and slower slower in Cantonese when you pressed its belly but it sounded like this enough parents complained that this was highly inappropriate and the talking Poe doll was removed from the store shelves in 1998 apart from psychological harm you could also have toys that could physically hurt you or poison you and that's where this one is still a mystery what did this one toy do to get cancelled from production in 1993 Playmates released the TMNT subline Ninja Action these toys would perform an action move when you pressed them down all four brothers were there in the first run but all of a sudden Mikey the Black Belt Boxer was nowhere to be found in the second run and he's still a bit suffered to get on the secondary market but where did it go wrong was it the packaging Black Belt Boxer Mike just when you thought it was safe to taunt the turtle up springs the laid back Black Belt Boxer Mike he's a sly sewer sniper who loves to fool the foot in true ninja style this seemingly napping ninja can pop to his feet in a nanosecond notice and what's even more impressive is that mauling Mike can also draw his ninja nunchucks from their sheets and swing him right up front for battle ready boxing you know this green guy is in cowabunga control just look at this original comic book look now that's a grimace that would make old splinter proud perhaps it was the nunchucks that were too violent in the UK you can't say nunchucks or even ninja that's why they changed the name to teenage mutant hero turtles and michelangelo got a grapple hook as main weapon in the later seasons [00:50:43] Speaker 2: hey come back here I still got five more payments to make on those [00:50:49] Speaker 1: so it's not the box description now ninja action mikey seems to not even have been available in europe as he's nowhere to be found in the promo catalogs but he does appear on the ideal release box art there's supposedly a newspaper article on the recall or ban and we can guess from two plausible causes mikey's acrobatic move with the nunchucks flying around was too dangerous and a kid got hurt or perhaps it was the lead that was concealed in the feet to make him a bit heavier to allow the toy to perform the action lead in toys had been recalled and banned before so it was a no-go as kids would often stick their toys in their mouth and get lead poisoning mikey does look badass with his double strap belt which is the only time in the classic toy line existence he got that belt I always liked these ninja action toys they were the closest thing possible to the original comics apart from their colored bandanas when the ninja action toys got reissued in 98 mikey was still missing but in 2004 they did bring the toy back for a new revamped toy line so it still remains a mystery waiting to be confirmed why this toy is uncommon on the aftermarket was a ban was a recall and what's the reason for it if you know leave it down in the comments below so we learned toys can be dangerous but from an early age on you learn to stay away from danger you don't run with scissors and you don't play with fire and in barbie's case you don't start a fire barbie is one of the most popular and well-known toys in the world and with so many releases she's had her fair share of controversy like in 1991 when she was accused of arson rollerblades were cool in the 90s but rollerblades with lights that could flicker and flash was the next level so you got your rollerblade barbie doll with accessories and of course the rollerblades that really worked you had a lead light that was harmless but the metal rollerblades could also spark if they were scraped against any hard surface just hold down the skates and make the skates flicker and flash come skating with barbie and her rollerblades for freestyling freewheeling fire starting fun parents were concerned it could start a fire and kids could get burned so Mattel quickly recalled the toys before any incidents were reported even though the gimmick of adding a spark to toys had been done countless times before like in the black star toys with laser light stone sparking action almost every single toy in the toy line came equipped with this power and even in the team of captain planet the environmental activist wheeler brought a spark to the toy shelves with a spark fueled light up feature it did fit the action figure well as wheeler was the one carrying the firepower ring around in the cartoon both black star and captain planet still had the spark protected by a clear bright colored plastic but if you wanted a toy that was a real potential fire starter you could get masters of the universe Saurot a toy based on the movie character with laser breath just pull down the lever on the back and his mouth would shoot out sparks that could fly anywhere and for the fireworks finale you needed to get the pull ahead ghost from the real Ghostbusters toy line who even came with a ripcord so you could really see some sparks flying around just remember to stay away from the carpet and if it does who are you gonna call the fire department weirdly enough none of these toys ever got the recall treatment even though they were just as dangerous as rollerblade Barbie I guess it's just the price of fame after all life in plastic isn't always as fantastic in the second half of the 90s you had to live underneath a Geodude to not have heard about Pokemon it was everywhere cartoons trading card games video games I actually love that game it was everywhere and had kids mesmerized with every new thing coming out that connected to Ash Pikachu or any colorful animal in there they had to catch them all and fast food chains were never shy of a popular toy tie-in so they needed them in their kids meals 1999 had the Pokemon craze in full effect with the first movie about to come out so you know kids were after these toys and trading cards that Burger King was proud to offer with the big kids meal you had a large variety of Pokemon you could collect and keep coming back to Burger King for but the Pokemon toys came in plastic Pokeballs that you could pull apart in two halves now this was a safety hazard as the dome-shaped shells fit perfectly over small faces so when it covered nose and mouth it would become a suction cup to the face cutting off all air supply suffocating the kid beneath and in some cases it almost did so Burger King did a big promo campaign recalling the toys and stopped distributing them they told consumers if they had these to throw them away or bring them into Burger King and in return they would get free fries and just like Pokemon was drugs for kids the toys created for a TV show based on a chemistry teacher gone rogue would bring that old dealer environment to Toys R Us stores like never before sure you had chemistry sets but Breaking Bad was something you didn't want your kids to learn about the American Crime and Drama Series at the Guinness Book of World Record as the highest rated show of all time so as an IP owner you knew merchandise could capitalize on that success in 2014 adults toy collectibles weren't too strange to find in Toys R Us but when a floor and a mom encountered Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the toy aisles she was not ready to explain to her kids what kind of crystals these two fine gentlemen were selling for bags of cash so she started a petition on change.org to get the Breaking Bad action figures removed from Toys R Us stores and quickly got 9,000 votes in support total bitch the toys were really screen accurate down to the accessories retailing at about $17.99 we clearly noted on the packaging that these toys were intended for ages 15 and up but that didn't stop the Florida mom so Bryan Cranston stepped in nothing stops this train he made sure everyone knew about it thanks to his tweet on the matter he wrote Florida mom petitions against Toys R Us over Breaking Bad action figures I'm so mad I'm burning my Florida mom action figure in protest and so I quickly gained national attention but even Bryan Cranston couldn't stop this train Toys R Us came out with a statement they had pulled the figures from the shelves by announcing they had taken an indefinite sabbatical Heisenberg knew now it was not good for business and he needed to stay out of Florida mom's territory with his plastic crack the year was 1990 when Kenner released the first series of Swamp Thing action figures based on the animated series by the same name apart from the unproduced toys we featured in the last episode the rarest toy to come out of this line has got to be the camouflage Swamp Thing well the variant released in the first production run but with a gimmick that didn't work out as planned so a recall was done the initial toy had a feature that would allow the color to change so the Swamp Thing could blend in with its surroundings later Kenner released the same figure but with a full green chest when it comes in contact with cold water the green will turn into root-colored brown probably the color change worked better with the section covering a big area instead of being sprinkled around and in the end the recall did make it a valuable variant it's rare due to the low production run although higher value is not the case with all recall toys then again the reason to recall some toys didn't always have a harmless reasoning behind it in some cases toys would be a lot more dangerous or controversial leading into a nationwide or just some household bans sometimes they'd make the toys even more desired as they were talked about more and in doing so fetching them a lot of cash on the secondary market from malfunctioning toys to toys being used for different purposes here is our next installment in the banned, recalled and controversial toy series if you're into 80s and 90s retro toys then please subscribe to the channel and let's strap in for some toy history in 1986 the Rambos Forces of Freedom toy line came under fire not by being based on a violent movie series or that they came with tons of guns but due to one of the characters in the villain's cast the Coleco toy line called the villains the Savage Army which consisted of General Warhawk Black Dragon Gripper and Nomad and it's the last one that a lot of people had a problem with Nomad is a treacherous desert warrior he is unstable as the blowing desert sands as cold as the desert nights and as dangerous as the deadly desert scorpion his only family is a wandering band of cutthroths and thieves they are men without honor who use their knowledge of the desert to carry out terrorist assaults on innocent villages the figure came with a battle action has a darker skin color prominent nose and wears a loose hooded cloak called a Bernouz the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee found this offensive and a form of negative stereotyping so they protested that's when Coleco's vice president came in to say the figure wasn't intended to be offensive to any religious ethnic or national group the figure wasn't meant to be viewed as an Arab but more intended as a fictitious character of vague origins Coleco then stopped advertising and manufacturing the figure with dolls already in stock still to be sold but in case retailers wanted to return it they could get reimbursed seems like John Rambo would have had a better chance at winning the toy chest war without this desert warrior on the opposite side it wasn't my war you asked me I didn't ask you then again it's not all about looks even when you're a toy anything you say can and will be used against you Judge Barbie will agree on this but Teen Talk Barbie released at 1992's Toy Fair could sure talk a lot she had a microchip installed that would be programmed to say four phrases out of a library of 270 different ones phrases include will we ever have enough clothes I love shopping and mat class is tough the American Association of University Women took personal offense to that last one in the Teen Talk Barbie lexicon the phrase had to be taken out even educators including the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics objected to the phrase being discouraging to girls to learn mat and science and lastly lots of the phrases enraged the Barbie liberation organization as well so they decided to draw attention to the matter by changing the voice boxes of approximately 300 Teen Talk Barbies with those intended for Hasbro's J.I. Joe figure Talking Duke so it wasn't too strange to walk by a Barbie toy aisle in 1993 and hear phrases like eat lead cobra attack or vengeance is mine coming from Barbie's lips at least in certain stores in New York and California the Barbie liberation organization regarded the original voice lines as outdated gender stereotypes and with all these protests Mattel took the phrase out of future dolls and offered an exchange to purchasers who had a doll with that phrase in 1994 the controversy was written into a Simpsons episode where Lisa would get a Malibu Stacy doll with a similar stereotype quote Mattel's president did come out with a letter to the association of university women saying the company had made a mistake in hindsight the phrase mad class is tough while correct for many students both male and female should not have been included she wrote we didn't fully consider the potentially negative implications of this phrase nor were we aware of the findings of your organization's report now there's estimated to be 3,500 teen talk Barbies out there with the phrase mad class is tough one's being sold for 25 bucks and now these are fetching between 500 to 1,000 bucks for banned Barbie toy collectors yeah but it wasn't only Barbie who attracted criticism with her talk McFarlane Toys introduced Debt Row Marv to the toy market in 1999 for $23.95 when flicking the switch on the toy the voice box would say is that the best you can do as you also see his whole body vibrating and his eyes light up yeah with this toy you could do your own executions just like in the Frank Miller graphic novel it's based on Sin City watch Marv convulse as the switch is thrown is what it reads on the box you can't blame parents for not being familiar with the comic series all they saw was just a toy that allowed kids to perform a death sentence and execute their toy over and over again then again it was marketed for ages 13 end up comic book readers doing very well for the main target group ranging from 15 to 45 year old males for McFarlane toys the first production run was completely sold out in pre-order sales actually more of an interactive statue with almost no articulation but sculpted by one of the four horsemen even though it wasn't marketed to kids some activist groups just had to protest against this toy making a joke out of the that penalty now in the end all of these complaining articles all they ever did was get the word out for McFarlane toys even more and then a couple of years later NECA came onto the toy market with just the same Marv figure this time based on the movie and nobody complained so yeah no one protested but then again it wouldn't be the last time a vibrating toy got into trouble take for example the Nimbus 2000 electronic broomstick straight out of the Harry Potter books and movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone it was designed purely for you to fantasize winning the quidditch tournament yourself basically a revved up witch broom released by Mattel in 2001 targeted to kids but little did Mattel know that it could please all ages and was particularly popular for the females on the box it read jump on the broom and fly me you could even try out the toy in stores while it was still in its packaging as you pressed the button for magical swooshing sounds every quidditch player dreams of riding a Nimbus 2000 now just like Harry Potter you can train with the Gryffindor quidditch team on the gold standard of broomsticks practice your best seeker moves and keep your eye out for the golden snitch also on the package you got to note the fastest ever flying experience and note the broom does not really fly but it makes up for it by vibrating so yeah fast forward after a couple months on the market and you had the toy popping up in lots of reviews on Amazon warning parents to keep the batteries out when giving it to their kids and the toy would also pop up in adult stores not the adults collectible kind we all love offering the toy amongst their assortment for double the online retail price now to this day you can still find the stimulating broom on ebay but soon after the release Amazon removed the listing from their site and Mattel had to discontinue the product over to aqua beads yeah not the ones you broomstick fans are thinking about buying these beados pixos maybe you've heard of this children's toy in which you create designs with small colored plastic beads but when it was released by spin master under the name aqua dots the product had to come to a recall in 2007 the coating on the beads that causes the beads to stick to each other when water is added contains a chemical that can turn toxic when many are ingested children who swallow the beads can become comatose develop respiratory depression or have seizures with kids ending in comas the US consumer product safety commission even fined the maker spin master with 1.3 million dollars for the now banned hazardous substance the beads were basically coated with GHB a pharmacologically active sedative prodrug also known as the day trade drug there were allegations against the subcontracted company who in order to create it deliberately substituted the safe chemical coating for the dangerous one to save on money so a recall was needed and executed but you can still get the remarketed aqua dots with the safe coating now just maybe don't try to eat it in the late 90s pro wrestling WWF now WWE pushed the limits of good taste and when translated to toys it wasn't the best recipe for the wrestler toy representation of Al Snow he had an onstage gimmick in which he would speak to a female mannequin head in the ring as part of his crazy persona this head was also included and didn't go down well with an assistant professor at a university who complained to Walmart's management and in doing so got the toys pulled off of shelves what kind of message would the toys send her sons about the brutalization of women is what the professor asked the figure in the spotlight was the SummerSlam 99 Road Rage Al Snow toy now if they had seen one tournament they would have known the head wasn't an actual head but a mannequin's head yeah they would have seen the mannequin's head was giving the wrestler in question good advice on how to win the match he was not carrying around a severed female head get ready for the newest in the world wrestling federation the Road Rage Tour Collection these figures come equipped with body bashing accessories like breakable table a barricade or a suitcase with a baby-like head with synthetic hair for Al Snow Jim Byrne WWF's vice president for marketing defendant the action figure Al Snow's act with the mannequin head is as silly as it gets it's loads of fun and now let's take it all the way up to 2021 nowadays it doesn't even matter what the toy says it doesn't matter what it reads on the box but the actual person the toy is based on can have an immediate impact on how the toy gets cancelled recalled or becomes controversial in 2021 whatever you say tweet or Instagram can have an impact on the toys you represent and after a couple of controversial insta posts made by Gina Carano Lucasfilm dropped the actress and also all the products she represented in the Star Wars universe the MMA fighter played Cara Dune on the first two seasons of the Mandalorian Cara is a veteran of the galactic civil war who fought under the banner of the rebellion Cara Dune is a seasoned warrior shortly after the news got out about her being dropped the action figures were sold out on the Hasbro store and retailers were told that their pre-order offers weren't being fulfilled Hasbro had cancelled the production on the toys sharing her likeness it seemed like every collector was out for the Cara Dune figure in February of 2021 skyrocketing the price for the figures by scalpers on eBay with the vintage collection one going for $80 and the black series fetching $150 or even more the black series had its first run in 2020 but was already sold out with many hoping to get one in the second production run the black series toys are targeted to kids ages four and up and this Star Wars black series action figure comes with three Cara Dune inspired accessories that could make a great addition to any Star Wars collection here we are with a brand new installment in the band toy series from trading crazed school bands to educational sets that probably better stayed in school let's take a look at some successful trends and their controversies be sure to subscribe for more 80s and 90s toy videos follow me on my socials and let's strap in for an all new toy history as a kid in the 80s your main ride was probably a BMX bike but when Cransco released Power Wheels in 1984 there was a new way to travel in style the company made battery powered vehicles for kids but the origins came from an Italian company called Peg Perego whom had been around since 1949 and began using gel cell batteries in their kiddie vehicles Power Wheels came in all sorts of models from Jeeps to Ford Mustangs quads and even an 18 volt Porsche however the Porsche dating back to 91 had to be recalled when the driving contacts in the foot pedal switch could weld together resulting in the car not being able to stop anymore they quickly fixed this problem but you better buckle up when you step into one of these because when you're cruising at a top speed of 5 miles per hour and you don't have any brakes running into the sandbox or jungle gym is the only way to stop this ride now I fondly remember these toys as something not a lot of kids had but I would have definitely wanted to try out Mini Hammocks were another backyard toy that could function as a safety net for a hot-wired Power Wheels toy but those got recalled as well due to the danger of strangulation to accommodate the target group's smaller posture they removed the spreader bar that usually holds these open so they twist more often and kids would get caught when climbing in or out and 10 of the manufacturers ended up recalling over 3 million of these debt traps fast forward to 1994 and Kranzco's Power Wheels had been selling well so toy giant Mattel stepped in with an offer they couldn't refuse adding a whole new fleet of electric cars to their roster as they placed it under their Fisher-Price subsidiary and of course they started creating cars focused to girls with Barbie licensed Power Wheels and just imagine if they had made a Street Sharks one [01:13:04] Speaker 2: there's nothing the Street Sharks can chew [01:13:07] Speaker 1: now remember those gel batteries well maybe they weren't the best type to go with in 1998 Mattel's Fisher-Price recalled almost 10 million of these cars because they needed to repair them to prevent the units from overheating the toy car was considered a fire hazard and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission had received over 150 reports of fire caused by the toys even when the toy wasn't in use now the recall also allowed you to bring in the vehicle to an authorized Power Wheels service center they could detect potentially faulty battery connections in the end it's still a very cool toy every kid at a certain age would have wanted after all you could have a real driving car just like mom and dad which was way better than those weird just like dad smoke kits for kids you could role play smoking which was apparently a thing in the 50s and during the 90s you could still get candy ones even though the chocolate didn't really taste that good luckily they started coming down hard on smoking being promoted to kids so they banned them I guess the first cigarette you'd end up smoking would be in the boys room at school then again we didn't have time for those we needed time for all these following toys now most toys you'd never bring to class but the schoolyard is where trading card crazes and collectible trends spiked up during turtle mania you couldn't even wear any team and team merchandise in some schools turtles got us in trouble because some parents believed it encouraged aggression while others said they're just harmless fun according to some teachers it was just too distracting so several california schools created a policy to ban them other parents and teacher groups protested the kids first amendment rights and defenders claimed kids could concentrate better after all the tmnt goodies were kept outside of the classroom sure you would use the noble art of self-taught karate on your classmates but going as far as to ban words like cowabunga and t-shirts come on there was even an anti-war activist offering teddy bears to kids that turned in their tmnt toys at least you could still use the old comic book in a textbook trick [01:15:22] Speaker 2: hey you are you reading comics again get back to toy history yes sir and how many joes were produced in 1988 [01:15:30] Speaker 1: i wonder who knocked on me comics were the perfect size and the perfect escape from any boring class but the last thing you wanted was for a teacher to point the finger at you and see your precious collectible go into the black hole of confiscation and lost and found objects some would keep them weak but some you'd never ever see again talking about pointing fingers in 1982 an e.t the extraterrestrial toy had to be recalled due to well obvious reasons the toys sure delivered what it set out to do and provide a little light as the finger would glow when pressed correctly but perhaps they should have looked at this thing twice over at knickerbocker before giving the okay to the production line with a skin tone finish this absurdly large finger might have easily been mistaken for something else slip et finger over your index finger tip of the finger should touch base of battery to operate press end of the finger against solid object and finger will glow to ensure more enjoyment do not leave light on for too long periods of time light is designed for intermittent use it's one of the worst toys out there and collectors are paying big amounts for this one still in the blister after the recall knickerbocker went out of business in 82 and later the et franchise actually released a revision which had the finger on a glove so you essentially had an et hand to role play with time for recess the schoolyard was the place to trade and and with every new trend we got into trouble some column pogs other tazos flipos slammer skycaps but in 1920s hawaii they were just called milk caps with roots in a japanese card game they came from the cardboard milk caps after those went away the caps were still used as promotional items in 1971 haleakala used them to promote their new drink pog and since then the name of the drink and the game had been linked but wait what were these pog rules again after creating a stack of caps you slam down onto it the caps fly around and land face up or down you get to keep the face ups at the end of the game the winner is the one with the most collected caps in the 90s pox came back and in a big way they came in chips happy meals you even got one when opening a bank account and pretty much any and every pop culture thing you could find on them i remember they used to throw them into the crisps bags and people would complain they'd eaten the pox so after a while they'd have to pop them in a plastic baggie inside the back at least this way all of my flipos didn't smell like cheetos there was even a world pog federation and the universal pog federation who had to settle a lawsuit in court to see who could officially use pogs as a name in the end it was credited to the world pogs association causing the universal pogs to change to universal slammers during the peak kids would fill recess with pog games and because they could keep the pogs they won in games it was considered just as bad as gambling so they were banned from a lot of schools and school districts you traded my soul for pogs during the height of the hype you'd bring them to school to show off and trade but i guess the teachers ended up with the biggest collections while confiscating them then again they spiked up just as soon as they left their wave of popularity game boys and other portable gaming consoles were obviously banned from the classroom and back in the day playing mario land you needed a lot more time than the 15 minutes of recess to complete the game without saves after all we weren't fully involved into the speed runners we are today one game boy game really changed the recess for at least a year or two pokemon blue and red yeah you had to catch them all or trade with your friends collecting all the legendary pokemon alongside your encounters with pikachu snorlax and hoping to evolve your starter to its final form it was the latest japanese craze and it's still going today becoming the one thing every kid gets obsessed by now we didn't have internet back then but we did have the schoolyard and we tried out everything or learned from someone who had scored a magazine where to get mew or mewtwo the thing with something that's so popular is that there's bound to be some issues with kids trading pokemon so we had to say goodbye to bring our game boys to school altogether but pokemon wasn't only on game boy it was also in a trading card game like many hypes had done before them similar to trading pox trading cards have been around for the longest time any big cartoon sport or movie hat trading cards and let's not forget the grossingly awesome garbage bill kids cards magic the gathering even ended up getting a banned spell casted by pairing groups as they were too dnd alike and the whole 80s satanic witch hunt began all over with even a federal lawsuit against wizard who made the cards but in the mid 90s wizard also made pokemon the trading card game with shiny cards being the rare ones everyone was looking to trade for one of their favorite pokemon out of the original 150. in 1996 the schoolyard is where most of the trading happened so evidently kids got into arguments and not just trading but lots of milk money was flowing even in the late 90s to get a shiny charizard card younger kids made bad deals and lost valuable cards and some cards even got stolen but pokemon weren't the only pocket monsters or pets that got banned who didn't want a pet dog or cat or turtle back in the day but with great pets come great responsibility that's something most parents would learn evidently when purchasing this digital pet tamagotchi a real digital pet you could take care of day and night so yeah what were you gonna do when you're at school obviously you'd bring it along with you and it's classic sounds after all you needed to play with your pet and feed it in order for it to feel loved as soon as the trend spiked up you couldn't bring them to school and they either died or mom ended up taking care of your digital pet all day long ain't that right furby we've already discussed the gilbert atomic energy lab in a previous video but that wasn't the only thing the company put out from the 1950s presenting the gilbert glass blowing set which featured all the items needed to create your own glass creations this was something that during the era was done at schools but with teacher supervision the toy set allowed kids to warm up the glass themselves which is at around a thousand degrees fahrenheit to reach the softening point before you could actually blow it so this was kind of a disaster waiting to happen and the toy sets were taken off shelves for being too dangerous then they had a lead casting set releasing toxic fumes as you poured the metal into the cast to create your own soldiers airplanes or tanks kind of like creepy crawlers but released way before in the 1930s or you could even make your own explosives with their chemistry set which included potassium permanganate or something like that ammonium nitrate and instructions to make sure you had a blast now it won't come to you as a surprise that during the following decades they'd have a barrage of lawsuits about the safety concerns now which toys did your teachers confiscate which toy do you remember getting banned and what the heck did you call a pog back in the 90s leave it down in the comments below special thanks go out to norknutternutterretro channel for helping out with this episode whenever something gets popular there's always some that want to take a magnifying glass and really dig out anything they can to discredit it usually for their own benefit why were turtles the number one enemy of the canadian meat industry why was playing 80s tabletop rpgs the same as satanic rituals or comic books to reason for most juvenile delinquency the controversy addressed by protest groups would gain media attention and often ended a line or at least result into household bans in this eds retro geek out would take a look at a couple moments in history where some of our favorite toy lines had a really hard time with the mad mom moth press be sure to subscribe for more toy history videos and let's strap in for a controversial toy history at the end of the 80s the ninja turtles toy line popped up and soon reached the top with turtle mania came the cartoons live action movies and next to the comics they had found their origin in also books books that would show how responsible they were you know being a good role model for kids keeping them away from the dangers of substance abuse in the children's book tmnt don't do drugs a rap song an exuberant and bouncy rap song style text gets to the heart of the matter that it's not easy to say no but you need to do it although this one didn't really get in trouble is the other one also released by random house that did with the abc's for a better planet the turtles were on their way to clean up the planet together with toxic crusaders and captain planet they were in on the eco craze of the early 90s each page in this 1991 book is a different letter of the alphabet teaching something about the environment and how to save the planet so why was this such a controversial book pressing matters like acid rain recycling rubbish pesticides fast food are discussed and are still issues we look at today but it was the letter m which stood for meat and didn't rub well for the canadian cattlemen's association saying the book was an unfair attack on the beef industry they wanted the book altered or taken off store shelves as it wasn't well researched and would influence kids into not wanting meat as it talks about the grain the cattle eats that could be used to help starvation and kids themselves should eat less meat as some of it is injected with artificial hormones all this in a kid's book really now the publisher didn't seem to give a cow and came back with not seeing what kind of harm a five-year-old could do to the cattle industry but tmnt would also have books written about them exposing them for what they throughly are in 1991 joan hake robey would see her 78 page manifest published to explain why ninja turtles sends kids the wrong message about violence and all other facets of life and religion teenage mutant ninja turtles exposed a critical analysis is a real trip on how when you look at something hard enough and long enough you can write pretty much whatever she sits out to inform you about turtles but does so by taking everything seriously and too far-fetched turning these crime-finding heroes into the bad part of history ninjitsu warriors are known for and attaching over-indulged statements about splinter being like a father and connecting him as a giant rat savior whom kids would look to as god then proceeding to say well isn't this blasphemy in the archie comics april o'neill is too voluptuous and sexy she has skirts that are too short revealing almost the top of her tie a gorgeous creature now are seven-year-olds already looking at that and what if they were she plants loose ideas in a word association manner or game take for instance this segment darkness which she connects to the 1990 movie which does take place in a lot of darkness where night action occurs children are afraid of the dark she then goes to mention and many evil deeds are done in darkness the bible says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil so therefore any movie with darkness is evil now i don't know what she was on when she wrote this book maybe she should have read the tmnt don't do drugs book and this also goes for the other books on timely books the publisher of teenage mutant ninja turtles exposed in the one about dungeons and dragons the truth about dungeons and dragons they actually claim that the spells within the games are real what no match for good today dungeons and dragons or dnd is popular and accepted in pop culture but during the 80s it would often get linked to satanism and self-harm first published in 1974 by tactical studies rules or tsr the game is based on miniature war games that preceded it but would have a wizards and monsters team in them a dungeon master guides all the players through imaginary adventures within this fantasy world acting as a referee he or she oversees the players earning experience points making them work together to advance in the game nowadays we all have the dnd dice and have pretty epic representations of the game boards and miniatures but back then all you needed was some construction paper pawns and a lot of imagination it must have looked weird perhaps seeing kids getting together and reading from these books depicting demons on the front covers and investing so much time and dedication into these sessions that could last a day or maybe these kids were just having fun to perpetuate the fun the dnd books would go through many changes to keep the game interesting but also due to lawsuits as they based their characters loosely off of greek mythology well-known fantasy characters that looked a lot like they came straight out of lord of the rings or from h.p lovecraft's cthulhu mythology with the threat of copyright actions they altered the names and revised the books but there would also be a set of events which turned the fantasy of the game into a real medieval witch hunt with rpg book burnings by christian groups who saw the game as real devil worship witchcraft and took offense to the nudity in some of the art they also linked it to murder and suicide the moral panic would have parents keeping their kids away from the game as it represented these players as associated with the occult tom hanks would play in a 1982 movie based on the novel mazes and monsters which was based on the 1979 case of the disappearance of james egbert who was a 16 year old at the time and struggling to fit in deciding to end his life in 1980 james was a dnd player and the media and protest groups connected the two like a combiner decepticon putting the whole dnd experience in a bad daylight they said it was due to him getting lost in the game's fantasy that he suffered a mental breakdown and so everything could be blamed on dnd maybe they should have just looked into his depression some mothers even formed a protest group called badd yeah bad or bothered about dungeons and dragons the co-creator gary gygax ended up having to hire a bodyguard because he was receiving death threats but in the end all it really did was expose the game to a lot more players as tsr reported selling over 60 million dollars in rulebook sales at the end of 82 the pursuit of any toys hinting to the occult would continue and they would get their share of critique from christian protest groups i remember years ago looking for a toy documentary on youtube and stumbling on this one video that just blew my mind while watching it i entered a realm of satanic panic lobbying pastors and authors as they promoted their thoughts in this video called deception of a generation a talk show led by dr gary greenwald a pastor who brings light to all sorts of things that can corrupt kids and make them join the dark side guessing was no one other than phil phillips gary greenwald phillips these sound like names made up by stan lee so he could remember the characters more easily anyways you guessed it phillips wrote a book called turmoil in the toy box he explains that on one of his spiritual walks he somehow found himself inside of a toy store and couldn't believe his eyes what he saw was being sold to kids the fact that he ran into a kid that said he man has more power than jesus he is the most powerful man in the universe confused the hell out of him as well he knew that only god was master of the universe out in the parking [01:31:24] Speaker 2: lot with he man in his hand running around in circles anyways he started investigating all the [01:31:29] Speaker 1: occult symbolism in pop culture and together with gary greenwald they would tag team themselves through the whole saturday morning lineup they actually thought these shows and toys which they somehow bought to play with on the show were satan's vessels and they weren't taking any prisoners every ip got the full treatment than this comedic roast i break every stronghold and i command that satan loses hold upon your household thunder cats were hidden gods et's resurrection could confuse the alien with christian figures who had done the same even the smurfs were bad the characters are blue with black lips so they're dead zombie-like creatures of course dungeons and dragons have to make its appearance because that cartoon was like a crash course in spells and witchcraft skeletor the master of the universe now hold on gary you're about to summon a demon heck even rainbow bright wasn't saved because she had a pentagram on her cheek scooby-doo cookie crisps even glow-in-the-dark toys are occultic well okay they were demon-shaped glow-in-the-dark toys and after viewing the vhs you could also buy the interview and others on cassette tape what's next gary action figures during the 50s it was the book seduction of the innocent that would have the whole comic book industry under fire frederick wortham was a psychiatrist that wrote this minor bestseller warning everyone that comic books had negative effects on kids and were a serious cause of juvenile delinquency he looked at inmates on how all they ever read were comics and so connected the two but this was no scientific study he lacked sample size and substance in his research this cry for panic created an alarm for any parents who had their kids reading any comics sure there were even creepy ec comics and even crime comics out on the shelves but they ended up charging any comic book form so much that the comics code authority was established by the publishers themselves they'd send in their new issues to get revised and approved with the comics code authority seal of approval so parents knew there wasn't any harm in having their kids read these now ec comics had some of the most gruesome covers and stories and got the worst of the court case in the end ec comics didn't even want to join the comics authority code and ended up having to close down the classics like tales from the crypt or default of horror lots of comic books leading up to the events of this trial would end up getting destroyed making them more rare and valuable on the aftermarket as not as many were left anymore now this episode was a way broader take on events that could have jeopardized toy lines in the end it didn't ban any toys but it seriously shook the whole toy industry making them alter and change around things in cartoons and the toys themselves this wasn't about a toy malfunctioning or containing something toxic getting it off store shelves but the interpretation and assumption of the influence these ips and stories would have on kids that's why i did pop it under the band cancelled and controversial toys banner some childhoods were really impacted by the spreading of these ideologies all to protect the kids but it seemed like some of the matters were taken too seriously word for word or they just needed something to blame for very unfortunate events remember the time they tried suing metal act jews priest for so-called subliminal messages on their records now luckily the verdict ended up positive for the band but it's good that those taking metal the court didn't get their hands on any venom records before the hearing have you heard of any more of these crazy wacky stories and please leave them down in the comments below be sure to subscribe for more weekly toy videos and follow me on my socials please leave a like down below if you'd like to support the channel even more you can always join the patreon and get access to our exclusive patreon discord where we talk toys all the time thanks so much for watching and i hope to see you in the next one bye