10 Once-Popular Toys That Were Banned Due to Public Outcry
Sometimes a toy makes its way to market only to get banned shortly thereafter. Whether due to a choking hazard, risk of injury, or public backlash about their inappropriateness, some misfit toys of years past got yanked from shelves and today exist only on eBay.
The oldest known toy doll head is 4,000 years old and was found in Italy. Children have played with toys ever since, but sometimes the government or manufacturers have to take problematic toys such as lawn darts, Clackers, Sky Dancers, and Kite Tubes out of kids’ hands for their own protection.
How many of the following banned toys have you owned or still would if you could?
Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kid
Even if you weren’t alive in the 1980s, you probably heard about the Cabbage Patch Kids fad. The original soft-sculptured dolls came with an adoption certificate and were a must-have toy in the early to mid 1980s.
Fast-forward to the 1990s and Snacktime Kids that munched on plastic food were introduced to renew public interest in the Cabbage Patch Kids. After numerous complaints about human kids getting their hair and fingers stuck in the munching mouths of the dolls, Mattel gave Snacktime Kids a permanent time-out in 1997.
Lawn Darts
Lawn darts, or jarts, are large, weighted darts that one throws at targets such as a ring lying in the grass.
What could go wrong with putting sharp, heavy objects in kids’ hands and telling them to throw them? The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission banned lawn darts in 1988 after thousands of reported injuries and at least three children’s deaths. Maybe teaching children bocce ball would have worked out better as a yard game.
Clackers
Clackers were two large glass marbles connected by a string that children could swing around and make an irritating clacking sound when the spheres hit each other. A similar, equally annoying “clack” can be heard at any pickleball court if you yearn for that specific brand of aural punishment.
Whether made of glass or hard plastic, Clackers would often smack children in the fingers or shards would break off and fly into their faces. Although popular in the 1960s and 1970s, they were deemed hazardous and yanked off the market.
Sky Dancers
Sky Dancers were a line of toys in the 1990s consisting of a doll with foam wings that you attached to a base and launched into the air by pulling a string. The toys were so popular that they inspired an animated series.
Even though Sky Dancers had foam wings, children still found a way to injure themselves on the plastic doll parts because their flight paths were difficult to predict or control. After more than 100 injuries were reported ranging from facial lacerations to temporary blindness, Galoob permanently grounded the toys in 2000.
Pregnant Midge
Midge is one of Barbie’s friends first introduced in 1963. In 2003, Pregnant Midge — part of the Happy Family line — had a baby tucked inside her magnetic, removable belly.
Mattel discontinued Pregnant Midge in 2005 after backlash intensified about whether or not the doll encouraged teen pregnancy. You may remember an appearance by Emerald Fennell as Pregnant Midge in the movie Barbie, which poked fun at Pregnant Midge’s discontinued status.
Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper
Capitalizing on the success of Star Wars released a year prior, the sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica arrived in 1978 accompanied by the expected line of action figures and toys, such as the Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper spaceship.
The Battlestar Galactica toys came out in time for Christmas 1978. Both the Colonial Viper and Cylon Raider initially had projectile plastic missiles that kids could fire by pushing a button.
One child died after swallowing a Cylon Raider missile, while another eight-year-old boy was hospitalized after firing the Colonial Viper missile into his mouth, which he pretended was a “cave.” Mattel issued a recall of both missile-launching vehicles in early 1979. If you can find either one on eBay, they probably cost a small fortune.
Yo-Yo Water Ball
A Yo-Yo Water Ball is a weighted ball filled with liquid that is attached by an elastic string to a ring worn on one’s finger.
By December 2017, the Consumer Product and Safety Commission received 409 strangulation and suffocation reports from children using the toy and getting the cord tangled around their throats. Several countries banned them soon after.
Wego Kite Tube
Kite tubing is when a large inflatable tube carrying a seated rider is towed by a fast-moving boat until the speed creates enough lift for the tube to rise into the air like a kite. Since the rider has no control over the tube once it takes off, the ride usually ends with the rider spinning out of control and crashing into the water… or another boat.
Unsurprisingly, Wego quickly removed its Kite Tube from the market in 2006.
Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game
Hannah Montana, a teen sitcom starring Miley Cyrus as the titular alter ego of herself, proved extremely popular with young girls in the late aughts. Sales of Hannah Montana products totaled about $100 million in 2007, including the Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game.
One thing you don’t want in a card game — or any child’s toy — is lead. The Center for Environmental Health found unsafe levels of the toxic substance in the China-made vinyl cards. The card game was recalled and never reprinted, but keep in mind that the copies floating around on eBay are still as toxic today as they were in 2007.
Bindeez
The Canadian toy company Spin Master invented Bindeez, a toy containing small plastic beads that children arrange in designs on a grid. Small bits of plastic? Children? You can probably guess where this is going.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the coating of the Bindeez beads turns toxic when ingested. Children who eat the beads are subject to developing respiratory depression, having seizures, vomiting, or slipping into a coma. Spin Master recalled Bindeez, also marketed as Aqua Dots, in 2007.
