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World’s Worst Children’s Toy Recalls

Freddie Schwartz

            What was your favorite toy when you were growing up? A Spiderman action figure, a Barbie doll, or maybe a train set? Product recalls have been all over the news during the last decade ranging from foods to now, even children’s toys. These reports are provided by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and also news reports on toy recalls. Here are the ones, I think take the cake.

  1. “Aqua dots”: This was a toy that was basically a crafting kit that uses beads to create fun three-dimensional designs and then, when sprayed with water, would hold the beads together. It was distributed back in 2007 but then immediately recalled. Why you ask? Reports discovered that when the kids sprayed the beads with water the coating outside of the beads turned into a date rape drug! The chemicals on the beads, when ingested, literally caused children to become unconscious. Some reported it even caused seizures. That’s serious for any toy company, next time, just stick with Lincoln Logs; it’s creative and chemical free!
  2. “Flashing Evil Eyes”: This was one of those cheap toys you would find in some prank shop or a local toy store. They were just balls made to look like eyes with small flashing lights. Flashing Evil Eyes were made to be squishy and feel like real eyeballs. How could anyone mess up such a simple gimmicky toy? How about by filling the balls with kerosene. The CPSC ordered these to be recalled right away in 2006 because these toys were basically filled with poison. Seriously, could they have used any other liquid? How about water or anything else like any toy company would use? I call this a serious FAIL!
  3. “Jarts”: You all probably remember the game “darts” right? It is a simple game where small darts are flung at a board, no harm there. Well how about making them bigger, weighted, and played as a lawn game like horseshoes? Well “Jarts” or what’s also known as Lawn Darts, is the game for you. Throwing around large metal spikes that could gut you at any second sounds like a fun picnic game. This recall was the granddaddy of recalls. This toy reportedly caused at least 6,000 injures and four deaths. Then again what do you expect from a toy that involves throwing sharp metal objects at each other? In 1988, this toy was massively recalled and even BANNED in the United States and Canada. This toy makes Russian roulette seem like a game of checkers.
  4.  Sky Dancers: This is one of those toys that looked completely harmless and child-safe at first. The toy was released in 1994 and was like a knock-off of the ever-popular Barbie dolls that pretty much every little girl owned on your block. The dolls had foam “wings” on their arms. Using a mechanism that came with the dolls, all covered in pink glitter and clouds, could be propelled into the air and spin around. Sounds harmless right…WRONG. The dolls were a little too powerful, the foam wings spun so fast that kids were literally smacked in the face. Also, the dolls would fall onto kids (keep in mind these dolls weren’t light) and ended up causing about 150 reports of children being injured. Incidences of broken teeth and lacerations to the face just to name a few were reported. The dolls were immediately pulled off the shelves.

The Cabbage Patch Snack Time Kids Doll: We probably all remember the Cabbage Patch dolls, those insanely creepy dolls with the soul less eyes and disturbing grins. In 1996, a new line of dolls was released that were basically dolls with motorized mouths. Kids would feed the doll plastic vegetables and snacks. Only this toy ended up eating more than just plastic veggies. Kids hair would get caught in the dolls mouths’ and the dolls would literally rip the child’s hair out by the root and cause bleeding. In less than a year, the dolls were recalled. Also even more disturbing reports developed that the dolls eyes would turn blood red. Some people reported that the temperature in the room where the doll was would drop sufficiently when the doll was turned on. This was like a bad sequel to the movie “The Exorcist” called “Return of the Demonic Dolls.” I bet if they brought back the dolls for some reason, you would get a free bottle of holy water with every purchase.

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