They Were Sold as Toys. Some of Them Killed Children.

They Were Sold as Toys. Some of Them Killed Children.

There was something wonderful about walking through the toy aisle as a kid.

Brightly coloured boxes, familiar characters, toys that made noises, toys that moved, toys that fired things across the room. Half the fun was figuring out what everything did, and the other half was trying to convince whoever was paying that you absolutely needed it.

And if a toy had a particularly ridiculous feature? Even better.

We trusted that the toys sitting on those shelves were safe. After all, somebody had designed them, manufactured them, tested them and decided they were suitable for children.

Surely someone would have noticed if something was seriously wrong?

Well…

Some of the toys sold throughout the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s have histories considerably darker than their colourful packaging would suggest.

We're not just talking about scraped knees or accidentally hitting your brother with something.

We're talking about toys that caused permanent injuries, toys linked to children's deaths, and products that were sold by some of the biggest names in the industry before being pulled from shelves.

And perhaps the most unsettling part?

Some of these toys are still sitting in people's cupboards, toy boxes and collections today.

The Space Toys That Came With a Deadly Surprise

In 1978, Battlestar Galactica was a big deal, and Mattel was ready with a range of spacecraft toys.

The Colonial Viper, Cylon Raider and other vehicles came with small red plastic missiles that children could launch.

A spaceship that actually fired missiles? Of course kids loved them.

Unfortunately, those missiles were small enough to be swallowed or inhaled.

In December 1978, following three reported incidents involving children swallowing or inhaling the missiles, Mattel began adding warning labels to its toys.

The warning told children not to fire the missiles towards anyone's face or mouth.

Which, when you think about it, is a rather concerning warning to need on a children's toy.

But the situation became far more serious.

In January 1979, Mattel and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a programme to remove the missiles following incidents that included the reported death of a four-year-old child.

Parents were asked to mail the little red missiles back to Mattel.

And what did they receive in exchange?

A free Hot Wheels car.

Mattel also redesigned the spacecraft so they could no longer launch the missiles.

It's a strange piece of toy history. A feature that helped make the toys exciting was also the very thing that made them dangerous.

The Pokémon Promotion That Ended in Tragedy

Remember when fast-food toys were something worth getting excited about?

In 1999, Pokémon was absolutely everywhere, and Burger King released a promotion featuring Pokémon toys inside plastic Poké Ball containers.

There were 57 different Pokémon toys to collect.

For a Pokémon-obsessed child, it must have been brilliant.

The plastic balls split into two halves to reveal the toy inside. They looked harmless enough, and the packaging described them as safety tested and suitable for all ages.

But the containers had a devastating flaw.

A separated half could fit over a young child's nose and mouth, creating a seal that prevented them from breathing.

In December 1999, a 13-month-old girl reportedly died after one half of a Poké Ball became stuck over her face.

Another young child narrowly escaped a similar incident when her father managed to remove the container.

Burger King recalled more than 25 million Poké Balls.

Then, in January 2000, a four-month-old boy died in another reported incident involving a Poké Ball half.

By that point, the recall was already underway.

The Pokémon figures themselves weren't the problem. It was the packaging designed to make collecting them more exciting.

And that's what makes this case so upsetting.

Something as ordinary as the container holding a free toy had become a deadly hazard.

The Caterpillar That Should Have Been Harmless

Not every dangerous toy had moving parts, batteries or flying projectiles.

Some were designed for babies.

The Wiggle Waggle Caterpillar was a colourful toy made by Child Guidance, a division of JAKKS Pacific.

It was bright, cheerful and intended for very young children.

Unfortunately, small balls attached to the toy could become choking hazards.

In 2000, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of almost one million Wiggle Waggle Caterpillars.

The agency had received a report of a five-month-old girl dying after one of the small balls became lodged in her throat.

There were also reports of two other children beginning to choke on the balls.

It's difficult to imagine anything more upsetting than a toy intended to entertain a baby becoming the cause of such a tragedy.

And it raises a particularly uncomfortable question.

How did something designed for such young children reach the market with detachable parts capable of causing fatal choking?

When Building Blocks Became Dangerous Inside the Body

By the 2000s, magnetic construction toys were becoming increasingly popular.

Magnetix sets allowed children to build structures using colourful plastic pieces, rods and metal balls.

They were clever toys, and the magnets made construction feel almost magical.

But there was a serious problem.

Tiny magnets could come loose from the plastic components.

Swallowing a single small object is dangerous enough, but swallowing multiple magnets can be especially serious.

Inside the digestive system, magnets can attract each other through the walls of different sections of intestine.

That attraction can trap tissue, damage the bowel and cause life-threatening injuries.

In March 2006, approximately 3.8 million Magnetix sets were recalled in the United States.

Regulators reported 34 incidents involving the magnets, including the death of a 20-month-old boy and several children requiring surgery.

The danger wasn't necessarily obvious from looking at the toy.

A broken piece might appear to have lost nothing more than a tiny magnet.

But inside a child's body, the consequences could be catastrophic.

And this wasn't just an American issue.

Magnetix products were also recalled in Australia in 2006 after concerns about magnets becoming dislodged.

It's a reminder that toy safety problems don't stop at international borders.

The Doll That Wouldn't Stop Eating

Now for one of the strangest toy designs of the 1990s.

In 1996, Mattel released the Cabbage Patch Kids Snacktime Kids dolls.

The idea was simple enough.

Children could feed their dolls plastic snacks, and the dolls would mechanically pull the food into their mouths.

No batteries were required.

Sounds clever, right?

Except the dolls couldn't always tell the difference between plastic food and a child's hair.

Or fingers.

Reports began emerging of children getting their hair or fingers caught in the dolls' mouths.

By the end of December 1996, regulators and Mattel were aware of 35 incidents.

Initially, warning labels were announced, including instructions explaining how to stop the chewing mechanism by removing the doll's backpack.

Then, in January 1997, Mattel announced a voluntary refund programme, withdrew the dolls from US retail shelves and discontinued distribution.

Approximately 500,000 had been sold.

Fortunately, the official notices reported no serious injuries.

Still, there's something rather horrifying about a doll designed to eat plastic snacks deciding that your hair looks equally appetising.

Of all the questionable toy features, a doll that mechanically pulls things into its mouth is certainly an interesting one.

The Baby Toy That Came Apart

Playskool's Klackeroo looked exactly like the sort of toy you'd expect to find in a baby's play area.

A colourful central ball, rods and little sliding shapes that made a clacking sound when shaken.

Nothing particularly alarming there.

But in 2000, Playskool recalled approximately 550,000 Klackeroo toys because the knobs at the ends of the rods could detach.

Once they came off, the smaller pieces inside could become accessible.

Playskool had received ten reports of the knobs detaching, including four cases where small parts had been found in children's mouths.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

The company offered a redesigned replacement.

This case isn't as dramatic as some of the others, but that's exactly why it's worth including.

Not every recall happens after a child has been seriously hurt.

Sometimes a dangerous design is identified before the worst happens.

And that is precisely what a recall should achieve.

The Squishy Toy That Wrapped Around Children's Necks

Anyone who remembers Water Yo-Yo Balls will probably remember how strange they felt.

They were squishy, stretchy balls filled with liquid, attached to a long elastic cord.

You slipped the loop over your finger, swung the ball around and watched it bounce back.

Simple, cheap and strangely addictive.

But in 2003, concerns emerged about the cords wrapping around children's necks.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission received 186 reports of incidents involving the toys.

Seven incidents reportedly involved broken blood vessels around areas including the eyes, face and neck.

You might assume that would have resulted in an immediate nationwide recall.

It didn't.

After investigating, the commission concluded that the available evidence did not meet the legal threshold for a recall.

The agency considered the strangulation risk low, although it acknowledged that the incidents were frightening.

Some major retailers independently stopped selling the toys.

And parents were advised that they could cut off the elastic cord or dispose of the toy if they were concerned.

This is where the subject becomes particularly interesting.

A toy can be associated with a frightening number of incidents without necessarily being officially recalled.

A product remaining legally available doesn't automatically mean everyone agrees it is safe.

A Curious George Toy With a Hidden Risk

Here's another one that doesn't tend to appear on the famous dangerous-toy lists.

In 2000, approximately 4,600 Curious George musical pull toys were recalled.

The plush toy featured Curious George holding balloons attached to retractable elastic cords.

Pull the cords, and the toy played music.

It was designed to hang from cribs, playpens and other children's furniture.

Unfortunately, the cords could form a loop capable of becoming wrapped around a child's neck.

The manufacturer received a report of a child being found with the cords around his neck.

No injuries were reported, but the toy was recalled for replacement.

The disturbing part is that the toy was designed to be placed close to very young children.

It wasn't a case of an older child using a toy recklessly.

It was a potential hazard built into the way the product was intended to be used.

So Why Weren't All Dangerous Toys Banned?

This is where things become more complicated than the headlines suggest.

A toy being recalled doesn't necessarily mean every version of it was banned forever.

Sometimes manufacturers redesign the dangerous component.

Sometimes they add warnings or change the recommended age range.

Sometimes the problem involves a manufacturing defect rather than the original concept.

And sometimes a toy is investigated but regulators decide there isn't enough evidence to justify a recall.

The Water Yo-Yo Ball investigation is a particularly interesting example of that last situation.

It's also worth remembering that a recall doesn't magically remove every affected toy from circulation.

Some parents never hear about it.

Some toys get packed away before the announcement.

Others end up in storage, garage sales, op shops and second-hand collections decades later.

And when the original packaging and instructions are missing, identifying a recalled version can become even harder.

For anyone who buys, sells or collects vintage toys, that's something worth keeping in mind.

An old toy might be a wonderful piece of childhood history.

But age and nostalgia don't make a dangerous design any safer.

Were Toys Actually More Dangerous Back Then?

It's tempting to look at some of these stories and wonder how any of us survived childhood.

But the answer isn't quite that simple.

Not every old toy was dangerous, and modern toys aren't automatically free from faults.

Toy safety standards, testing methods and product recall systems have changed over time. Manufacturers have also learned from incidents that exposed hazards nobody had properly accounted for.

The biggest lesson from these cases isn't that children in previous decades were tougher.

It's that some risks only became impossible to ignore after children had already been hurt.

And that's a much darker piece of toy history than the advertisements ever showed us.

The Part That Stays With You

We usually look at old toys and remember the good things.

The excitement of opening a birthday present. The toy you saved your pocket money for. The one you carried everywhere until its paint wore off or its batteries finally gave up.

And most of those memories deserve to stay happy ones.

But behind some familiar names and colourful boxes are stories that rarely get mentioned.

A spaceship that fired missiles.

A doll that chewed hair.

A magnetic building set that could cause devastating injuries.

A plastic Poké Ball that became deadly.

They were designed to entertain children.

They were sold in ordinary shops, by familiar brands, to families who had every reason to expect them to be safe.

And in some cases, the dangers weren't fully recognised until it was too late.

So here's a question: have you ever owned a toy that was later recalled, or discovered that something you played with as a child was considered dangerous?

We'd be interested to hear what you remember.

Because sometimes the history behind a childhood toy is a lot darker than anyone expected.