Did You Know?
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission wasn't established until 1972 — meaning an entire generation of American children grew up playing with toys that had never been tested for safety by any government agency.
If you grew up in the 1950s or 1960s, you played with some genuinely dangerous things — and you had the time of your life doing it. Before the Consumer Product Safety Commission existed, toy manufacturers operated with almost no regulatory oversight. The result was a golden age of creativity, adventure, and the occasional trip to the emergency room.
Today, most of these toys would never make it past a safety review board. Some were pulled from shelves after causing serious injuries. Others simply faded away as the world became more cautious. But for those of us who remember them, they represent a childhood that was richer, freer, and a whole lot more exciting than anything wrapped in childproof packaging.
Here are 10 toys from the 1950s and 60s that would be banned — or at least heavily regulated — if they were introduced today.
1. Jarts (Lawn Darts)
No list of dangerous vintage toys is complete without Jarts. These were full-sized, steel-tipped darts — roughly the size and weight of a small javelin — designed to be thrown high into the air and land inside a plastic ring on the ground. The concept was simple. The execution was terrifying.
Jarts were a staple of American backyard life from the late 1950s through the 1980s. They were sold in hardware stores, sporting goods shops, and even grocery stores. Families played them at cookouts, reunions, and Fourth of July parties across the country.
The problem, of course, was that steel-tipped projectiles launched into the air by children tend to land in unexpected places. The Consumer Product Safety Commission received reports of thousands of injuries over the years, including three deaths — two of them children under the age of seven. In 1988, the CPSC banned the sale of Jarts in the United States entirely.
Plastic-tipped versions are still available today, but they are a pale imitation of the original. If you still have a set of the real ones in your garage, they are technically illegal to sell — and worth a surprising amount of money to collectors.
2. The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab
In 1950, the A.C. Gilbert Company — the same folks who brought you the beloved Erector Set — released what may be the most audacious toy in American history: the U-238 Atomic Energy Lab. The kit included four types of uranium ore samples, a Geiger counter, a cloud chamber, and a spinthariscope for observing nuclear disintegration.
The box encouraged children to "prospect for uranium in your own backyard." The uranium ore was real. The radioactivity was real. The kit retailed for $49.50 — roughly $550 in today's dollars — and was marketed to boys aged 10 and up.
To be fair, the radiation levels in the kit were considered low enough to be safe by 1950s standards, and the set came with a 60-page manual that included genuine safety warnings. But the very concept of selling uranium ore as a children's toy captures everything about the era's attitude toward risk: enthusiastic, optimistic, and blissfully unconcerned with long-term consequences.
The kit was discontinued after just one year, reportedly because it was too expensive to produce rather than because of safety concerns. Today, surviving examples sell for thousands of dollars at auction.
3. The Creepy Crawlers Thingmaker
The Thingmaker, introduced by Mattel in 1964, was essentially a miniature foundry for children. You poured liquid "Plastigoop" into metal molds, placed the molds on a hot plate that reached temperatures of up to 390°F (199°C), and waited for the goop to bake into rubbery bugs, spiders, and creepy-crawly creatures.
The hot plate was completely exposed. The molds had no handles. The Plastigoop itself was made with chemicals that, when overheated, released fumes that were unpleasant at best. Burns were common. The smell was memorable in the worst possible way.
Mattel sold millions of Thingmakers throughout the 1960s, and kids absolutely loved them. The toy was eventually updated with enclosed heating elements and safer materials, but the original open-hot-plate design would never pass today's safety standards. The Thingmaker remains one of the most fondly remembered — and genuinely hazardous — toys of the era.
4. Clackers (Klackers)
Clackers were two heavy acrylic balls attached to a string, designed to be swung up and down until the balls clacked together above and below your hand in a satisfying rhythm. They were simple, cheap, and wildly popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
They were also capable of shattering explosively. The acrylic balls were prone to cracking under repeated impact, and when they broke, they sent sharp plastic shards flying in all directions. The CPSC issued a recall in 1985 after reports of eye injuries and lacerations.
Original Clackers are now considered collectibles. If you find a set at a garage sale, handle them with care — and maybe wear safety glasses.
5. The Marx Toy Company's Cap Guns
Cap guns themselves were not inherently dangerous, but the cap guns of the 1950s and 60s were something else entirely. Many were made of die-cast metal — heavy, realistic, and virtually indistinguishable from actual firearms at a distance. Some models were direct replicas of real guns, complete with accurate markings and weight.
The caps themselves were small paper rolls or discs containing a tiny amount of explosive powder. When struck by the hammer, they produced a sharp crack and a puff of smoke. Children carried these guns to school, played with them in public, and pointed them at each other constantly. The idea that this might cause a problem did not occur to anyone.
Modern regulations require toy guns to have brightly colored tips or be made of transparent plastic to distinguish them from real firearms. The realistic metal cap guns of the 1950s would not be legal to manufacture or sell today.
6. Sky Dancers
Introduced in 1994 but rooted in the pull-string flying toy tradition that dates back to the 1950s, Sky Dancers were fairy dolls with foam wings that spun wildly into the air when you pulled a ripcord. They were beautiful, magical, and genuinely dangerous.
The CPSC received reports of 150 injuries associated with Sky Dancers, including broken teeth, scratched corneas, a broken rib, and facial lacerations. In 2000, Galoob recalled 8.9 million Sky Dancer toys. The original design launched the dolls in completely unpredictable directions at high speed — a feature that was, in retrospect, a significant design flaw.
7. Slip 'N Slide
The Slip 'N Slide, introduced by Wham-O in 1961, was a long sheet of slippery plastic connected to a garden hose. You ran, dove, and slid the length of the sheet on your stomach. It was one of the great joys of summer.
It was also, for adults and teenagers, a reliable path to cervical spine injuries. The toy was designed for children under five feet tall and 110 pounds. When larger kids or adults used it, the abrupt stop at the end of the slide could cause serious neck and back injuries. Wham-O added warning labels in 1993 after the CPSC documented seven cases of adults suffering cervical spine injuries.
The Slip 'N Slide is still sold today, but with prominent warnings restricting use to young children. The original version had no such warnings.
8. The Easy-Bake Oven (Original)
The original Easy-Bake Oven, introduced by Kenner in 1963, used a pair of ordinary 100-watt incandescent light bulbs as its heat source. It was charming, it was clever, and it genuinely worked — the bulbs generated enough heat to bake small cakes and cookies.
It also had a slot opening just large enough for a small child's hand to reach into the heating chamber. Between 1969 and 2007, the CPSC received reports of 77 burn injuries associated with Easy-Bake Ovens, including 29 reports of children getting their hands or fingers trapped in the product opening. Hasbro issued a voluntary recall in 2007 and redesigned the oven with a safer rear-loading door.
The original light-bulb-powered design is now a museum piece — and a reminder that even the most beloved toys of the era had sharp edges hiding beneath the nostalgia.
9. Bicycle-Mounted Rocket Launchers
In the early 1960s, several toy companies sold plastic rocket launchers designed to mount on the handlebars of a bicycle. The rockets were propelled by compressed air and could travel a surprising distance. The idea was that you and your friends would ride around the neighborhood launching rockets at each other.
No helmet. No eye protection. Rockets flying in unpredictable directions. This toy existed, was sold in stores, and was considered completely acceptable entertainment for children. It did not survive the decade.
10. Vintage Chemistry Sets
The chemistry sets of the 1950s and 60s were the real thing. Sets from companies like A.C. Gilbert, Porter Chemcraft, and Skilcraft included genuine chemicals — potassium nitrate, sodium ferrocyanide, ammonium nitrate, and in some cases, actual acids. The instruction booklets included experiments that produced real smoke, real fire, and real chemical reactions.
Today's chemistry sets are carefully curated to include only the safest possible materials. The experiments are designed to be visually interesting without involving anything that could actually hurt you. They are educational. They are safe. And they are, by the standards of the original sets, profoundly boring.
The vintage sets taught real chemistry because they used real chemicals. They also started a non-trivial number of garage fires. Whether that trade-off was worth it depends entirely on whether you were the kid doing the experiment or the parent paying the insurance deductible.
A Different Kind of Childhood
Looking back at these toys, it's easy to see them as relics of a more reckless time. And in some ways, they were. The injuries were real. The recalls were warranted. Nobody is arguing that children should play with uranium ore or steel-tipped lawn darts.
But there's something else these toys represented: a belief that children were capable of handling real things, that risk was part of learning, and that the occasional scrape or burn was the price of a genuinely adventurous childhood. The kids who grew up with these toys became the engineers, scientists, and builders of the next generation — and many of them will tell you that the Thingmaker or the chemistry set was where it all started.
Those really were the Good Old Days. Even the dangerous ones.
Enjoyed this trip down memory lane? Share it with someone who remembers the original Jarts — and check out our article on 25 Things Every Kid Did in the 1960s That Would Terrify Parents Today for more nostalgic memories.
