Insane things to play with.
 

Keeping it to things you could buy over the counter, has anyone heard of Lawn Darts? Made by Waddingtons in the 1970's. A very large dart-board printed on a plastic sheet and spread on the ground. The 'darts' were about 2 ft long with a point at one end and fins at the other. The idea was to throw them vertically so they swooped down in an arc to land point first on the 'board'. They were advertised on TV showing a happy family managing not to impale each other.

I know this is a dangerous challenge to throw out, but surely this must be the most insane thing to sell as a toy.

I donno, when we were kids we had bows and arrows...used to shoot them straight up in the air to see if we could get them to come straight down.

When it worked it was pretty exciting. Like a bicycle wasn't dangerous enough.

We also used to go camping in an old cheese cellar...until we figured out it was lousy full of rattlesnakes!!!

Chas

'Jarts' - as American as apple pie and expensive health care. It was very common for years.

Although the ones around when I was younger just had a plastic ring on the ground, get it in the ring.

Pete

And yes, there were, um, incidents. They sell a non-pointy version now.

Pete

There were a few 'accidents' with the good old Red Ryder BB guns as I recall. Or slipping one of the big 5 cent firecrackers in the back pocket of some guy's jeans, take off everything but the rivets. Then there were duels with Roman Candles. I won't even get into games played with bottle rockets.

OK, let's make this one contentious. Do we depend on what some call the Nanny State to outlaw such dangerous products, or do we depend on the market to take care of it. Part of the market solution is lawsuits against the marketers of such dangerous products and recovery for the harm and pain caused, plus punitive damages depending on the level of knowledge by the manufacturer that such products were likely to cause harm. If the harm caused by the manufacturer is reflected in its cost of doing business is will cause reconsideration of the wisdom in manufacturing such items.

Regards,

D-Ray

People here used to sit on their porch and watch the fireworks until in the 90's when everybody got themselves guns and had to shoot them in the air on these evenings. You wouldn't think that bullets coming down would kill somebody, but they sure do. So now nobody sits on their porch on the 4th, New Year's, etc. :p

I remember Lawn Darts from when I was a kid. They were not much of a problem until someone got frisky with them and launched one as high as they could go. It always happened. Had one slice open the neighbor kids noggin one summer day. That was the last we saw of those things. They were taken off the market at about the same time. Even I think that was a good thing though.

Like Charles, I remember playing chicken a couple of times with a bow and arrow. Shoot it straight up in the air and see who could stand still the longest. Even us junior rocket scientists figured out that it was a real bad idea - right at about the same time that someone's Mom explained it to us - at about 100 db!

Oh, and the firecrackers in the pants, a "friend" stuffed a string of "ladyfinger" (those real small red firecrackers) down my pants. They left a mark! 'Course the other kids had to go home to change after peeing themselves from laughing so hard.

I've had a 'cracker go off in my hand twice, once a regular one, the other a ladyfinger, the ladyfinder hurt worse!

D, that's how the airline industry works, if the payout on claims is less than the cost of the improvement, they pay the claims :)

Pete

My friends and I used to toss them at each other deliberately.

We were idiots.

Have you seen the Herring?

Dave