02x03 - Twisted Toys

[bunniefuu]

[electricity buzzing]
[intriguing orchestral music]

- [Henry] Do you remember a time

when kids' toys went
for the jugular?

- It actually wraps around
the girl's throat twice.

Did you ever see
the movie "Alien"

where the thing goes
around your throat?

It was that!

- Do you remember there was
once a fun craft project

that could slip you a roofie?

- They're coated with a
chemical that is utterly insane

to be on a child's toy,

especially one that
looks like candy.

- Or when a
gas-powered pogo stick

could send you sky high?

- You're basically jumping out
of your second-story window

onto a thing about
the size of a quarter;

that is taking life
in your own hands.

- Does it sound dangerous?

Yes, that's the point,

that's what makes it awesome.

- These are the
things we used to do

for fun, for money, or
maybe out of boredom

that we'll never see again.

Were they dangerous?

Certainly.

Deadly? Occasionally.

But, boy, wasn't it exciting?

[tense dramatic music]

[intriguing orchestral music]

- [Henry] One of the must-have
toys of the 1980s

was an innovative new doll
you very well might know.

But what you might not know

is that one time this
cuddly, soft doll

suddenly developed an appetite.

- If you were a kid in the '80s,

everybody knew what a
Cabbage Patch Doll was.

This is one of the first
examples of a toy going viral,

and they truly can't make enough
to keep up with the demand.

[shoppers chattering
and clamoring]

- [Austin] It's anarchy.

- Hold it!
[shoppers clamoring]

Hold it!

- People are climbing
over one another

for this doll in its
giant cardboard box.

- I got my doll! I got my doll!

- It's America's bestselling
toy in 1983, 1984, and 1985

with half a billion
dollars in sales.

- But crazes cool
off, they always do.

- [Austin] Interactive dolls
like Teddy Ruxpin are coming out

and they're electronic

and they're grabbing
massive market share.

- Hi, my name is Teddy Ruxpin.

Can you and I be friends?

- [Austin] So just being a cute
little doll in a Cabbage Patch

isn't gonna cut it.

Your new thing better
shake, it better wiggle,

it better dance, it better talk,

it's gotta do something.

- [Henry] To reignite their
Cabbage Patch Kid craze,

they give their dolls
something to do,

and it takes interaction
to the next level.

- What they come up with

is the Cabbage
Patch Snacktime Kid.

- She's my Cabbage
Patch Snacktime Kid.

She really loves to snack.

- Wow, she really chews!

- [Rutledge] The Cabbage
Patch Snacktime Kid

has a mouth that opens
and closes like a child,

so you feed it.

- [Austin] This doll really
looks to be eating.

- It's really exciting to
see this tiny doll chew food.

[intriguing dramatic music]
[motor whirring]

- The way the
Snacktime Doll works

is very similar to the old
laundry roller mechanism,

that you put your clothes in
there and it pulls it through.

- [Jason] Inside the head of
the doll is a motor

that controls these rollers,

and there's a little
sensor in there

that when you put one of
the pieces of toy food

into its mouth, the
lips start to move,

and those rollers grab
hold of that food,

pop it into the
doll's belly area,

and then pops it right
out into the backpack.

- [Rutledge] It really is
bringing the Cabbage Patch doll

to life, which is what their
whole ethos was,

and they are a huge hit.

Within the first six months,

they'd sold 500,000
of these dolls.

- [Henry] By the end of 1996,

the Snacktime Kid is
devouring its competition;

but that's not all
it's consuming.

- [Laurie] The Snacktime
Kid loves to eat,

and it's supposed to just
eat the plastic treats

that you feed it.

- [Natalia] But it can't
tell the difference

between the food
that it came with

and anything else
you put in its mouth.

- [Jason] So kids, they're
feeding it all sorts of things,

paper towels, real
food, hair ribbons.

But if the wrong thing gets
in there, like your finger,

there is no obvious
way to make it stop.

- [Natalia] There's no on/off
switch;

anything you put in there,
it's gonna keep trying to chew

until it spits it
out in its backpack,

which is a major problem.

- [Jason] It's the mid '90s,

children and adults have long
layered hair, it's beautiful.

But as it turns out, long
hair is not that great

when you've got a
perpetually hungry doll.

- [Laurie] And the mechanism
is strong enough

to pull the hair right
out of the scalp.

- [Rutledge] Imagine this doll
just keeps getting closer

and closer to your head.

- [Hakeem] It's like it's
eating spaghetti

except it's your kid's hair.

The doll will not stop,
it just chews and chews.

It's like something
out of a horror movie.

We're talking like
Chucky, Megan action here.

- [Natalia] Parents are freaking
out, they're calling 911,

they're trying to
pull out the battery,

they're searching for that
non-existent on/off switch,

they're doing whatever they can,

and then they realize there's
one way to make it stop.

- [Laurie] And that is take
the backpack off,

because if the backpack is off,

[chuckles] the Cabbage Patch
doll is no longer hungry.

It makes sense?

No.

- [Austin] When the backpack is
off,

there's no place for
the plastic food to go,

so the eating
mechanism is disabled.

- [Hakeem] Who would think
backpack when a doll is eating

your child?

You're thinking off button,
battery compartment,

not backpack.

[intriguing dramatic music]

- [Henry] There are
more than 90 reports

of kids getting
their hair or fingers

stuck in the doll's mouth.

- [Rutledge] So the toy-maker
decides the right thing to do

is recall all 500,000 of the
Cabbage Patch Snacktime dolls

and issue a full refund.

Which costs
millions of dollars.

- [Jason] It's so costly that
they really don't see a way

forward, and they discontinue
the Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kid

entirely.

- [Natalia] Not only do they
discontinue the line,

it is such a blow
to the manufacturer,

no other toy maker has ever
tried to make a chewing doll.

- [Rutledge] What a sweet little
face.

You wouldn't think this is
gonna rip my kids' hair out

and make them have
long-term PTSD for sure.

[intriguing dramatic music]

- [Henry] Finger-eating dolls
were only one way

toys could turn on us.

In the 1960s,
there was a new toy

kids couldn't wait
to take for a spin,

a very painful spin.

- [Rutledge] In 1958, the hula
hoop comes out,

and it is an instant success.

- It's hard to overstate

how crazy the hula
hoop phenomenon was.

A hundred million hula
hoops are sold in two years.

- [Ehi] By the 1960s, if you're
a child in America,

chances are you or
somebody very close to you

owns a hula hoop.

- [Rutledge] This thing takes
off and everybody wants in it.

So people are trying to think,

"What could we make

that would be like the
next great hula hoop?"

- [Henry] Well, it turns
out there's an opening

in the hula hoop market.

- [Ehi] People like to do tricks
and get a little fancy;

hula hoop with an
ankle or a wrist.

One particular trick that
is tough for a lot of people

is hula hooping on the head.

- [Kavitha] Spinning a hula hoop
is always a fight with gravity.

You run the risk of it
constantly falling to the ground

if you're not
spinning fast enough.

- [Henry] But a toy
company called Transogram

lets the hula hooping
phenomenon go to your head.

♪ It's a new thing,
it's a fun thing ♪

- [Laurie] In 1965, something
called the Swing Wing is born.

It's a cap, it's
got a tether on it

with these weighted streamers.

- [Rutledge] And the idea is
that,

if you use your head
to swing it around,

the weighted streamers
will counterbalance,

and you can get them
to spin really quickly.

- [Jason] The more you swing
your head around, the faster it

goes, and it looks like fun.

- [Hakeem] Because it's a hat,

it won't keep dropping to
your waist like a hula hoop.

Now you can generate a
lot more centrifugal force

by flinging these weights
and really build up momentum.

- [Kavitha] Kids are really
into the Swing Wing,

but it starts to
hurt after a while.

- [Rutledge] You're basically
headbanging

trying to get this
thing to spin around.

I don't think you could do this

for more than 30 or 45 seconds.

It hurts just thinking about it.

- [Kavitha] Kids' necks are
built to go side to side

or up and down slowly,

but the Swing Wing forces them

to whip their heads
around violently.

- [Jason] It's not just the
violent headbanging that hurts,

there's also a counterweight

pulling in the
opposite direction

of the way that your neck
is straining against.

- The Swing Wing is just
asking for a neck problem.

And depending on how you're
whipping your head around,

you could actually
damage your spinal cord.

- [Hakeem] There's a word for
this type of violent movement:

whiplash.

It's what you see in these
crash test dummy films

where their heads just
swing all the way around.

Today, there's an
entire legal industry

dedicated to this
kind of damage.

- [Laurie] My question is, did
anyone at the company test it,

because it really is crazy.

- [Hakeem] You think that the
Consumer Product Safety

Commission would yank the Swing
Wing off the market,

and maybe they would have,

but two years before the
commission's creation,

the company declares bankruptcy.

- [Jason] It's safe to say

that it was probably
because of the Swing Wing,

but there's something
to be said for a time

when you could just strap
something to your head like this

and just go for it.

[intriguing orchestral music]

- [Henry] Okay, so it didn't
become the next hula hoop,

but this pain in the neck
did go down in history

for all the wrong reasons.

- [Henry] Remember as a kid when
it felt like your entire

universe revolved around one toy
you just had to have.

Well, in the '60s,

one inventor thought
he had just that

by taking an iconic play thing
to a terrifying new height.

[tires screeching]
[engine roaring]

- In the 1960s, America is
in love with hot rod culture.

[engine roaring]
[intriguing dramatic music]

People are taking boring
family cars and pickup trucks

and souping them up
with giant engines

and really loud exhausts.

- [Natalia] There are hot rod
magazines, movies,

there's this kind of
outlaw, bad boy vibe

to this whole trend that
really captivates America.

And a gearhead named
Gordon Spitzmesser

thinks he can tap into that.

- He wants to give the
same badass, outlaw vibe

to a pogo stick.

- [Rutledge] Pogo sticks in the
'50s

were only rated for
about 80 pounds.

- [Hakeem] Because they were
built

with these soft
kid-friendly springs,

you outgrew it pretty fast,
and the thrill was gone.

- So Spitzmesser has this
brilliant idea to up the ante,

and the way he's gonna do this

is by attaching an
internal combustion engine.

- [Natalia] Does it sound
dangerous?

Yes, that's the point,
that's what makes it awesome.

- [Henry] Spitzmesser's version
isn't gonna raise the bar,

it's gonna launch right over it.

- [Dan] The engineering behind
this is actually pretty

impressive, Spitzmesser creates
a single-cylinder engine,

and the spring action
of the pogo stick

drives that piston up and down.

- [Hakeem] When the piston
reaches the top of the cylinder,

the spark plug fires,
the fuel explodes,

that pushes the
piston down hard;

that's gonna send you
flying back in the air.

- [Henry] In 1971, Spitzmesser's
vision is ready for market;

and it's goodbye
boring pogo stick,

hello, Hop Rod!

- [Child 1] Hey,
what's that kid doing?

- [Child 2] He's
hopping on a Hop Rod.

- [Hakeem] Can we just take a
second to appreciate the name:

the Hop Rod.

I mean that's perfect.

It's promising a pogo stick

that may or may not
be street legal.

My 10-year-old
head would explode.

- [Narrator] The
big stick is here.

It's the Hop Rod, the world's
first powerized pogo stick.

- People are looking
at the commercials,

and it looks effortless;

you're just holding
on for the ride.

- [Kavitha] You could hop for 30
minutes on just four ounces of

gas without expending any energy
or using your leg muscles.

- [Rutledge] The Hop Rod can
hold 280-pounds,

so now the pogo stick's
not just for small kids,

it's for anybody.

- [Narrator] The Hop Rod
is so ruggedly built,

even mom and pop can
hop, grandpa too.

- My grandfather got
one of these things,

he's gonna bust a hip.

I shouldn't be anywhere
near these devices, okay?

Adults don't fall to the ground

and then pop up laughing
with like springy bones.

- [Rutledge] You think about the
original pogo stick,

and most kids were getting
a few inches off the ground.

Well, then with this Hop Rod,

people are getting like
three-feet off the ground,

that's table height.

It's pretty insane.

- [Henry] Sure,
three-feet sounds fun,

but it's not long before
amateur daredevils

are supercharging
their Hop Rods.

- [Rutledge] The Hop Rod is
designed for gasoline,

but nothing keeps you from
putting something else in there.

- [Hakeem] Some people mix
oxygen and acetylene,

which produces a flame
that's over 5,000 degrees.

When you produce
energy like that,

you're flying 12
feet in the air.

- [Rutledge] Jumping 12 feet in
the air,

you're basically jumping out

of your second
story bedroom window

onto a thing about
the size of a quarter;

that is taking life
into your own hands.

- [Brian] And if you did get in
trouble,

the only exit strategy
for this thing

was to just jump and pray to God

that you land somewhere
safe and roll with it.

Any child toy that needs fuel

probably shouldn't
be given to a child.

That being said, I
feel like kids today

are losing out on a
pride of survival.

[intriguing dramatic music]

- [Henry] Despite delivering
on daredevil thrills,

Hop Rod sales fall flat,

not from concussions
or broken bones,

but from busted wallets.

- It costs about $70,
which is about $500 today.

The Hop Rod is
not the big seller

Spitzmesser thought it would be.

- [Rutledge] So by 1975, Hop Rod
was out of the market,

but they didn't disappear

before they made an appearance

at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway.

- [Don] It's a publicity event.

This TV personality
gets on a Hop Rod

and starts jumping, but falls
off and breaks his shoulder.

- [Rutledge] There's no footage
that we can see unfortunately,

but the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway banned pogo sticks,

still to this day, mind you.

It must have been bad.

- [Henry] With certain toys,
the hazards were pretty obvious,

but sometimes the
most dangerous toys

were like hiding a
concealed weapon;

and in some cases,
they actually were.

[intriguing dramatic music]

- In the 1950s, Cowboys
are all over television,

"Gunsmoke" is the most popular
show, comes out in 1955.

Cowboy toys are
the thing to have.

So every backyard is
gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

[toy g*n banging]

- In the current era,

realism and gunplay
sounds kind of dicey,

but at the time, realism is
the number one component.

- Looks like real,

[toy g*n banging]
sounds like real.

- [Jason] At the core of every
imaginary g*n fight,

there is a critical element

and that is getting
the drop on any varmint

before they can get
the drop on you.

[toy g*n banging]

[object thudding]

- [Henry] In 1959,

a new toy promises to give
any 6-year-old g*n slinger

the element of surprise.

- [Jason] So you're in a
gunfight,

your opponent might be
watching your hands,

might be watching your eyes,

but you know what
he's not watching?

Your pelvis.

- [Narrator] In a tight spot,

the tricky buckle
g*n holster set

shoots a safe sh**ting shell
when you push out your stomach.

[mechanism clacking]

- [Hakeem] The Derringer is a
metal toy belt buckle that

hides a g*n.

It's kind of a combination of
your regular cowboy quick draw

with something that feels a
little bit more James Bond.

- [Jason] This is a time in
history when cowboy culture

is really sort of colliding
with Cold w*r spy culture.

So anything that's
sort of sneaky

is gonna be really
big in toy weapons.

- [Brian] It is a pretty awesome
idea.

The belt would pop open,

and it would fire a
little plastic b*llet

where the pop and
smoke came out.

- [Jason] So if you got this
thing in your belt, locked and

loaded, all it's waiting for is
a little bit of pressure

on these two little
points right here,

and all of a sudden,
boom, it shoots.

You don't even have
to pull the trigger.

- [Henry] With the
Remington Derringer,

you might get the
drop on your friends,

but perhaps hands-free sh**ting

wasn't fully thought through.

- [Hakeem] Firing projectiles

at waist-level,
what could go wrong?

- [Laurie] And these plastic
b*ll*ts that they're using,

these are not little light
plastic nothing b*ll*ts.

- [Brian] Plastic b*ll*ts
are what riot police

use to quiet unruly crowds.

- [Hakeem] Now you got this belt
buckle,

and you're trying to aim with
your little 6-year-old hips,

you're taking out the table
lamp, mama's glass of wine,

your brother's eyeball,

anything waist-height,
better watch out.

- [Rutledge] There weren't
warnings,

it didn't say like don't
point this at anyone.

Toys in this era were
definitely in the mind state

of if you're gonna be
dumb, you gotta be tough.

- [Henry] Mom's best china

isn't the only delicate
collection at risk.

- These "shells"

have a habit of just sort
of exploding on their own.

- [Hakeem] The little caps

were actually a tiny
little gunpowder expl*sive,

and could cause actual burns.

- [Adam] One should be advised
not to have expl*sive

or incendiary devices
near the family jewels.

- [Hakeem] Despite all the
broken glass

and the random explosions
coming from your kids' pelvis,

parents buy a lot of these
things, it's a big hit.

- [Rutledge] I think there may
not have been a lot of rules

for toys and regulations
at that time,

because I think
parents just thought,

"Oh, well, if it's for
sale, it must be fine."

[firearm banging]

[air blowing]

- [Henry] By the late '60s,
westerns were fading,

and the Derringer Belt Buckle
rode off into the sunset.

- What parent doesn't love a
toy that inspires creativity,

something you can leave a
kid alone with for hours?

Well, it turns out for one
popular arts and crafts toy,

that was a very bad idea.

- Fuse beads or perler beads
are this really big trend

in the '80s,

and you basically set up these
little beads on this pegboard

and then you essentially melt
them together with a hot iron.

Really fun,

you can make all sorts of
cool designs and decorations.

- [Natalia] But five-year-olds
can't handle a hot iron,

so you have to wait for your
mom or dad to come around

and fuse your whole
creation together,

that just sucks.

- So an Australian
company thinks to itself,

"Well, what if there's
a way to create a toy

where kids could do
this on their own?"

- [Rutledge] You're gonna have
to make some sort of chemical

reaction for the beads to bond

and essentially glue
themselves together.

- [Natalia] They get some
engineers to help design a toy

that can do just this,

and it's called Aqua Dots.

- [Narrator] Here's the trick:

spray with water
to make them stick!

- [Laurie] Kids have a
little spray bottle,

they're going to spray
their little Aqua Dots,

and in just a few seconds,

it's gonna fuse together

and their new creation
will be ready.

- [Natalia] It kind of feels
like magic, no iron, no adults,

and kids, especially
girls, are super into it.

- [Rutledge] Now, as a parent
today,

you might look at
these beads and think,

"Oh, these are a
choking hazard,"

but that's actually not the
real hazard of the Aqua Dots.

- [Austin] They're so small,
kids are just swallowing them,

and then parents start reporting
really strange symptoms.

- [Ehi] Parents are reporting
children getting

dizzy, nauseous.

passing out, and in some
cases even falling into comas.

- [Henry] There are enough
reports of sick kids

that the Consumer
Product Safety Commission

opens an investigation.

- [Dan] Researchers find out
that they're coated

with a chemical
called butanediol.

That's a chemical
that is utterly insane

to be on a child's toy,

especially one that
looks like candy

and can be easily swallowed.

- [Ehi] Butanediol is
essentially an industrial

solvent, it's found in spandex,
it's found in nail polish,

In fact, it's so toxic that if
you are to ingest some of it,

you have to call poison control.

[dramatic thud]

- [Hakeem] You're supposed to
wear goggles and gloves

to handle this stuff,

and you definitely
don't want to inhale it,

it's not the kind of thing

you wanna lick off
of your art project.

- [Dan] But it gets worse;

when this chemical is ingested,

it turns into a compound
called gamma-hydroxybutyrate,

or GHB.

- [Hakeem] GHB was developed
as an anesthetic,

it knocks you out cold

by suppressing your
central nervous system.

Today, it's classified as
a Schedule I substance,

extremely powerful.

- [Adam] GHB, also known as
the "date r*pe drug,"

and that's what they're using
to coat a children's toy.

- [Natalia] What's wild about
this toy is that nobody thought,

what happens if
like maybe a child

thinks to put a small colorful
object in their mouth?

Of course, that's gonna happen,

and then beyond that,

they never looked at the
way in which it was toxic.

- [Rutledge] No one says,
"Okay, so this thing

that used to take heat to bond,

we're just gonna
spray water on there,

and that's all it's gonna be?"

"Yeah."

No one raised their
hand and said,

"So what are we putting on
there that makes it do that?

And is that safe for children?"

Nope, that didn't happen.

- [Austin] The US government
hits Aqua Dots

with a $1.3 million judgment,

and, of course, millions
of packs are recalled.

But how insane is it

a children's toy made
with this chemical

made it to market
in the first place?

- [Henry] Wow, talk about
hard to swallow.

And when one toy icon from
the 1960s got an upgrade,

the dangers were more
of a burning sensation.

- [Rutledge] In 1963, a toy
company in Ohio

comes up with one of the
greatest ideas of all time:

the Easy-Bake Oven.

- [Ehi] You make your batter,
you put it in the tin

receptacle, and you slide it
through a narrow slot

in the Easy-Bake Oven.

- [Kavitha] The idea is genius:

use a box with 200-watt
incandescent light bulbs

to bake cakes on demand,

and then you're suddenly
everybody's favorite friend.

- [Henry] Over the
next four decades,

Americans buy more than 20
million Easy-Bake Ovens.

But in the early 2000s,

the heart and soul of the
oven comes under fire.

- [Kavitha] The government
starts to ban incandescent light

bulbs in order to move to
energy-efficient LEDs

that produce the light
without the heat.

- [Dan] The manufacturers
of the Easy-Bake Oven

suddenly have a giant
problem on their hands.

The Easy-Bake Oven
was engineered

around all the wasted
energy that came off as heat

from those incandescent bulbs.

So when you put
LEDs in the oven,

you don't have any heat, and
you're not baking anything.

- [Henry] Rather than
scrap a toy icon,

designers go back to
the drawing board.

- [Dan] They decide that
the best approach

is to add a heating element,

the same basic thing as
you have on your oven,

those coils, it's that.

- [Adam] They even redo
the whole design,

such that it looks
like a real oven;

there's fake burners on top,

and the baking slots
aren't on the side,

the baking slot's in the front,

much like you
would put a cake in

and take a cake
out of a real oven.

- [Ehi] To get out the hot pan,

you have the Magic
Cool Pan Grabber.

You reach in with the
grabber to slide it out.

It's basically your
parents' oven, but more fun.

- [Hakeem] Kid bakers across
America rejoice.

The Easy-Bake is more
powerful than ever,

and can crank out cakes faster
than they ever had before.

Every kid in the country wants
to get their hand on one.

- [Henry] But the trouble starts

when kids get
their hands in one.

- [Laurie] With the new redesign
of the Easy-Bake,

with the opening in
the front of the oven,

it's gotta be wide enough for
the pan grabber to get inside,

which means there's a lot
of room for little fingers

to get stuck,

and for little
fingers to get burnt.

- [Adam] This is about as
big as a VHS tape.

I could see how a little
kid could get their hand

under this metal slot,
and not get it out.

Now imagine this is on,

at a temperature hot
enough to bake a cake.

- [Hakeem] We're talking
like 375 degrees.

Kids are touching
that heating element

and getting third-degree burns.

- [Don] It's nuts that they
would put this real heating

element in a toy oven.

I mean, it's a perfect
recipe for disaster.

But even if it's not hot,

some kids get their hands
stuck inside the metal door

for hours.

- [Kavitha] Parents have to call


visits, and kids are
literally showing up

with an oven attached
to their hands.

- [Henry] Within months, there
are more than 200 reports

of kids getting their hands
stuck in the Easy-Bake oven.

- [Adam] Almost 1 million
Easy-Bake Ovens

with this design
have to be recalled.

The company ultimately reverts

to the old slide in,
slide out design.

- [Kavitha] Now the slots
are even narrower,

and the heating element
is further away,

so that limits your capacity
to actually burn yourself.

- [Adam] It's wild to think
that the original design

was safer than the remake
in the 21st century.

- [Henry] When it comes
to safety and fun,

sometimes you cannot have
your cake and eat it too.

- [Henry] In the late 70s,

kids were obsessed with
galaxies far, far away,

so space toys came
out fast and furious;

in one case, maybe
a little too fast.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Kavitha] In 1977, "Star Wars"
mania hit the country,

it's the biggest thing around,

it's the highest
grossing film to date.

- [Austin] Every single company
on Earth is out there

with their clones
trying to harness

that "Star Wars" magic.

- [Adam] "Battlestar Galactica"
premieres on ABC in 1978.

And much like "Star Wars,"
with the series come the toys.

- [Austin] The line is so
popular it sells 2 million toy

spacecraft in the


- [Henry] Turns out
"Battlestar Galactica"

has a secret weapon to thank
for their huge Christmas sales.

- Cylon Raider,
m*ssile base open.

Cylon Raider, launch!

- [Adam] Four of the ships from
the Battlestar Galactic range

can launch projectiles
at each other.

No other space story,
not from "Buck Rogers,"

not from "Star
Wars," can do that.

- [Jason] When you're a kid
playing at interstellar warfare,

there's nothing more frustrating

than firing a m*ssile
at your friend ship

saying, "Oh, I got you,"

and he's saying,
"No, you didn't."

But with real projectiles,
instead of just flashing lights,

there's no questioning, you
fire, you hit, you know.

- [Henry] But these
fake space battles

turn out to be
real-life dangerous.

- [Austin] Compared to back
then,

today's modern projectile
toys are neutered,

either the darts are soft,
or they don't go too far,

or the firing
mechanisms are weak,

or, more than likely, all three.

- [Hakeem] But the "Battlestar
Galactica" line

shoots these hard
plastic missiles

with the force of a
low-powered BB g*n.

- [Austin] It shoots them far
and fast and straight,

which sounds awesome
'cause it was,

but the force with the
small size of the missiles,

that's a big problem.

- [Laurie] They're really small,
they're only about an inch,

an inch and a half.

It's a choking hazard.

But at the time,
choking hazards,

we're not really
thinking about it,

we're just buying toys
for our kids that are fun.

- [Don] And to make matters
worse,

where you load the m*ssile
and where you fire it

are actually very
close together,

especially on the
Colonial Viper.

So it was very easy to slip

and accidentally
fire that m*ssile

right down your own throat,

lodge there, and it was
very hard to get it out.

- [Laurie] There are so many
stories

of parents running to
the emergency room,

one kid had a half hour
surgery to get this out.

- [Henry] Despite
these incidents,

the Consumer Product
Safety Commission

doesn't order the toys recalled.

- That is what irresponsible
looks like in the 1970s.

However, the company
knows they have a problem,

so they voluntarily
put labels on the toys

saying don't fire at
your face or mouth.

But they don't put the labels
on the ones in the stores,

they just put 'em on the
ones in the factories

that are about to be shipped.

- [Rutledge] Sales are still
going strong through the holiday

season, and then a couple
days after Christmas,

a kid actually chokes on a
m*ssile from a Cylon Raider,

and that's kind of it.

- [Austin] The fun is over,

they recall existing
Battlestar Galactica spaceships

and redesign new ones
with non-firing missiles.

It's such a big deal,

they actually highlight
it in the commercials.

- [Narrator] Re-designed
toys do not launch missiles.

- [Hakeem] Sales drop like
crazy.

Their biggest selling point

has become their
greatest liability.

They've become more safe,

but as far as kids
are concerned,

they are a lot less cool.

- [Adam] It is the Battlestar
Galactic toy line

that is responsible for toys

that come with
small plastic pieces

bearing the warning
of choking hazards.

- [Jason] Unsurprisingly,
those dangerous,

OG Battlestar Galactica
m*ssile firing ships,

they are now considered rare
and valuable collectibles.

- [Henry] Today, there's a
standard warning on toys

that say "Not for
children under 3."

But back in the '90s,

there was an attractive new
toy marketed just for girls

that delivered
high-speed action,

whether it meant to or not.

- [Ehi] In the early '90s,

a toy designer
notices his daughter

playing with a
fluttering seedling

and gets an idea for a toy.

- He imagines
something that flies,

it's like a fairy or a
ballerina or a little sprite

that can move through the
air with the same grace

as those seedlings he saw
his daughter playing with.

- [Ehi] So he and his partners
develop these dolls

with these beautiful wings,

they work at a deal
with a toy company,

and they land on
the name Sky Dancer.

- [Natalia] Through the years,
flying toys are mostly aimed at

boys, they're
rockets or airplanes

that are meant to
be used outside.

These ones are aimed at girls,

and meant to be used
inside too, like dolls.

These fill a big
gap in the market.

- Wow, they really fly!

- [Rutledge] By the end of 1995,
they hit $70 million in sales.

This is the number one
doll on the market.

- [Henry] Turns out, Sky
Dancers do a lot more

than just fly off the shelves.

- [Natalia] If you watch the
commercial,

these fairies spin
up very gently

and come down very delicately;

this is not how
they're being used.

- [Kavitha] The doll stands on a
base,

and when a kid yanks
the drawstring,

the doll starts spinning
around and the wings open up,

but the wings are really
more like helicopter blades.

- [Hakeem] The harder you
pull that string,

the faster and higher
they're gonna go.

And if you launch
it straight up,

like you're supposed to do,

they can go up to 10 to


[intriguing dramatic music]

- [Natalia] But girls soon
discover

that if you point
it at another angle,

say at a whiny
brother or sister,

or anyone who's annoying you,

you can sh**t it right at them.

- [Hakeem] This fairy becomes
a projectile with

hard spinning blades.

It's basically a flying blender.

- [Brian] These are like
kamikaze fairies,

and this thing is hitting
you at 40 miles per hour,

it's like getting drilled
in the face by a baseball.

- [Rutledge] Kids are getting
scratched corneas, broken teeth,

broken ribs from a toy

that's supposed to be
this beautiful fairy

flying through the air.

The toy manufacturer
actually figures out

there's a problem,

but they don't tell anybody.

This is before social media,

so they're like, "Let's
just not say anything.

Maybe if we don't tell
anyone, it'll just go away."

- [Henry] Soon, there are more
than 150 recorded injuries

from Sky Dancer dolls.

- [Hakeem] So the Consumer
Product Safety Commission steps

in and says, "Look, you can't
give your little girl

attack drones to play with."

- [Natalia] And in 2000,

the US government fines
the toy company $400,000,

and they demand a full recall
of all 9 million Sky Dancers

which have been sold.

- Sky Dancers were later
reintroduced with a new design,

they would only launch

when you pointed them
up toward the sky,

and not at your little brother.

- [Henry] Remember that old
catchphrase,

"Up your nose with
a rubber hose?"

Well, a hot toy back
in the '60s asked,

"What if that rubber hose

whacked you across
the head instead?"

[children laughing]
[intriguing orchestral music]

- [Jason] If you're an American
kid in suburbia in the 1960s,

there's probably
like a 95% chance

that you do not have a pool.

Your parents aren't
gonna buy one,

and you're probably
ticked off about it.

[water spraying]
[child shrieking]

- [Hakeem] If you wanna get cool
in the dead heat of summer,

you don't have many options.

You have a hose and you can
attach it to a sprinkler,

and there's nothing more
boring and predictable

than a sprinkler.

- There might be a sprinkler
that moves like this,

maybe it's a kind
that moves like this,

those are kind of your options.

- [Henry] Toy
companies soon realize

that whoever makes the everyday
garden hose more exciting

is gonna cash in.

- [Jason] 1962, toy makers
decide

that the secret ingredient
to backyard fun is chaos,

and they introduce
the Water Wiggle.

- [Narrator] It's
practically alive,

you never know what the
Water Wiggle will do next.

It's wild, cool, splashing fun!

- [Rutledge] This thing is next
level.

I mean, it is just bringing
the party to everybody.

Essentially, it's this
seven-foot long hose

that then has this
head on the top,

it looks like a giant
half of a potato,

and it will fling itself around

just on the water
pressure alone.

- [Hakeem] Inside the head is
where the magic happens.

There's a hook on the end
that narrows the stream,

turns it into a jet,

and so, now, this
head can move around

in unpredictable ways,

utilizing the force
from the jet of water.

- [Natalia] The Water Wiggle

is like what kids have
been waiting for, right?

It's unpredictable, it
chases you, it runs around.

You can't compare this
to a boring sprinkler,

it's not even a fair fight.

- [Rutledge] Through the '60s
and '70s,

this is an absolute
backyard staple.

They sold 200,000
of these a year.

- [Henry] Kids may love it,

but behind its smile
and googly eyes,

the Water Wiggle
hides a dark side.

- [Hakeem] It doesn't take long
for problems to

reveal themselves.

This thing has such
high water pressure

that it's less a toy and more
like a mechanical serpent

with a mind of its own.

If you watch that commercial,

the Water Wiggle

actually wraps around
the girl's throat twice.

Did you ever see
the movie "Alien"

where the facehugger comes on

and the thing goes
around your throat?

It was that!

- [Rutledge] Today, if you put
that ad on social media,

within 30 minutes, that
sucker's going viral,

they're gonna call senators.

But in the '60s and '70s,

parents watched
this and were like,

"We gotta get one."

- [Henry] It's soon
revealed that strangulation

isn't the biggest danger
hiding inside the Water Wiggle.

- [Jason] The plastic head on
this thing is not secure,

it can come off,

and now you've got this
exposed, hard spout

just flailing around,
waiting to take someone out.

- [Hakeem] Now there's nothing
protecting you

from getting smacked in the
face by the spout itself,

or getting blasted
by the jet of water

that's coming out at


That's faster than
some roller coasters.

- [Rebecca] If your mouth is
open,

pressurize water can
actually fill your airways,

it can drown you very quickly,

or, you know, if it's
lodged deep enough,

it could also just sort of
block the airway itself.

- [Natalia] In 1975, the spout
gets lodged in a boy's throat,

cuts off his airway,

but the Consumer Product
Safety Commission,

which has only existed for
three years at this point,

says, "Seems like
a freak accident,

you know, let them
keep playing."

- [Rutledge] In 1978, it happens
again,

and this time there's
a full recall,

and it gets pulled
from the market.

- [Jason] But very few of these
things were returned.

Was it because they were
broken and thrown away,

or was it because people
just ignored the warning?

Maybe, I mean, it was the '70s.

- [Natalia] I think the Water
Wiggle really shows you

how much tired parents
are willing to risk

just to have their
children be entertained.

- [Henry] Today, you might find
an old Water Wiggle

at a garage sale or on eBay,
but proceed with caution.

- [Henry] There used to
be a famous slogan

that promised us better
living through chemistry.

And in the 1950s and '60s,

toy makers thought chemicals
could also make toys better.

What could go wrong?

It was science.

- [Kavitha] In 1961, Disney
comes out with a movie

called "The
Absent-Minded Professor,"

and it's this huge hit.

- [Jason] The movie itself
has this miraculous substance

that the lead character invents.

- We dump the Flubbers!

- You can put it on your shoes,

and suddenly you
can jump 20-feet.

You can throw it
in your gas tank,

it'll do things for your car.

If I'm a kid watching
that, I want Flubber.

- [Henry] In 1962,

a toy version of Flubber
hit store shelves.

- Coming out with the
Flubber toy was a no-brainer.

It was this mix between
like slime and silly putty.

You can stretch it, you can
bend it, you can bounce it.

- [Jason] You can press it
down on a newspaper

and lift up the image.

There's a lot you can do with
this toy version of Flubber.

- [Laurie] We don't really know
what this substance is made of,

but who cares, right, kids
are having such a great time.

- [Jason] Within the first
several months,


Flubber are sold.

It is gangbusters.

- [Henry] But Flubber's
success is short-lived.

- [Dan] The "LA Times"
starts reporting

that local and state
health officials

are investigating a
breakout of strange rashes

among school children.

- [Kavitha] This thing could be
anything,

a fungus or a
bacterial epidemic,

and the government is
like oddly unconcerned

about this at the time.

One government
official actually says,

the rash is so faint that
you can hardly see it.

- [Hakeem] But when people begin
to look more closely,

they notice a trend.

These affected kids were all
playing with this Flubber toy.

- [Dan] And the rashes that were
supposed to be so faint,

you could barely see them,

oh, you can see them.

These are full body rashes;

plus, a lot of these kids
have extremely sore throats.

- [Kavitha] Kids are out of
school for days

with intense itching
and swelling,

and we're not talking
about just a few kids,

we're talking about
thousands of children.

- [Hakeem] There's outbreaks in
Kansas City, New York, Phoenix,

it's going across the country.

- [Jason] So on the packaging of
Flubber

that says "Non-toxic,
harmless, parent-approved,"

well, as it turns
out, not so safe.

- [Hakeem] Although an official
ingredient list

for the Flubber toy
was never released,

we do know that
there was probably

synthetic rubber,
mineral oil, and

borax.

Borax is a hardcore
cleaner that you use to remove

rust stains and
deodorize toilets.

- [Jason] It's good for k*lling
ants and c*ck,

you don't play with it.

[dramatic thud]

- [Hakeem] Some countries have
actually banned the

use of borax.

In America, it's
not banned outright,

but it is banned from being
included in food products.

- [Dan] When kids were
playing with Flubber,

they were getting it
all over their hands,

they're touching their faces,

and inevitably, it made
its way into their mouth.

So kids were basically
eating this stuff.

- [Ehi] But at the time, there
is no regulatory structure

around regulating
the safety of toys.

However, the US Food
and Drug Administration

finds that there is evidence
to suggest that Flubber

is actually making people sick.

So the company orders a recall,

- [Henry] But there's
something about Flubber

that makes it not so
easy to get rid of.

- [Kavitha] Today, we have a ton
of regulation, state and

federal, about waste disposal,

but we really didn't
have that back then.

- [Jason] There are stories of
at first,

them trying to just basically
take it all to the dump.

But there are kids that are
trying to break into the dump

because they want
access to Flubber.

- [Kavitha] Next, they tried to
burn it,

but burning rubber isn't great,

it releases all kinds of
toxic chemicals into the air.

- [Jason] Next up is dumping
it in the ocean,

and then they make a startling
new discovery for Flubber,

it floats.

- [Kavitha] Ultimately, the
rumor goes

that they buried the
rest of the Flubber

and paved over it to
make a parking lot.

- [Hakeem] It sounds like the
plot of a horror movie,

like, it's just
waiting underground

for some disaster
to reanimate it.

Maybe at the end of the world,

all that will be left is
c*ck and Flubber.

- [Henry] Thinking back
about the toys

that made us tempt fate,

whether they fired
speeding projectiles,

or sent us soaring too high,

or even tried to eat us alive,

it was all fun in games, and
someone was bound to get hurt.

But looking back now,

that's why our hazardous
history was child's play.

[tense dramatic music]