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As '90s style and trends continue to make a comeback, it's impossible for those of us who actually grew up in the '90s to not think about some of our favorite toys and the joy they brought us. While it's human nature to feel nostalgic for a simpler time, the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s weren't exactly a safer time. There were toys that burned children, caused emergency room visits, and even resulted in death. On the lighter side, your Furby potentially spied on you and your family. Big and small, we've gathered up some of the most controversial toys we all played with as kids.
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We all had that one toy that our parents refused to buy for us because it was too dangerous
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While it can sometimes seem like parents just don't understand, some supposedly harmless toys have caused enough damage that the government made them disappear
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never to be seen again. So, today, we're paying way too much on eBay for the most controversial kids' toys that were banned
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Okay, scrape together that allowance and let's get shopping. Power Wheels. The one toy capable of turning even the most obnoxious kid into the envy of the neighborhood
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You remember the one. Since their initial release in 1984, Power Wheels vehicles have given children between the ages of two and seven
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the chance to blast around at speeds of up to five miles an hour
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But in October of 1998, those cool toys got a little too hot to handle
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After there had been 700 reports of electronic failure in Power Wheels vehicles
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particularly in the models that featured double batteries, Fisher-Price was made to issue a 10 million unit recall
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In six of these 700 reports, malfunctioning Power Wheels vehicles were unable to stop
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causing several young drivers to crash into cars, fences, and telephone poles
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Luckily, these crashes only resulted in minor bruises and scratches. However, the same couldn't be said for Power Wheels' much bigger problem
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The same electronic malfunction also brought about 150 full-on fires, resulting in nine children suffering from minor burns and 22 houses and garages catching fire
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In all, these defective rides would bring about nearly $300,000 in property damage
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and the subsequent recall covered a whopping 100 separate problematic models from the brand's then-entire 14-year existence
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Apparently, Elon Musk read all of that and said, Teslas can top it
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The original CSI Crime Scene Investigation series launched in 2000 and lasted a whole 15 seasons
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Its success brought about the 2002 creation of the CSI Miami spinoff
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along with the 2004 creation of CSI New York. Naturally, a whole lineup of CSI-inspired toys came out to teach the youth
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about blood ysis and collecting hair samples. What kid doesn't want to yze hair fibers
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One of these toys, called CSI Forensic Lab, included a kit for fingerprint dusting
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Kids would remove a powder from the kit, place it over items that had been handled by criminals or siblings
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and blow away the excess powder to reveal the fingerprints beneath. The only problem
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Six out of eight samples taken of this powder by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
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were found to contain up to 7% tremolite, which is among the most fatal forms of, you guessed it, asbestos
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Simply exposing oneself to tremolite once has been linked to later lung disease and mesothelioma
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which it turns out is not a made-up disease for weird TV legal ads
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Despite all of this the CSI forensic lab Chinese manufacturer claimed to have performed tests of their own and said that no such traces of asbestos were found
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Likewise, the toy continued to be sold at toy stores around the U.S. for almost another two years
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Meanwhile, three separate and independent U.S. government-certified laboratories investigated the claims for themselves, and all three found asbestos within the toy's powder
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The CSI Forensic Lab was finally pulled from store shelves in 2009
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and as one might expect, lawsuits soon started flying in every direction
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I guess the toys are back in town. These days, when most of us think of lawn games, we think of cornhole, bocce ball, or maybe a good old game of badminton
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But back in the 1980s, an entirely different kind of yard-based fun was sweeping the nation
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Enter jarts. Jarts, sometimes called lawn darts, were essentially a giant form of dart that you'd find in your typical dive bar
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only they were made for piercing the ground rather than specialized boards
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And if you're thinking that doesn't seem safe, zip it, narc. Don't ruin this for the rest of us
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The game itself worked a lot like horseshoes. Plastic hoops would be laid several feet apart from one another
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and players would attempt to pierce the ground within those hoops. A bullseye would yield players three points
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while a successful non-bullseye toss would earn them one point. But if you successfully got your Jart through your opponent's foot
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you won instantly, because your opponent had to go to the hospital. JART sent more than 6,000 people to the emergency room over a scant eight years
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81% of whom were 15 or younger. What's worse, most of the injuries were to the head and face
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leading in many cases to permanent disfigurement. As a result, court battles ensued, and for a brief moment, JARTs were banned in the U.S
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But after JART manufacturers contested the ban, a new compromise was reached
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These manufacturers could resume making and selling jarts, but they would no longer be able to market them to kids or sell them in America's toy stores
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And all jart packaging thereafter contained warning labels that described just how dangerous they could be
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Despite these precautions, parents continued to allow their children to play with jarts
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And in 1987, seven-year-old Michelle Snow became the first lawn dart fatality
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when her older brother accidentally tossed a JART over the family's backyard fence
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and it landed in her skull. Their father, David Snow, was devastated
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and he led the charge for bringing back the short-lived federal ban on JARTs
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He met with consumer product commissioners from the Reagan administration, and the same week that an 11-year-old Tennessean was put into a coma from a JART-related injury
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this three-person commission banned lawn darts from America once and for all
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Every kid knows Darth Maul has the coolest lightsabers in the Star Wars universe
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Actually, a lot of 30 to 40-year-olds probably know that too. Its red double-bladed bodacity ensured that the toy version of Darth Maul's saber
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became one of the most sought toys of 1999 They were only on shelves for about a month though before reports started coming in by the dozens The Darth Maul lightsabers were overheating
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causing three separate reports of minor burns and a separate report of eye irritation
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Apparently, when these lightsabers were whacked into one another, the spring inside the battery compartments could dislodge
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causing the batteries to overheat and, in several cases, rupture. Hasbro quickly put out a recall on all 618,000 Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn lightsabers that had already been distributed
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and offered up a free repair kit for those who didn't want to give up their prized weapons
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Thereafter, updated versions of the sabers returned to store shelves, and they included an all-new, now-with-battery-protector tagline
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Maybe if the Jedi had had battery protectors, Order 66 wouldn't have gone down the way it did
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Just as 1999's summer season was kicking off, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on everybody's favorite pool toy
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the swimming pool dive stick. We know, we know, it's a miscarriage of justice
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So, let us explain. In the 90s, swimming pool dive sticks were little batons that kids, or anyone really, could throw into the water
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These hard sticks would then stand upright on the bottom of the pool
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One end would be weighed down, while the other end would buoyantly pull the rest of the stick upright
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Kids would then jump in after the sticks. And, well, that's pretty much it
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Look, it's more fun than it sounds, especially when you're under the age of 10. Of course, a toy that lures kids to the bottom of the pool has some obvious dangers built in
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But as it turned out, there was a much less obvious and way more horrifying risk
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According to the official Consumer Product Safety Commission report, quote, And I gotta be honest, that warning label didn't get people too excited about buying more dive sticks
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There were six known cases of such impalement, four of which required both surgery and hospitalization
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And in one other case, a young girl rammed her face into one of the sticks
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causing a laceration just below her eye that required stitches. All in all, more than 19 million dive sticks were recalled
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and later versions of the product were made softer and bendier, and all around less impalier
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one part pokeball and another part chocolate the nestle magic ball was for many children a
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whimsical introduction to the world of gambling the nestle magic ball was a big spherical chocolate
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ball meant to compete with the kinder surprise inside of that chocolate ball was a plastic ball
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and inside that plastic ball was a surprise plastic disney toy naturally with all of that
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chocolatey goodness wrapped around all that plastic, the Nestle Magic Ball proved an instant
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choking hazard. If you cover something plastic with chocolate, people are going to eat all
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of it. That's just science. Nestle quickly came under fire from various consumer groups
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and in 1997 the company decided to pull its product from the market before any kids got into any magical trouble Three years later they reintroduced the Nestle Magic Ball as the Wonder Ball
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which substituted the Magic's plastic toys for edible chalky candies. Just four years after that, Nestle sold off the brand entirely to Frankfurt Candy and Chocolate Company
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which has been selling the Wonder Ball on and off ever since
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Sky dancers were among the most elegant toys of the 1990s, advertised as having, quote
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magical wings and pretty dresses. No obvious red flags so far. Essentially, these were propellers
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in doll form with wings at the tips of their arms, and they came in several different styles
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including pretty light sky dancers, fairy flyers, mini sky dancers, and even a McDonald's variant
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that could be found in 1997 Happy Meals. Children could place these dolls onto launch pads
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yank on the launch pad's pull cords, and let them rip. And rip they did
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These fairy princesses would be sent flying across the room, and in 170 reported cases, they would proceed to crack teeth
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break ribs, cause concussions, lacerate faces, and bring about temporary blindness through the scratching of people's corneas
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But just look at all that elegance. Introduced in 1994, these vicious little ballerinas spun through the market for a whole six years
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before anyone noticed their violent ways. Then in the year 2000, almost 9 million sky dancers were recalled
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with Hasbro offering to replace any turned-in dancers with toys of equal or lesser value
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Between 1998 and 1999, more than 2 million Furbies had found their way into American homes
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These fuzzy little creeps were the chattery, legally distinct step cousins of Gizmo the Mogwai
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and they offered kids the chance to take care of critters that needed to be fed, played with, and even spoken to
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While these freaks were never officially banned in the United States, they were quickly barred from stepping foot anywhere near National Security Agency property
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According to reports, many at the NSA had come to believe that the Furby was a Chinese intelligence tool
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designed to infiltrate American institutions and regurgitate the information that it would inevitably overhear
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Kind of like your phone. So, in January of 1999, Furbies were officially banned from the NSA
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The owner of Tiger Electronics, the company that produced Furbies, later released a response stating that Furby had absolutely no ability to do any recording whatsoever
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But isn't that exactly what Furby wants you to think? The NSA eventually reversed their ban, allowing their agents the comfort of their favorite creepy little fuzzballs
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while listening into their fellow countrymen's private conversations. The original Furby was discontinued in 2002
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But unfortunately for America, in 2023, Hasbro decided to bring the Furby back from the dead once again
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And considering that just about every consumer product on the market in 2024
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records us in one way or another, it's probably safe to be a little mistrustful of your niece's new Furby