What awesome toy did you have growing up that would never be allowed now?

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TheFeshy@reddit

We almost got shot playing lazer tag. A bunch of kids running around a house at night with "guns" triggered the wrong neighbor.

I do miss strapping on moon boots and then throwing lawn darts straight up and trying to hop/hobble/run before they got you.

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I am a veteran. I turned the corner and saw a red laser pointed at me. The kid crouched in the grass. I lost my shit and ran off the road into a ditch. I was screaming at the kid and his father. My partner had to come get it. It was terrible but for us it’s terrifying. I do not keep a weapon on me at all or in my house. It’s nuts that kids around here are given real guns at home.

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Oldpuzzlehead@reddit

Playing lawn darts at my grandparents house in the lawn right next to the unfenced pool.

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1block@reddit

I was bad at defense with that game.

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S_A_R_K@reddit

We had lawn darts as kids. Then as teens we'd steal the surveying markers from construction site. They were like 5" nails with plastic strings on the back and we'd throw them across the street at each other, catching them on plywood "shields."

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LoetherS@reddit

Lol Damn!

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TallTXTrash@reddit

When I was in college, 3 of my friends moved into a giant old house (was a frat house decades before) with an enormous back yard. We got bored (and drunk) one Sunday and decided making huge lawn darts out of those 4 or 5 ft tiki torches that hold citronella oil burners sounded like a great time. Spent way too much time crafting our "darts," making the sharp end heavier by jamming rocks in there, taping up a portion for a grip, streamers on the top, etc. Made a huge circular target with points increasing closer to the center using rope, clothes, whatever we could find. Had some good competition until the torches started breaking. Definitely see why lawn darts were banned.

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RightYouAreKen1@reddit (OP)

Oh, good one. My neighbor had lawn darts. So much fun.

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Secret_Bees@reddit

I thought so too as a kid, until I got hit about a centimeter away from my eye

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codebygloom@reddit

I've got a divot on top of my head where my cousin thought it would be funny to toss his dart when I was walking to retrieve my set.

It hit about 3 mm from the edge of one of the skull plates. If it would have hit directly on the incomplete fusion I wouldn't be telling this story.

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SunniMonkey@reddit

This was my very first thought!

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DizzyIzzy801@reddit

Every time I see a trampoline now, I note the safety features and just sort of mentally check off trampoline injuries from childhood. "Oh yeah, pads over the springs, strapped in so they don't flop up and over." "Hm, buried at ground level and surrounded by soft lawn." "Huh, there's a mesh fence around the edges to keep the dogs off of it." "Not immediately next to the roof or an upper-story balcony. Interesting."

And one I'm not sure everyone will know about: "Hm. No bouncing hopper balls present in the yard. How do they get a double-bounce?"

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HauntedTrailer@reddit

Flipped sideways off a trampoline one time, landed face first in the springs and had spring shaped blood blisters all the way down my face. Another time I landed big toe first in a small hole no one noticed and went straight through, twisting my knee and ankle in the process.

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chainmailler2001@reddit

We had the first trampoline in our school district in the late 80s/early 90s. Even then we had pads on the springs. They were optional but we had them. We have a trampoline now for our kids and it came with crappy pads that have disintegrated in a couple seasons and a net fence to keep anyone from flying off. We also have high ground water levels so burying it is a no go. Would just be full of water most of the year.

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echochilde@reddit

I had a clear plastic maze with a drop of mercury in it. You had to get the ball of mercury from the outer edge to the center without it breaking. I think I still have it.

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nvmls@reddit

Remember that one He-Man figure that threw sparks? lol

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mellow-drama@reddit

Saurod! Oh my god I wanted one of those guys sooo bad but because I'm a girl I got Barbies and never any He Man figures. I'm so glad the next door neighbor let me play with us, but he never had Saurod either.

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CorgiMonsoon@reddit

Meanwhile I was a boy who wanted Barbies. Luckily She-Ra was action figure adjacent so I was allowed to get a few of them to go with all our He-Man toys

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AhfackPoE@reddit

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CorgiMonsoon@reddit

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Lucky-Hunter-Dude@reddit

Super Soakers. I don't think they "wouldn't be allowed" but they just don't make them anymore.

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RightYouAreKen1@reddit (OP)

They don't make super soakers anymore? Wow, way to ruin summer!

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CubistHamster@reddit

The original Super Soaker 50 had no relief valve, and I can attest from personal experience that a moderately strong 7-year old can pump enough pressure into one to violently rupture something.

Currently, I'm an engineer on a cargo ship--I work on and around high-pressure pneumatic and hydraulic systems routinely. Used to be a military bomb tech. I'd consider the first-gen Supersoakers fun, but legitimately hazardous. Probably not going to kill you, but pretty easy to imagine one blinding somebody permanently.

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Lucky-Hunter-Dude@reddit

Not the good ones we had. They make puny little ones that don't even match up to the OG Super Soaker model.

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forever_erratic@reddit

Nerf has replaced them (yes they make water guns too)

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Lucky-Hunter-Dude@reddit

They are weak replicas of the originals. You can find some cheap knockoffs but you can't find the high powered pump up ones or backpack ones that actually sting if you get blasted by it.

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SuperModes@reddit

Pretty much everything Entertech ever made.

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Awkwardpanda75@reddit

Click clacks; the originals before they were found to cause major damage. It were like 2 pool balls attached with a string and stick. My brother and I would play boomerang with them. You’d have the runner (me) take off running as fast and zig zaggy while my brother would do the windup and release.

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Fr0stbite37@reddit

This squirtgun probably

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Davethe3rd@reddit

Transformers G1 Megatron.

His alt mode is a realistic looking Walther P38 (based on the one from Man from U.N.C.L.E.).

It's literally illegal to sell realistic looking gun toys in the United States.

Well... in some states it is and in some states it isn't, but it's illegal in enough states that Megatron isn't a gun anymore and Hasbro will never distribute any of the rereleases or Masterpiece figures that Takara does in Japan.

You know, originally when I was in my 20s, I thought that was lame (and still kinda do... especially since most everybody that wants a G1 Megatron has been old enough to go buy a real gun for decades now), but it makes more sense to me that Megatron should turn into a tank or a spaceship instead of a puny gun for Starscream or Soundwave to fire.

Or hell, why would Megatron adapt his form to ingratiate himself with the Fleshlings at all? He is MEGATRON. He is here to conquer and drain Earth of all its energy.

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MoarFlavor@reddit

I don’t know that these are really “toys” but:

We used to ride our bikes all over town strapped with bows and arrows, BB guns, etc. — My brother got one of my BB guns taken away because he pointed it at a train as it was passing by. Police came and confiscated it. Looked like a shotgun.

I can’t imagine what would happen these days if a kid was found on a bike with these items. Life has changed so much since then. It’s wild.

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eejjkk@reddit

The G1 Megatron I got for Christmas in 1984, then promptly lost the following summer. I still think about just stopping by and asking the people that currently live in my childhood home if I can crawl under their front porch to look for him for maybe an hour or two. I know that's the last place I had him.

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Spitecrawler@reddit

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

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MonkeyBred@reddit

My uncle bought me and 3 other cousins blowguns. And not JUST blowguns, but 4" long blowdarts to go with it. Horrible idea, but at the time, it was the absolute best gift!

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madetoday@reddit

Not a toy, but my rotary phone was on a party line that rang differently for each house. You could accidentally hop into your neighbours phone call, or play with the receiver to make their phone chirp and see if they’d pick up.

But there were no kids my age on the party line, and as I said (and was told many times) the phone wasn’t a toy.

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walter_grimsley@reddit

Obvious answer is G1 Megatron. I actually had mine taken away in 2nd grade, 1985.

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MinivanPops@reddit

My dad used to go to Hong Kong for business. He bought me this big giant set. Came in a briefcase. Did not yet have transformers branding on it.

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-liquidcooled-@reddit

That stinky goo that you could blow bubbles with. Surely they found out that wasn't good to give to kids?

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DickBurns01@reddit

I had some pretty realistic metal cap guns

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MinivanPops@reddit

Chemistry sets used to have some pretty amazing stuff in them. I was too stupid to know what I was handling.

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tribbleorlfl@reddit

Robocop figures with those black powder paper rolls for "realistic" gunshots.

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evenifihateit@reddit

A toy gas oven that could actually bake stuff

Amazing really because my mum used to scream if we got near upstairs windows or the water butt but playing with fire was just fiiiiiiine

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jmjm12341234@reddit

My irresponsible father made us a guillotine for punishing toys. Could have easy taken a finger off. It was great

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walter_grimsley@reddit

This is one of the more metal things I've seen on here today. Have an upvote.

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nonbonumest@reddit

This is like some Toy Story nightmare fuel

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bitwarrior80@reddit

I had a battery powered UZI water pistol that was painted matte black. It looked like the real thing when you took of lf the orange tip ;)

I can't recall what happened to it, but I'm sure my parents made it discretely dissappear.

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Nervous-Rush-4465@reddit

Model rockets and gas-engine model cars.

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anyodan8675@reddit

Pocket knives. Boy scouts, Swiss army, (we thought that was an actual bad ass army btw) throwing stars, etc.

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RattieMattie@reddit

I had a magnet building set where you had a base and a ton of tiny magnets in many different shapes that you could form into all sorts of things. Absolutely wouldn't be allowed nowadays. Pretty sure they were the rare earth magnet type like bucky balls but in little cubes and long rectangles and all sorts of weird shapes. I loved that set.

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nvmls@reddit

Oooh I loved this toy! Why do you think it wouldn't be allowed?

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RattieMattie@reddit

K8ds and rare earth magnets can be a bad time if they are swallowed because they can stick together in the intestine through the loops. That's why bucky balls were banned. Though you can get bucky balls again I think. Even in regular magnets can be a problem but the extra strong ones are pretty dangerous if swallowed. And those were small magnets and really easy to swallow lol.

I wish I still had that toy. I wanna play with it again so badly. It was so creative and calming.

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nvmls@reddit

Oh yeah that's true. I was old enough at the time that I knew not to eat magnets so that didn't occur to me.

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RattieMattie@reddit

Same. But if I had a younger sibling or something....

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Hades_Mercedes@reddit

I knocked my brother's incisor tooth out with one of these:

Insanely overpowered disc launchers. Easily powerful enough to embed discs in drywall.

I also had a variety of Chemistry sets filled with scalpels, fragile glass slides and all kinds of chemicals capable of violently reacting together.

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cojackwojack@reddit

Creepy Crawlers

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mist_kaefer@reddit

What was wrong with the laser tag set? When the batteries ran out (way too soon) these were perfect to shoot each other with.

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RightYouAreKen1@reddit (OP)

I believe there was some high profile case (might have been an urban legend though) of a kid getting shot by cops after neighbors called reporting a group of people running around the neighborhood with guns.

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