Fellow Jart survivor, here. I used to tempt fate by flinging them more or less straight up in the air and then running around blindly until they fell.
There was also a kid at my high school who did, in fact, have his right eye shot out with a BB gun (not self-inflicted, though).
Now I’m really feeling nostalgic. I had a sturdy metal microscope (with a dissection kit!), and a chemistry set with which I could have killed my whole family (if I’d been more motivated). We also made a model hot air balloon that really worked – should have tested it outdoors, though; burnt the carpet.
As usual, our friends at The Onion have covered the subject: Fun Toy Banned Because of Three Stupid Dead Kids.
As they have since post #21 
They definitely still sell these - my daughters each got one for Christmas. I’ll have my wife launch one at me tonight to see how painful it is.
I’ll admit to not having heard of half those toys before, but I did grow up with the Battlestar Galactica projectile versions and still probably have them scurried away in my room back at my Mom’s house.
Are dart gums allowed, with suction cups on the end. (they would come off and then big fun ensued)
I have a scar for life because of Yard Darts (Jarts)
My older brother decided we could play catch with them and yup, he threw first. I caught it right below my eye socket. I recall as I lay in the emergency room that the doctor was amazed, a slightly different angle and it would have gone right in my eye.
Blame me for spoiling your fun. I am certain I was one of the reported injuries.
Sorry to double post. I want to post a disclaimer: I was 4-5 years old when assaulted with the Jart. Most of my childhood injuries began with a bored older brother.
For folks looking for cool sciencey stuff for the tots
Being an only child, I am curious.
How does that work?
“Gosh, Johnny you shouldn’t have tried to blind your Sister…again. Let’s stop at Chuckie Cheese on the way home from the ER!”
or did they chain him i the basement on bread and water for a month?
in the basement
Perhaps they took away his spell checker for a month.
Agreed.
Isn’t the bicycle the most dangerous toy of all time?
Only when you tie it to the back bumper of a car, and tie a wagon to the back of the bike…just to see. 
Horse puckey.
I got real dangerous riding with my eyes closed. Really cool sensation until I hit the car.
Yes, it did!
My older brother did shoot his eye out (sort of) with an Estes rocket or something similar. Rocket didn’t launch as expected, so he trotted out to bend over it and inspect it. He was wearing glasses, so the rocket didn’t go directly into his eye, but the damage to the lens and thus his eye was enough that he’s always had low vision in that eye. This is the same kid who, in the era of lawn mowers with grass chutes on the back, slipped and put a foot in the mower. One-and-a-half eyes, six-and-a-half toes, all told. Not good. And no one to sue back in the dark ages of the 1950s!
I know that feeling.
My brother had the creepy crawlers/thingmaker. I had the one that made flowers and girly things. We also had the Incredible Edibles. I don’t think we ever maimed ourselves. I think we had Jarts but that was probably about the time they got recalled so we didn’t have time to maim ourselves on those because they disappeared. I wanted the clackers, all my friends had them but my mom said I’d get injured. Then all my friends started getting injured by them and I was amazed that mom was right and I wasn’t that interested in them anymore. I could have sworn that my grandnieces got Skydancers for Christmas last year.
I had the missile firing BSG Colonial Viper. My brother had the Cylon Scarab. Great space fights, and we never managed to get the missiles in our mouths.
We also had ‘Water Rockets’. Plastic rockets that you would fit onto a pump/launcher, and pump and pump and pump (far beyond the recommended number) and pull a little trigger. I remember them flying up near 80’ or so. Those were pretty dangerous in retrospect, and I haven’t seen them, lately. Anyone know what I’m talking about. You filled the rocket halfway up with water, slipped it onto the pump by a little catch, then started pumping.
We had bamboo in the back yard; the kind with stalks 4" in diameter. My rocket flew up and landed in the middle of one stand. Never found it.
Not particularly dangerous, but the rocket reminds me of another toy I had. A stick with a rubber band. A plastic ‘dart’ with two flexible strips of plastic attached to the head. Hold the ends of the plastic strips and the end of the ‘dart’ and launch it by hooking it to the rubber band, pull it back, and let it fly. At the top the plastic strips would spread and it would ‘helicopter’ down. I’ve seen them recently, but I don’t remember what they were called.
Got one of those when I was about 12 or so. Fun, but it was a little tough to pump up. It is an inherently dangerous toy, but no more than a thrown rock.
I remember a hard plastic glider with mylar wings that was launched with a powerful rubber band. That thing could have put a real hurting on someone, yet it never did. I must not have been trying hard enough.
Your mistake was not using rocket assist on the glider.
I never figured out that it was the compressed air and not the water providing force.
Some young rocket scientest the 'Plant was, trying to compress an incompressible fluid!
I have a set of the original jarts, I think it came from my grandma’s house. The later sets had a rubber-like weighted tip on the end instead. We never got hurt playing either but that could be because I only have sisters.
A friend of mind had that finger-eating Cabbage Patch doll. I remember when it got recalled. We did try to make it eat all kinds of stuff, it had very powerful jaws.
My school’s playground had an attraction that I have never seen anywhere else. We called it a Maypole, it was just a tall pole with a circle bar around it about 5 1/2 feet up off the ground. You stood underneath and had to jump up a little to grab onto the circle and hang off it, then someone would get into the middle where there were bars like spokes on a wheel connecting to the outer circle. They could push the maypole around and around until you were flying out horizontal clinging for dear life. This exciting attraction was placed carefully on a cement pad with a chain link fence around it. It remained at the school for years, but it is gone now. I think a kid got hurt on that thing about every day, with multiple broken bones and much blood loss. That was in the 80’s so not even that long ago! Even at the time we all knew it was dangerous. The school officials knew it too, that’s why it was only accessible to the 5th and 6th graders