No, not grown-up toys. Actual toys.
I have a set of lawn darts (with replacement fins, rings, and original box). They were banned years ago because (so the legend goes) someone threw one over a house and it landed in a kid’s head. True, or Urban Legend, I have the game.
Second on the lawn darts. What are dangerous toys? I was told you could put your eye out with a stick.
I’ve got a set of golf clubs. Man, I’m dangerous with those things. 
Seriously, though, how 'bout the legendary “Big Bang” carbide cannons? Me and my brothers practically had an artillery regiment when we were kids.
I’ve got their self-titled CD, and “Hellacious Acres.” After that, Dangerous Toys kind of lost their appeal.
A homemade potato cannon, over 8 feet long with flash supressor and remote ignition.
Over 400 heavy metal CDs.
(list of pipe bombs conspicuously missing)
Various assortment of water toys (to be pulled behind the ski boat) - what??.. not dangerous??.. just hold on and let me drive!
Well, somewhere in my basement I probably have an old “Big Bag O’ Broken Glass” and “Johnny Human Torch” Halloween costume…
There used to be these things called Click-Clacks. It was two plastic balls on either end of a string. The object was to hold the string in the middle and swing the balls up and down so that they click-clack together.
That was bad enough, I cannot tell you how many bruises and contusions I suffered playing with these things. But, to make it worse, back in the old days before cable T.V. and compact discs, they used to be made out of glass. Solid balls of glass about 3 or 4 inches around. They would chip all the time. And, if you were particularly good at click-clacking, you could shatter them.
Does anybody else remember these things?
Yeah, I admit I’m old enough to remember click-clacks.
I had several air rifles when I was a boy. None of them are still around, though… One of them shot large plastic projectiles that mounted to the muzzle. I got this when I was six, and the first thing I did with it was shoot my little sister in the eye. (I wasn’t aiming, and I didn’t even intend to fire it. She was fine except for a small bruise she could have gotten in any number of ways…)
Mom was livid and demanded that guns be forbidden in the house. Dad was stern but in private he was “attaboy!”
Later I moved up to BB guns. Now for a 10 year old, a BB gun is a REAL gun! I think the only people I didn’t eventually shoot with this gun were my mom and the local sheriff’s deputies. Everyone else was fair game, if I could hit them without being seen, that is… that usually meant I aimed for the posterior.
Finally, I got a 14-gauge hunting shotgun. But by then, I was old enough not to consider it a toy. It was a hunting weapon. My cousin in NC has it now.
I also launched quite a few Estes rockets. Got burned a few times, too. And I sent one through a picture window into a neighbor’s living room late at night as she was dozing off in front of the TV. It was so cool - you could see scorch marks where it climbed the wall and got stuck in the ceiling’s corner. I still wish I had been in the room to see it. It set the carpet on fire, too. Needless to say, she was pissed.
Then there’s all the cool fireworks that used to be available when I was a teen. We used to have wars - tape pairs of roman candles to the handlebars of our bikes, or stand on opposite ends of a basketball court and launch bottle rockets at each other, using only trashcan lids for cover.
(The latter was a lot of fun… you couldn’t hold the rocket stem when it went off, or you’d burn your hand. So you had to hold the rocket by the stem in one hand, light the fuse with the cigarette in your mouth, and then when the fuse was just about done, you gently loft the rocket into the air. With skill, you could aim the things pretty good this way. And even though they had a report at the end, the worst anyone got hurt was a few second degree burns. I got hurt worse riding a bike.)
Kids’ recreation these days is way too safe. No wonder they’re packing guns and building pipe bombs.
I still have my wood-burning kit that I used in Scouting.
Jeff Foxworthy says they came with a short cord so you were SURE to use it near the drapes!
Click-Clacks!!!
Oh, how my sister and I begged my mom for them! When we finally got them, they did everything to us that she promised they would: hurt us. But, boy, were they fun.
Reminds me of those ropes with stones tied to them that South Americans use; is it a bolo?
I have an old Fisher-Price dollhouse, from the era when the dolls were made of two pieces of wood held together with a screw and the heads were the perfect size to choke a kid.
I have allowed - nay, encouraged - my older son to play with this death trap.
Yinz can report me for child endangerment now
I used to have a toy crossbow, clearly designed to launch some suction-tipped toy bolts that were nowhere around. Picked it up for a dime or so at a garage sale, IIRC.
Its best feature was that, while no bolts were on hand, the hole they were intended to drop into was the perfect size to load up a pen or pencil. And within a yard or two, pens would launch with enough force to stick into the wall. One of my favorite memories:
Me to friend: hey man, watch this. <pulls back string into rudimentary unsafe trigger mechanism. drops in standard #2 pencil. points at wall. pulls trigger. pencil launched with such force that when it contacts the wall it literally explodes>
Friend: cool!
Lawn Darts? check.
Click-Klacks? check (although the ones I had were marketed as “Ker-Bangers”).
Wood-burning Kit? check.
Lot’s of toys with tiny parts, just right for swallowing? check.
Are water rockets considered dangerous now? They were the kind you’d fill with water, then pump air into until they’re about ready to burst You had to hold them in your hands in order to launch them, after which they’d fly up about 100 feet or so. Great fun, but we kept losing them on the neighbor’s roof.
–sublight.
I have a 50-foot nylon rope, which could possibly be used to hang an evildoer. I also have a Stick[sup]TM[/sup], which might choke my dog.
Do any of you remember those little tubes you used to buy that were filled with some sort of strange oil based substance that was all rainbow colored? You would squeeze out a small ball of the stuff put it on the end of a little plastic tube and blow through the end to make this strange multi colored and incredibly toxic balloon? I saw the safe version of this stuff in the store a few days ago. Somehow I dont think the balloon will be nearly as good without the carcinogens.
I’ve got a Thingmaker, with the Fun Flowers molds. The OLD Thingmaker, the kind you can get second degree burns from.
Super Elastic Bubble Plastic.
Lynn: I no longer have a Thingmaker, but I had one when I was a kid. I actually cooked hot dogs on it a couple of times.
Lawn darts, yes I remember.
I had a chemistry set too, and we managed to make explosives with it.
Much of my childhood seems to have been occupied with firecrackers.
Lesse:
Marbles - small enough to choke on, small enough to slip on and break a bone.
Child’s iron - “Just like Mommy’s!” - with a real plug that fit into the real electrical socket and the iron overheats and catches on fire.
Jarts - 'nuff said.
Creeepy Crawler Maker - pour plastic goo into a metal mold, place in special oven and bake into spiders and other creepy things. Most likely toxic goos (hey, this was the 60s and the toy manufacturers weren’t likely reading Rachel Carson).
Dip Flowers - form a piece of wire into a leaf or petal, and dip form into green or magenta liquid (to make leaf or petal respectively) and watch it harden into a translucent leaf. WARNING: Do not ingest. Do not inhale fumes.
Put-together model cars and planes - came with their own tube of airplane glue. Now a lot of the models I find are “snap-together, no glue required”.
E-Z Bake ovens - I’m not sure I would trust eating anything cooked by the heat of a 40-watt light bulb.
[sarcasm]
20,000 kids get hurt, and they take the fun away from everyone. Sheesh.
[/sarcasm]
There aren’t enough dangerous toys. I have submitted patent applications for the following toys I have developed:
Tommy Tetanus: The Rusty Nail Doll
Just Like Mom - Drunk! - The Board Game
Bronco Bob’s Big Box of Bees
I Can Tie it Myself Noose Kit
E-Z Kleen Gun Set
Captain Rickjay’s Bag of Small, Easily Choked On Plastic Parts
My Angry Raccoon
Raiders of the Electrical Sockets Action Figures, featuring “Sergeant Zap” and his evil nemesis “Volton”
A 2001 Ford Explorer (I guess I can’t patent this one)
The Super Kerosene Soaker