Some of the toys that stayed around the longest were the strange dolls my sister and I got.
Betsy Wetsy was the source of much abuse and fun. Putting perishable things down her gullet just made her smell bad and we hated her all the more for that. The commercial was even awful.
Poor Pitiful Pearl was just plain fugly and we destroyed her hair and dressed her in ugly costumes befitting her character.
Was Holly Hobbie a big brand back in the day? They have sewing machines AND dolls, AND playhouses?
When I was little, yes. I had a doll and I think a t-shirt too. Late 1970’s.
Probably Edmund Scientific:
which started out as a surplus house dealing in optics:
They’ll be happy to sell you a chemistry set:
I dunno about “old style fairly dangerous”, but they warn 
:
"This set contains chemicals that may be harmful if misused. Read cautions on individual containers carefully. "
You do seem to have buy your own acids and strong bases locally, but they supply labeled bottles for them, and an alcohol burner.
Etch a Sketch.
My Mom said she’d get us anything we wanted for Christmas so instead of asking for a mansion and a yacht, I asked for an Etch a Sketch.
My mother said “No! I heard they’re poisonous.”
I teased her repeatedly in the next few years, asking “Did you really think we were going to eat it?”
My daughter was born in 1982, and HH was the first ‘sucked into advertising thing she’d experienced’, so when she was two I bought a Holly Hobbie doona-cover for her. In fact, I think it might still be floating around in a cupboard somewhere. 
Optimus Prime, the original one.
Back then they sold the actual chemicals in the set =) And I rummaged around online and found apicture. I can’t believe my parents thought this was a good idea for me:smack: But then again, we didn’t explode anything or burn anything down so I guess it turned out OK.
I got a chemistry set around '76 but never did much with it. I wasn’t allowed to use the alcohol burner for experiments and had to use a candle instead.
Christmas '79, Dad bought a 2600 for the family; no games at first except the Combat game it came with. My PITA brother soon discovered how to mess with the switches so his first shot in the tank game passed through walls and hit me.
I remember the year Tickle Me Elmo was THE toy. People fought each other in the stores for it! Meanwhile, my mom went out and got us Tickle Me Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster is the shit and could totally kick Elmo’s ass. We were happy to get him instead! And she didn’t even have to fight anyone at the store.
I have an embarrassing, bratty kid story. Christmas of '98, I was quite excited for Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was obsessed with it. I had a gaming magazine that I read so much Dad had to duct tape the spine together. I asked for an N64 and the game for Christmas. In the lead up until the big day, I wanted to rent an N64 and play the game, but Mom kept saying no. It was a battle of wills until she finally yelled WE’RE NOT RENTING IT BECAUSE YOU’RE GETTING IT FOR CHRISTMAS. I was astounded. I felt so, so bad because I ruined Christmas. Then she pulled the ‘I just told you that to shut you up’ card and I felt better.
Then on Christmas morning I unwrapped my gifts in the wrong order and found Mario Kart 64 and Zelda before I found the console. 