We had a (routinely ignored) “no head shots” rule.
And for pump guns a (routinely ignored) “one pump only” rule.
Pie Face from Ideal. Here’s the commercial.
Thank you! Couldn’t remember for the life of me what that was called.
I almost set the house on fire with that one when I put a cube in the oven dome and walked away. (I blame my 7-year-old attention span.) When I came back, the plastic bit had gone from cube to monster to smoldering smoking pile of goo on the verge of explosive combustion.
Aurora’s Skittle Bowl It was a cross between tether ball and bowling with a hard wooden ball. I remember getting a bloody mouth from getting my head too close to the thing when the ball was in motion. It was rated the #12 Game Where Someone Can Get Beaned in the Nuts
Both your links go to the same page.
Shows what happens the one time I don’t test out my links.
This. Even fireworks were banned here long ago. So us kids being of a mind to blow shit up, we had to come up with more inventive ways of doing so. This involved noxious chemicals used in inventive, experimental ways. Way to go, legislators.
My personal fave was the Mattel Hot Wheels Factory. I mean, a home injection molding set, for Ghu’s sake! How cool was that? Not only did you have hot lava plastic out of the injector, but sharp sheet metal band clamps to hold them together…
Plus, you could cut the cars up and re-melt them, blending colors in a psychedelic manner until they all blended into a puke brown.
I love the smell of melting plastic in the morning. It’s the smell of VICTORY. 
Say, how many folks here used a Strange Change Machine as a car crusher for those cheap little soft plastic cars that came a hundred to a bag for a buck? 
They didn’t spring back, but who cared? 
As for guns, I had a “Johnny Thunder” lever action rifle. After the safety block broke off, it embedded ball point pens in the walls quite nicely, thanks…
I was also one of the only kids in my block to play Cowboys and Indians with a realistic Luger cap pistol…
And, of course, my namesake toy, with all those lovely sharp wires that would stick out when the arms and legs got torn off…
-MMM-
Didn’t pay your little brother tax , hmmm.
Declan
My older brother and his friends made blowdarts out of large sewing needles and regular thread, shooting them through soda straws at their chosen targets. The thread was repeatedly looped through the eye of the needle then snipped in half, creating a fan effect. I was especially impressed with one dart made from red and white thread - it looked so dapper sticking out of my shoulder.
I enjoyed watching them get thrown to the ground by an exploding can of WD-40 sometime later during their experiments with flame throwing technology.
Pikers. A few years ago, I came across a history of Ideal, Georgia. It mentioned that during the holidays, the local youth liked to entertain themselves by making balls out of rags soaked in pitch (which I believe is turpentine) then setting fire to them and tossing them back and forth. Kind of a “hot potato” thing.
My annoying cousin that became a even worse adult, almost killed himself, filling a milking machine teat cup with gunpowder and setting it of. Metal shrapnel went everywhere. He did this by his self, and everybody in the house came running outside from the party. I have to guess that those cups hold at least a pint inside. On a farm the equipment laying around becomes your toys. We used plastic syringes from disposable mastitis treatments as squirt guns.
Think of tar when you say pitch.
I grew up with just the lame plastic toys and stuffed animals. I’m jealous.
I’m just curious. Despite playing with these dangerous toys, you’ve all obviously lived to tell the tale, but would you let your kids play with these things now?
Ah. The most wonderfully dangerous toy of all — a whole farm and all the attendant equipment, buildings, and other accoutrements. Haystacks, barns, combines, farm animals, trucks — the list goes on. I was driving (by myself) by the time I was 9 or 10. Now THERE’S a fun toy for a kid!!
You know from the parents who think real guns might be too dangerous. My friends and I would dress up in heavy coats and wear goggles and go shoot the crap out of each other in the woods.
Bottles and cans just didn’t do it for us.
That would be my BIL’s too. This past 4th had them on an upper deck throwing lit packs of firecrackers up into the air until I reminded them that if the breeze were to pick up they just might have a face full of exploding firecrackers.
I had click-clacks as a child. That was before migraines ensued.
To whoever asked upthread:
When a roman candle ball gets caught in the hood of your sweatshirt, you lose a slight bit of hair just behind your ear. Then you worry if your mom will notice.
Sure! My kid’s 29 now, and if she hasn’t learned basic safety by NOW…
Seriously, I would have let her play with some of this stuff when she was a child, with proper supervision. I did let her cook easy things when she was quite young, while I watched and gave advice. Later on, she cooked whole meals by herself, no supervision necessary. Now that she’s moved to another state, I really miss her cooking.
I had a combination Vacuform and Fun Factory, with the Creepy Crawlers and Fun Flowers plates. Those were lots of fun.