Playtime Peril_ How Were These Toys Legal_! _ Hazardous History (S2)

In the late 70s, kids were obsessed with galaxies far, far away. So space toys came out fast and furious. In one case, maybe a little too fast. In 1977, Star Wars mania hit the country. It's the biggest thing around. It's the highest grossing film to date. Every single company on Earth is out there with their clones, trying to harness that Star Wars magic. Battlestar Galactica premieres on ABC in 1978, and much like Star Wars, with the series come the toys. The line is so popular, it sells two million toy spacecraft in the 1978 Christmas season. Turns out Battlestar Galactica has a secret weapon to thank for their huge Christmas sales. Cylon Raider missile base open. Cylon Raider, launch. Four of the ships from the Battlestar Galactica range can launch projectiles at each other. No other space toy, not from Buck Rogers, not from Star Wars, can do that. When you're a kid playing at Interstellar Warfare, there's nothing more frustrating than firing a missile at your friend's ship, saying, oh, I got you. And he's saying, no, you didn't. But with real projectiles, instead of just flashing lights, there's no questioning. You fire, you hit, you know. But these fake space battles turn out to be real-life dangerous. Compared to back then, today's modern projectile toys are neutered. Either the darts are soft or they don't go too far, or the firing mechanisms are weak, or more than likely, all three. But the Battlestar Galactica line shoots these hard plastic missiles with the force of a low-powered BB gun. It shoots them far and fast and straight, which sounds awesome because it was. But the force, with the small size of the missiles, that's a big problem. They're really small. They're only about an inch, an inch and a half. It's a choking hazard. But at the time, choking hazards, we're not really thinking about it. We're just buying toys for our kids that are fun. And to make matters worse, where you load the missile and where you fire it are actually very close together, especially on the Colonial Viper. So it was very easy to slip and accidentally fire that missile right down your own throat, lodge there, and it was very hard to get it out. There are so many stories of parents running to the emergency room. One kid had a half-hour surgery to get this out. Despite these incidents, the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn't order the toys recalled. That is what responsible looks like in the 1970s. However, the company knows they have a problem, so they voluntarily put labels on the toys saying, don't fire at your face or mouth. But they don't put the labels on the ones in the stores. They just put them on the ones in the factories that are about to be shipped. Sales are still going strong through the holiday season. And then a couple days after Christmas, a kid actually chokes on a missile from a Cylon radar. And that's kind of it. The fun is over. They recall existing Battlestar Galactica spaceships and redesign new ones with non-firing missiles. It's such a big deal, they actually highlight it in the commercials. Redesigned toys do not launch missiles. Sales drop like crazy. Their biggest selling point has become their greatest liability. They've become more safe, but as far as kids are concerned, they are a lot less cool. It is the Battlestar Galactica toy line that is responsible for toys that come with small plastic pieces bearing the warning of choking hazards. Unsurprisingly, those dangerous OG Battlestar Galactica missile firing ships, they are now considered rare and valuable collectibles. Today, there's a standard warning on toys that say, not for children under three. With certain toys, the hazards were pretty obvious. But sometimes the most dangerous toys were like hiding a concealed weapon. And in some cases, they actually were. In the 1950s, cowboys are all over television. Gunsmoke is the most popular show, comes out in 1955. Cowboy toys are the thing to have. So every backyard is gunfight at the OK crowd. In the current era, realism and gunplay sounds kind of dicey. But at the time, realism is the number one component. Looks like real. Sounds like real. At the core of every imaginary gunfight, there is a critical element, and that is getting the drop on any varmint before they can get the drop on you. In 1959, a new toy promises to give any six-year-old gunslinger the element of surprise. So you're in a gunfight, your opponent might be watching your hands, might be watching your eyes. But you know what he's not watching? Your pelvis. In a tight spot, that tricky buckle gun holster set shoots a safe shooting shell when you push out your stomach. The Derringer is a metal toy belt buckle that hides a gun. It's kind of a combination of your regular cowboy quickdraw with something that feels a little bit more James Bond. This is a time in history when cowboy culture is really sort of colliding with Cold War spy culture. So anything that's sort of sneaky is going to be really big in toy weapons. It is a pretty awesome idea. The belt would pop open and it would fire little plastic bullets when the pop and smoke came out. So if you got this thing in your belt, locked and loaded, all it's waiting for is a little bit of pressure on these two little points right here, and all of a sudden, boom, it shoots. You don't even have to pull the trigger. With the Remington Derringer, you might get the drop on your friends, but perhaps hands-free shooting wasn't fully thought through. Firing projectiles at waist level, what could go wrong? And these plastic bullets that they're using, these are not little light plastic nothing bullets. Plastic bullets are what riot police use to quiet unruly crowds. Now you got this belt buckle and you're trying to aim with your little six-year-old hips. You're taking out the table lamp, mama's glass of wine, your brother's eyeball, anything waist height, better watch out. There weren't warnings. It didn't say, like, don't point this at anyone. Toys in this era were definitely in the mind state of, if you're going to be dumb, you got to be tough. Mom's Best China isn't the only delicate collection at risk. These shells have a habit of just sort of exploding on their own. The little caps were actually a tiny little gunpowder explosive and could cause actual burns. One should be advised not to have explosive or incendiary devices near the family jewels. Despite all the broken glass and the random explosions coming from your kid's pelvis, parents buy a lot of these things. It's a big hit. I think there may not have been a lot of rules for toys and regulations at that time because I think parents just thought, oh, well, if it's for sale, it must be fine. By the late 60s, questions were fading, and the Derringer belt buckle rode off into the sunset.