It has come to my attention, 15 years after the fact however, that apparently I was NOT a leading candidate for "Mother Of The Year" in the 90's.

For when I read the article 10 Toys That Failed

I realized that four of the 10 failures due to safety recalls were and STILL ARE in my home.

Poor daughter. I subjected her to Pokemon, dolls, toys and outdoor games that I now find out were deathtraps just waiting to spring.


I will admit these suckers are dangerous... especially in the hands of a klutz like moi. Many a time I aimed, poised and threw my lawn dart with great finesse... only to find it rocketing straight up and land with a thud mere inches BEHIND ME.

Ah the Easy Bake. I had one when I was young. It turned everything to ashes. The best thing I ever had with this set was the bubblegum. Yep, they actually made BUBBLEGUM for you to BAKE. I kid you not. After burning the first batch to a reeking, boiling tar, I found that by simply emptying the packet straight into my mouth, the "raw" gum was far better. So it only boggles the mind that I bought one for my own daughter 30 years later.

I thought these things would be the coolest toy ever. Lucky for us, after the first few "flights", the stupid thing broke. Natch. Oh well, at least it never had the chance to put an eye out.


Now THIS makes me sad. Sad because we probably collected a gazillion of these... we had so many (I think Burger King made it a set of 100 different toys, so naturally we tried to COLLECT THEM ALL). Yep, we have full "chains" of these balls all linked together in boxes somewhere under the stairs in the basement. Along with the lawn darts, an Easy Bake and a broken Sky Dancer.

Sad too that I never turned the Pokemon balls in for all those free french fries.