People love being nostalgic about the things they enjoyed playing with as children, whether it was a hoop and a stick, a Polly Pocket or a SNES.
But health and safety was a little more lax in previous decades, as anyone who ever fell from a swing onto a concrete slab will know, and there were some items left in Christmas stockings that should never have made it into little hands.
Reddit user DiligentCockroach700 posted this on the AskUK subreddit:
What are the toys you had as a kid that you would shudder to give your kids now? For me it was those ‘clackers’. Two hard balls in bits of string tied to a handle that you clicked up and down. One false move and you had a sprained wrist.
I also had a chemistry set when I was about 10 than had all sorts of dangerous chemicals in that you wouldn’t even be able to buy now.
Plenty of people replied with memories of things they can’t believe their parents left them with unsupervised.
1.
‘A die-cast model of a WW1 field gun (inherited from my Dad) which could fire matches! Once I realised it was more fun shooting lit matches, it was confiscated after the ‘Net Curtain Incident’.’
–Quicksilver62
2.
‘Remember getting a ‘kids’ carpentry set when I was 8, fully functioning saw, chisels and plane, never mind the metal screwdrivers and hammer. Barely even trust my kids of a similar age with a plastic spoon.’
–Still_Wrap4910‘I had one of them when I was that age as well, got took off me when I was caught unscrewing sockets from walls.’
–Rchambo1990‘Mine was removed after I found a bag of nails in the shed and turned the garden bench into a bed of nails, as seen on Paul Daniel’s Magic Show.’
–Asl687
3.
Mr Frosty. Hey kids if you hack at ice cubes with razor blades long enough, you might get bored and drink all the syrup in one go.
–HappyDeathClub
4.
I remember this shit that came in a small tube with a straw. It was totally toxic. You squeeze this toxic shit out and use the straw to blow it into a balloon. The fumes were similar to model glue.
–Unique_material1399
5.
‘Lawn darts, fuck me they were just mini javelins that we threw as hard as we could.’
–Voodoopulse
6.
‘My dad bought me a Swiss Army knife whilst I was still in primary school. He managed to convince my mum by saying it would teach me responsibility etc. But he subsequently did not teach me responsibility and safe usage, so I was literally just a child with a knife.
I like to believe that the house I grew up in still has my name stabbed into the UPVC windowsill of my old bedroom.’
–PsychologicalDrone
7.
‘My Cluedo set has what appears to be lead piping made of real lead.’
–HampshireTurtle
8.
‘Swingball. I got smacked in the face so many times… Come to think of it, that explains a lot.’
–FuckedupUnicorn
9.
‘Less about the toys – more about the medieval kids playground rides. Our local park had a metal maypole spinner with heavy chains hanging off it that you ran around until you lifted into the air, lost your grip and flew off.’
–StarryKnightLondon
10.
‘It was a twisty braids hair styler thing. You were meant to put the end of two strands of hair in it. and it would twist to make them a cool hairstyle. It never worked and just ripped my hair out of my scalp. I was a stupid kid, because I tried so many times convinced that the next try wouldn’t scalp me!’
–qgwheurbwb1i
11.
Anything with a button battery unless I am incredibly convinced that it isn’t coming out. I’ve been too badly scarred by all the stories of young kids swallowing them.
-Tay74
