The toys and games we grow up with play a major role in our childhoods and development. Whether it was an addictive board game, a customizable doll, or a remote-controlled vehicle, kids’ toys have come in all shapes and sizes. However, toy manufacturers don’t always hit the mark and sometimes release products that stir up trouble. Whether they were made with dangerous material or resulted in an unfortunate accident, these are ten children’s toys that got taken off the market. 

10. Aqua Dots

Aqua Dots was a simple but charming concept, small plastic dots that you could turn into an art piece with just a spray of water. Simply put the small orbs in the special mold in the shape or image of your choice, spritz it with some water, and the dots will stick together. The concept almost felt partway between Lego bricks and Play-Doh, a toy for kids who like to sculpt or build things. The commercial outlined all the toys’ upsides but neglected to mention its one unfortunate pitfall. 

Aqua Dots soon found itself in hot water when several children consumed the dots not long after its release, resulting in hospitalizations. The adhesive, meant to glue the dots together, when consumed resulted in dizziness, vomiting, and even prolonged states of unconsciousness. 

The toys’ manufacturer, Spin Factory, ended up paying over 1 million in civil penalties for failing to report the dangerous nature of the Aqua Dots and for selling a banned hazardous substance. The product was swiftly yanked from toy shelves, preventing other children from any more toxic reactions. 

9. Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids

As children’s toys have evolved, there has been a great effort by companies to make dolls and action figures as interactive as possible. Whether it was giving dolls voice boxes to allow for verbal interactions with kids or adding other features like swimming or even eating.

It was the latter that unfortunately landed Mattel’s then-newly minted line of Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids in trouble. The Cabbage Patch Kids have been a juggernaut within the toy world since they arrived in 1978, dazzling kids with their cute and huggable designs. As the years went on, an effort was made to push the doll in new directions, resulting in some hits and some definite misfires. The Snacktime variants were most definitely a misfire, as its eating feature, meant for the plastic food it was packaged with, resulted in several kids getting hurt. Not only could the doll not tell the difference between plastic and a child’s fingers, but it would gobble up hair as well.

This resulted in the toy being recalled, with later releases needing a printed warning for parents and children to see. Following this, Mattel opted to scrap the toy entirely and offer a 40 dollar refund to anyone who’d bought it. 

8. Sky Dancers

If you ever want to grab a child’s interest quickly, presenting them with a flying toy is usually a perfect way to do it. Whether it’s a remote-controlled airplane or a parachuting army man, make a toy that can soar through the air, and kids will start lining up. 

Galoob put this notion into practice when they created Sky Dancers in the mid-90s, dolls with foam wings and a pull-string base. All you needed to do was load the doll onto the base, pull the string and it would be propelled into the air with its wings spinning like propellers. This feature, combined with the dolls’ colorful designs, made for a visually dazzling toy, as well as a short-lived animated series.

Unfortunately, Sky Dancers soon proved that they were as potentially deadly as they were pretty, resulting in a slew of child inquiries. By the mid-00s, Galoob had bit slammed with 170 reports of Sky Dancers hitting kids in the face, eyes, mouth, and torso, resulting in broken teeth, cracked ribs, and facial lacerations. This resulted in nearly 10,000,000 units being yanked from store shelves, with the Sky Dancers brand remaining dead until it was relaunched in 2005.

7. Moon Shoes

Trampolines are a time-tested way to get kids jumping for joy, pun most definitely intended, with many companies taking the concept in fascinating directions. Moon Shoes had their start in the 1950s, albeit made out of metal and stiff coil springs. The idea was that you could clamp them onto your normal shoes like roller skates and bounce your way around. 

Lack of practicality aside, the idea seemed to strike a chord with some people, as it lasted long enough for a relaunch in the 1990s. This time around, the toy was retooled with high-density plastic, adjustable velcro straps, and bungee-like springs, as opposed to harsh metal pieces. While safer when compared to its metal counterpart from the 50s, the concept was still flawed from the jump, pun once again intended. 

While never outright recalled like other toys, Moon Shoes still resulted in kids tripping, falling, scraping their knees, spraining their ankles, and getting all banged up. While a nifty idea on paper, the concept simply wasn’t practical or even enjoyable enough to become a sustainable toy brand. So ultimately Moon Shoes were banned, making them another curious oddity of yesteryear that people look back on with humor and regret. 

6. Easy-Bake Ovens

For many young girls, the Hasbro Easy-Bake Oven was a true game changer and one of the coolest ideas to ever hit toy shelves. The concept was simple, a small oven that kids could use to make different kinds of snacks in the comfort of their playrooms. Kids definitely loved them because the concept survived beyond the 1960s and well into the 2000s, resulting in several generations enjoying the Easy-Bake brand. 

Sadly, when you give young children what’s essentially a small oven, sooner or later a child is going to feel the heat. In 2006, Hasbro opted to redesign the Easy-Bake Oven, dropping the long-running push-through design in favor of a front-loading one. This soon proved to be an epic mistake, as this redux resulted in several children getting their hands or fingers caught in the oven door, resulting in painful burns! One injury was so severe that it resulted in a 5-year-old girl needing a partial finger amputation following her Easy-Bake injury.

Any Easy-Bake Oven with the front-loading design was recalled from stores, with a safer model soon taking its place. Nowadays, Easy-Bake Ovens remain a staple of Hasbro’s products and still have a place in the hearts of those who’ve grown up with it.

5. Lawn Darts

If anything can be learned from this compilation of recalled playthings, it’s that toys have truly come in all shapes and sizes over the decades. Lawn Darts emerged in the 1950s when toy manufacturers thought that the classic bar game could be reworked into a family game you could play at home. Very quickly, Lawn Darts, or jarts as some would call them, quickly caught on as a fun game for the family and neighborhood get-togethers. 

The idea was simple, the players would attempt to throw the metal-tipped darts into a ring on the lawn, the goal being to get as many rings in as possible. However, as you might be able to deduce on your own, a metal spike that you throw through the air would present some definite safety issues. Even as far back as the 70s, the FDA was classifying the sharp-pointed lawn darts as mechanical hazards, noting the product’s potential to cause injury.

This fear became a reality when, in 1987, 7-year-old Michelle Snow was killed by a lawn dart that was thrown by one of her brother’s friends during an outdoor playdate. This, on top of countless other reports of Lawn Dart-related issues, resulted in the toy being banned, with re-selling of the older version being deemed illegal. 

4. Aqua Leisure Baby Floats

Teaching children to swim from a young age is very important and a trend that toy companies have been more than happy to capitalize on. From shark and superhero-themed swimwear to pool noodles to boogie boards, toy companies have been more than happy to help facilitate Summertime fun in the pool. These pool toys have even been made so that even infants and toddlers can get in on the fun in a safe way. 

However, not every infant-aimed pool toy has gone according to plan, with some coming with some unfortunate built-in problems. The Aqua Leisure Baby Floats were created by Aqua-Leisure Industries Inc. as a way to safely keep babies and toddlers afloat, much like a stroller on water. A fun concept for sure, but it seems that the Aqua-Leisure team needed to beta test their idea a bit more before release. 

Per the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “The leg holes in the seat of the float can tear, causing children to unexpectedly fall into the water and possibly drown.” Thankfully there were no reported injuries or deaths of any infants, but it was still determined that Aqua Leisure Baby Floats were far too dangerous to be kept in stock. 

3. Kinder Surprise

This one stands out as a bit of an outlier among this list, as Kinder Surprise Eggs aren’t toys per se. More accurately, they are a milk chocolate egg with a plastic capsule inside that, went opened up, reveals a small toy. 

The Kinder brand is owned by the Italian company Ferrero, the same people behind Ferrero chocolates, and has an interesting backstory. On Easter, in many Italian families, it’s not uncommon for adults to gift children chocolate eggs that have a toy inside, so this was meant to replicate that tradition. Since its debut in 1974, the product has gone on to become a favorite of kids and adults, at least for the ones that could legally obtain it. It seems that a chocolate egg with an unedible toy nestled inside of it doesn’t fly in the United States the same way that it does in Italy. 

Simply put, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prevents the sale of any candy item with a toy inside of it. This meant that any Kinder Eggs brought into the USA were considered to be illegal imports and couldn’t officially be sold in stores. Over in the United Kingdom, 3 families unfortunately lost children as a result of them choking on the toy, resulting in their swift withdrawal from the European Union.

2. Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper

As previously mentioned, toy safety, especially when infants and toddlers are involved, is something that should be taken very seriously. It’s certainly something Fisher-Price should’ve taken more seriously when they released the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper back in 2009.

The Rock ’n Play was initially received quite well, helping parents get their babies to bed via its rocking and vibration features, as well as its music-playing capabilities. However, after a decade on the market, the Rock ’n Play was revealed to have resulted in approximately 100 infant deaths. It was later learned that Fisher-Price had only consulted with one family doctor regarding its safety and had conducted no clinical research. Upon investigation, it became clear that many of the deaths were the result of infants rolling onto their stomachs and being smothered by the Rock ‘n Play’s padding.

All of this resulted in the Rock ‘n Play being recalled en masse back in 2019, a full ten years after its original release. To this day, the product is still floating around on third-party websites and even some daycares, many unaware of its dangerous potential. 

1. Austin Magic Pistol

Standards for what is acceptable in kids’ toys have changed a lot since the 1900s, with safety and political correctness playing a major role in the transition. For example, nowadays if a child wants a toy gun, they’ll likely be given either a brightly colored water gun or a cartoonish space ray with a few LED lights on it. 

However, back in the late 1940s, kids had the Austin Magic Pistol, a toy that wouldn’t stand a chance of being greenlit today. Feelings on guns and gun safety, especially back then, were far different, with many having zero qualms about giving children weapons. This meant that something like the Austin Magic Pistol was made readily available for a brief time without issue. The gun would fire a ping pong ball with a chemical reaction between calcium carbide and water which resulted in a fireball!

This would be enough to get the toy classified as a legitimate firearm in most states, and yet it was a favorite for many kids. Soon enough though, cooler heads prevailed and the Austin Magic Pistol was removed from shelves. While never officially recalled, the Pistol is a prime example of the kinds of toys that we just don’t see in stores anymore, and for good reason. 

Just because a movie is made for children doesn’t mean it can’t still manage to give you nightmares. Look no further than the films on this list for children and adults seeking a hair-raising entertaining experience at home. (Or for those wondering how to scare your little cousin.)

Whether they be animated or live-action, old or new, turning off the light and switching on any of these movies is guaranteed to not only thrill but outright chill. So, though funny and lighthearted they may appear to be on the surface, here are ten absolutely terrifying children’s movies capable of frightening anyone no matter their age. 

Are you ready?

10 Ghostbusters (1984)

Who’re you gonna call?

While abundant with the quirky horrors of ghouls like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and accompanied by the dry wit of comedian Bill Murry, Ghostbusters is just as filled with its own share of terrifyingly memorable moments. 

Monstrous arms rip and tear through armchairs, a decaying ghost haunts a library, and an unsuspecting couple gets morphed into hounds from hell. This movie about a group of guys struggling to start a ghost-busting business in New York takes a more humorous approach to horror. But don’t let that discount its chilling use of special and practical effects, which are still more than capable of spooking viewers today.

9 9 (2009)

The ninth movie on this list is none other than Tim Burton’s 2009 animated post-apocalyptic adventure film, 9. Animated in Burton’s familiarly unnerving stop-motion art style, 9 follows a small part-ragdoll, part-robot being who awakens shortly after mankind’s mysterious destruction. 

The ragdoll robot scours a decimated world filled with vicious beings created by a giant soul-stealing machine. Alone, it searches for eight others of its kind to unravel the mystery behind the world’s end. 

The movie features freaky fabricated machines. There are spider-bots, pterodactyl-like winged beasts with knives and scissors for a mouth, and plenty more ghastly creations. Kids will never look at a piece of fabric or machinery the same way again.

8 Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Scooby-Doo has long been known for its tame frights and colorful mysteries. But Zombie Island cranks up the horror by introducing the Mystery Inc. gang to perhaps their most seriously scary supernatural threat yet. 

Set in the thick of the Louisiana bayou, Zombie Island drops into a terrifying tone right from the start. Pitting them up against the likes of the undead, ghost pirates, demons, and voodoo magic, Scooby and the gang find no makeshift masks to rip off of greedy businessmen this time. 

In fact, death plays a significant role in the story. Cranking up the scares even further, Zombie Island surprisingly does away with the series’ usual antics in favor of an absolutely frightening departure from traditional Scooby-Doo adventures. Little kids will need more than a Scooby Snack to get through this one. 

7 Beetlejuice (1988)

Directed by the connoisseur of creepy himself, Tim Burton, Beetlejuice may have its fair share of comedy from actor Michael Keaton. Keaton, as we know, plays the insidious, eccentric ghoul of the movie’s namesake. But don’t let comedy distract you from several legitimately scary scenes sprawled throughout the film. 

Meaty hands burst out of bowls grabbing onto diners’ horrified faces. Bodies are mutilated, hanged in closets, and disappear into smoke while monstrous snakes roam the haunted house at night and sandworms with razor-sharp teeth lurk within the depths of the sandbox. 

And if that wasn’t enough to send a shiver down your spine, Beetlejuice, as the skin-crawling name implies, is quite literally crawling with every sort of creepy-crawly you can imagine. And maybe even some you can’t.

It makes me wonder how parents ever allowed their kids to watch the movie, honestly. I’m still afraid to say “Beetlejuice” three times!

6 Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

While this movie adaptation of the original book series may lean too heavily into comedy for some, comedian Jim Carey as the sinister Count Olaf manages to become a terrifying sight to behold in the character’s excessive and downright disturbing makeup. 

After a fire destroys their home, three siblings are orphaned into the care of a series of relatives. All the while, Count Olaf plots to obtain the children’s family fortune. And so, the Baudelaire children are forced to move from relative to relative as each dies in a mysterious and thoroughly disturbing series of unfortunate events. 

We’re talking a giant deadly viper, leech-filled waters, heights to make your stomach churn. By the end, you’ll be left wondering, “Was that really a children’s movie?”

5 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Although the only scary thing about Johnny Depp’s iconic swashbuckler Jack Sparrow may be the amount of rum he can put back, this first installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series has perhaps more frights in-store than any others. 

Indeed, The Curse of the Black Pearl boasts boat-fulls of grisly undead pirates, a blood sacrifice, and even a zombie monkey! So, if you and your kids are looking for a live-action adventure at sea complete with curses, skeletons, and treasure-hungry pirates, then look no further than this spooky swashbuckling escapade.

4 Monsters, Inc. (2001)

This Pixar classic may come as a surprise since it’s so beloved. But if you really think about it, the movie is kind of terrifying.

Ever wonder where those monsters hiding in your closet or under your bed come from? No? Well, whether you like to or not, Monsters, Inc. pulls back the curtain on such children’s nightmares all without losing an ounce of eeriness. 

Though animated in Pixar’s family-friendly style and written with plenty of gags in mind, Monsters, Inc. still manages to spook viewers with hair-raising creature designs and dark, shadowy lighting. There is even one scene in particular that will make it so you or your kids never look at your closets the same way again. Now, how’s that for scary?

3 Monster House (2006)

More monsters? More monsters! Except this one’s the size of a house… Unlike the gentle art style of Pixar in Monsters, Inc., Monster House’s gritty textures and harsh, dark tones make it downright disturbing just to look at. 

Then comes the house.

Using teeth of splintered wood to devour people whole, the monster house is a demon unto itself as a trio of kids set out to confront what everybody else in the suburban neighborhood believes to be just another myth. The movie has adventure, comedy, and a whole lot of danger – making Monster House as frighting and nightmare-inducing as any haunted house out there for parents and kids alike.

2 Coraline (2009)

What do you get when you mix Neil Gaiman and children’s stories? A bit of a surreal, poetic nightmare. Make it a movie, and well, let’s say that putting images to words, in this case, makes for a pretty disturbing children’s film.

“Coraline” is the cult film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novella of the same name. The story asks what happens when you find a secret portal to a reality where your parents appear perfect? Where everything seems as it should be? Well, you’d never want to leave, of course. That is, assuming you could. 

Coraline tells the twisted tale of a young girl finding herself trapped in the Other World where the people have pitch-black buttons sewn over their eyes. 

This stop-motion animated film clashes together ragdoll-style characters and a creepy color palette that switches between bleak reality and the bizarrely bright Other World. The frights ramp up as the movie progresses, revealing the true nature for Coraline’s spine-chilling Other Mother. Anyone scared of creepy-crawlies, beware! 

1 The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

At number one on this list of the top 10 terrifying children’s movies is none other than Tim Burton’s (yes, him again) The Nightmare Before Christmas. Presenting the most unusual – and therefore, horrifying – holiday combination, this animated movie follows the King of Halloween Town, Jack Skellington, who finds himself stumbling into Christmas Town and becoming obsessed with celebrating the winter holiday. 

Wishing to bring the celebration back to his people in Halloween Town, Jack takes it upon himself to abduct Santa Claus and take over the role. However, when Santa ends up in the hands of Oogie Boogie the Boogieman, Jack quickly finds his version of Christmas is descending into a nightmare.

However, the movie manages to keep the tone relatively light with several musical numbers and the awfully charismatic Jack Skeleton. Yet, whenever Oogie steps on screen, the chills are bound to return.  

The Nightmare Before Christmas thrusts viewers into a stunningly spooky fantasy where each holiday has its own world. Meanwhile, the movie’s stop-motion animation brings a disturbing, realistic quality to the characters and environments as the nightmarish designs of the Halloween Town denizens clash with the soft, friendly Christmas Town residents – making for unforgettable visuals that will haunt you for holidays to come. 

Children’s TV Performers: they’re colorful, cute, and cooky, and unfortunately sometimes, downright creepy. Maybe it’s because we’re no longer kids ourselves and the charm has worn off. But unlike the Wiggles, entertainers extraordinaire with a very serious jazz-hands-for-pictures policy (to prevent even the slightest insinuation that they’re inappropriately touching a fan), there are many, many children’s performers who have turned out to be rotten apples. Whether it’s actors, directors, puppeteers (puppets, why does it have to be puppets!), or even America’s Dad, here are the Top 10 Children’s Performers Who Were Secret Perverts.

10 Paul Ruebens (aka Peewee Herman)

Paul Reubens, the actor most famous for playing Pee-wee Herman, is beloved by fans and co-performers alike. Between his television show and movies, the Pee-wee character entertained millions of children for a decade. But unlike Pee-wee, Reubens himself was not quite so innocent, seeming less into talking furniture and more into vintage porn.

Reuben’s first public sexual offense was in 1991 when he was caught masturbating in an adult movie theater and arrested, facing charges of indecent exposure and lewd public acts. Luckily, he was able to atone for the incident with community service in the form of anti-drug PSAs. He quickly recovered but in 2002 faced a similar charge when police searched his home and found a massive collection of porn, which they claim included child porn. Reubens maintains his innocence, claiming the images in question were either teenage models in art photos or child porn that had slipped into his collection via bulk porn purchases that he never entirely sifted through. It seems authorities were inclined to believe him, and he accepted a lesser charge, though, deserved or not, a lingering stigma follows Reubens to this day.

9 Sasuga Minami

Technically, this performer is an accidental pervert, which feels strange to even put into a sentence. In order to learn about Sasuga Minami, we’ll dive into Japan’s children’s TV show culture, where wackiness is the name of the game. The show “Miburi TV,” translated to “body movement,” was designed to get kids off the couch or tatami mat and up and moving with crazy dances, fun music, and colorfully dressed performers. Sasuga Minami was one of these performers who inspired kids with her zany-ness: colorful onesies, Bantu knot hairstyles, and accidentally, shirts with English phrases like: “I love p—y,” “I love c—k,” and “Love, f—k yeah!”

Clearly, these were not the messages meant to be portrayed on “Miburi TV” and were simply the result of being “lost in translation,” like a bad kanji tattoo. There did not really seem to be any complaints, but regardless, the phrases were removed from all of her outfits. These days Sasuga Minami is carrying on with her life’s work and is dancing with kids in refugee camps. Honestly, we love her for it.

8 Youtube: Elsagate

For all of you out there who don’t have children, you probably didn’t know that Kid’s Youtube is an actual thing. But you probably have seen a family plop their kid down with a tablet in hand to keep them quiet during their meal, and often they’re tuned in to Kid’s Youtube. Kid’s Youtube works by filtering age-appropriate material that brings up a new video to watch once one is over for continuous playing. And that seems to work… until it doesn’t.

For reasons beyond any rational person’s understanding (seriously, don’t even try to understand why), back in 2017, a multitude of YouTube channels that had entirely inappropriate content slipped through the algorithm’s cracks. Channels like Pranksgame and Toyscouter, would have characters like Disney’s “Frozen” ‘s Elsa, Spiderman, and other princesses, superheroes and animal mascots engage in all sorts of vile behavior: kidnapping, bondage, “pranks” such as fooling someone into drinking urine or feces, getting nails through their hands and feet, and other violence or sexual material. It wasn’t even limited to animated shows, and oftentimes featured real actors. 

7 Super Mario Logan

Someone call Nintendo; this is NOT the Super Mario we all know and love. A primary example of Elsagate that somehow slipped past Youtube’s control is Super Mario Logan, sometimes known as Super Bowser Logan, a Youtuber with ten years of video making under his belt and over 9 million views.

This person uses disturbing puppets as his drug of choice, portraying a wide variety of his homophobic, racist, misogynist, and somehow even worse views, all directly aimed at children. These puppets often feed into harmful cultural stereotypes and portray violent or sexual tendencies. One parent discovered their young children had been exposed to Super Mario Logan at a friend’s house when they began to sing the highly suggestive “Wanna see my pencil?” song. The pencil in question is… not a pencil.

6 Fergie Olver

Fergie Olver was a TV host of the show “Just Like Mom” back in the 1980s and a downright creepazoid. Think of him like an even less culturally appropriate Canadian version of Richard Dawson from the “Family Feud.” Olver liked to treat the young female contestants on his show truly “Just Like Mom.”

In particular, he liked to trick the girls into a kiss, even if they had already said no. In 2021, it’s not cool to trick even an adult into an unwanted kiss, but apparently at the time doing so to children was considered okay. The one saving grace out of this is that Olver only lasted one year on the show and was replaced in the second season with a husband and wife duo. His behavior lives on in infamy and he was parodied by Bryan Cranston in the sketch “Kid Smartz Game Show” on SNL in 2010. What an honor.

5 Ronald Brown

This is a bizarre case, where thankfully Ronald Brown was stopped before he could physically hurt anyone. Brown was an avid church-goer in his 50’s who would perform children’s puppet shows for the local youth ministry, as well as volunteer to drive children to church. He would even host young boys at his house for pizza parties, even though he didn’t have any children of his own. But in 2012, he was arrested for possession of child pornography and conspiring to kidnap a child… in order to murder, cook and eat children as young as two years old. We’re calling it here—the only puppeteer that could ever be trusted was Jim Henson. 

4 Seven Awesome Kids Network

After Youtube’s Elsagate, we’re going to take it one step farther into the darker side of the problematic children’s Youtube. While it is one evil to produce inappropriate content for children, it is another evil entirely to exploit young children for profit. There is a growing trend of “family prank channels” like Daddy of Five, which often feature children being forced to engage in a spectrum of disturbing behaviors, ranging from simply being nonconsensually filmed to being the butt of physically harmful “jokes.”

The Seven Awesome Kids Network, established in 2008 and featuring six separate channels, went beyond even that. In 2018, the owner and produce of SAK, Ian Rylett, was arrested for lewd and lascivious behavior with a 16-year-old minor, one of his actors, including demanding she strip for him, groping her while she did so, then threatening to fire her if she did not comply. Other girls, aged 8-18, had complained about his creepy behavior on set prior to this, as well.

3 John Wayne Gacy

Most entries on this list are famous children’s performers who are found out to be perverts, but John Wayne Gacy is the opposite. He is one of history’s most notorious serial killers, whom many are surprised to learn was also an actual children’s performer.

He was convicted of 33 murders, along with numerous charges of assault, torture, and kidnapping, and may have committed even more murders that have yet to be discovered and/or proven. But he also used his “Killer Clown” persona to entertain children. As Pogo the Clown, Gacy entertained sick children at hospitals, worked charity events, and often did so for no compensation. He simply enjoyed helping people in need. But I guess 33 young men also “needed” to be kidnapped, tortured, and killed.

2 Jimmy Savile

Imagine seeing a sexual assault on live television. Sound utterly impossible? Well, welcome to Jimmy Savile, host of British TV morning show “Top of the Pops,” where said assault occurred in 1976. You can see and hear her discomfort, as she states that, despite her physical protest he refused to move his hand. This, among many other assaults, was well known by the BBC and Sky News at the time. And this is the very bottom of his list of offenses.

Savile has been accused of child abuse dating back to the ’60s. He also previously protested against the treatment of consumers of child pornography, saying they did “nothing wrong.” Former Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon stated back in 1978: “I’d like to kill Jimmy Savile; I think he’s a hypocrite. I bet he’s into all kinds of seediness that we all know about, but are not allowed to talk about. I know some rumors.” He added: “I bet none of this will be allowed out.” Savile died in 2012 and multiple inquiries and documentaries have been made about how this predator got away with it for so long.

1 Bill Cosby

It’d be impossible not to include Bill Cosby on this list. His ratio of cultural adoration to monstrous perversion is higher than anyone else’s. In other words: no other celebrity has ever been so high and fallen so far. Cosby was America’s dad. “Fat Albert,” “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” and “The Cosby Show” were iconic. And unlike the possible innocence of Paul Reubens or the simple mistake of Sasuga Minami, Cosby’s offenses were intentional and horrific.

All told, more than 60 women accused Cosby of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault, ranging from the ’60s through the ’90s. Most have details in common, including Cosby spiking their drinks or in some other way drugging them in order to render them unconscious and rape them. He is currently in prison after being found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Though he is attempting to appeal that verdict, numerous other cases against him—both civil and criminal—are in motion, as well.

Toys come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They roll, squish, inflate, talk, buzz and a whole lot more. Pretty much everyone, at one point or another, has played with a toy. And, toys are huge business—in 2018, world toy sales hit 90.4 billion.

Toys are designed to be used for fun. But, as the list below shows, these supposedly silly little objects of diversion can also play the difference between life and death.

SEE ALSO: 10 Terrifying Toys From The Past

10 Remote Controlled Toy Truck Saves Soldiers

Ernie Fessenden had a brother serving in Afghanistan and wanted to make sure he came home safe. So, he hooked up with hobby shop owner, Kevin Guy, and, together, they added a wireless camera and infrared lighting to a remote control toy truck and shipped it off to Afghanistan.

One day, Ernie’s brother, Chris, lent the toy truck to a group of soldiers about to head off for patrol. Out in their Humvee, the soldiers sent the remote control toy truck racing ahead looking for danger. It found it. The toy truck got caught up in some wires and -BOOM!—500 pounds of explosives detonated. The soldiers were not hurt.

When Ernie heard about the incident, he was amazed, “At first I was just absolutely shocked…It could have been [Chris] out there…Then after that it was, ‘Do you need another truck?’”

Guy was elated, “It’s like we went over to the bad guys and stuck a stick in their eye with a toy…”

Without the souped-up remote controlled toy truck, the soldiers would have either had to walk or drive—possibly triggering an explosion that could have ended one or more of their lives.^[1]

9 Inflatable Toy Turtle Saves 13 Lives

In July of 2017, heavy rains battered the Chinese city of Liuyang—located in Hunan province. At one point, in one part of the city, 13 people were trapped in their homes with water rising quickly around them.

With no boats nearby and knowing that time was a factor, some quick thinking policemen ran to a nearby toy store. There they found their solution— a bright green inflatable toy turtle.

Returning to the scene, the police quickly put the inflatable to use and rescued those 13 people in just under 2 hours. Though heroic, the officers were a bit embarrassed by the inflatable frog, “Sorry for our vessel being… too cute…But, most importantly, the people are all safe.”

A goofy toy usually associated with small children and swimming pools became something much grander for those 13 people on that fateful day.^[2]

8 Man Uses Toy Lightsaber To Fend Off Knife Attack

Attention “Star Wars” fans, apparently, Luke Skywalker is alive and living in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

According to witnesses, on the night of Thursday, March 17th, 2017, a stepdaughter and her stepfather got into a nasty scrap. The 17 year-old young woman’s weapons of choice were two kitchen knives. Ah, but her stepfather had the upper hand—he had lightsaber.

Though only a toy lightsaber—it did the job. Witnesses said that he hit his stepdaughter several times to fend off her attack.^[3]

7 Stuffed Animal Saves Girl

For those unaware, Minions are little yellow animated characters that began their movie life in the 2010 hit, “Despicable Me.” Since then, they have starred in their own movie, which grossed $1.159 billion worldwide back in 2015. Off screen, they are doing much more amazing things.

On the night of July 16th, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a 5 year-old girl was playing at home in her family’s third floor apartment. Somehow, she fell backwards out of her bedroom window. At the time, she was playing with a stuffed Minion teddy bear. Miraculously, it cushioned her fall and saved her life. She escaped her brush with death with just a broken arm.

In the movies, Minions may work for supervillains, but, in real life, at least in the eyes of one lucky little girl, they are superheroes.^[4]

6 A Doll Saves A Girl During WW2 Bombing

The Germans bombed the hell out of the UK in WW2. Though it suffered far less sustained attack than London, Wales lost 984 of its’ people—another 1,221 were seriously injured.

In September of 1940, in the Welsh town of Haverfordwest, a German bomb was dropped near a house where 2 year-old Dorothy Owen lived.

When it hit, her mother ran upstairs to find that the ceiling of her young daughter’s bedroom had fallen in. Frantically clearing debris, she found, miraculously, that her daughter was still alive. The solid head of a doll she was clutching when the ceiling came down shielded her own head from being hit.

Escaping with just a cut on her cheek and neck, Dorothy went on to live a long life and, not surprisingly, she still has the doll that made it all possible.^[5]

5 Toy Clicker Saved Allied Troops On D-Day

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. 135,000 men took part in what proved to be a decisive turning point in the war against the Nazis. Of those men, 4,400 were killed and many more thousands were injured or missing.

Along with the standard equipment carried by American paratroopers that day was a tiny item that was mostly known as a toy that kids found at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. It was known as a “cricket” because of the clicking noise it made when you pressed down on it with your thumb.

For Capt. Sam Gibbons, of the 101st Airborne, this tiny kid’s toy was a lifesaver. Parachuting into Normandy in the dark, Gibbons landed in a pasture surrounded by German troops. Half an hour of crawling later, he made his way onto a road. There, he came into contact with another soldier. Unsure if he was an American or German soldier, Gibbons clicked his cricket, “I gave him a click and he responded with two clicks. Boy, was I glad to see him.”

For the next few hours, Gibbons clicked away and managed to assemble a small combat patrol to fight the Germans while fellow allied soldiers stormed the beach.

The “cricket”—a brass and steel version of the tin prize—was added to each paratrooper’s pack at the last minute. Along with the guns and grenades they carried, this simple child’s toy kept death at bay on that famed northern coast of France all those years ago.^[6]

4 Kids Use Squirt Guns To Put Out Fire

There are few ways for a kid to cool off on a hot summer day that are more fun than a squirt gun fight. Carrying today’s giant super soakers, kids giggle their way into hysterics engaging in soaked shootouts with their friends while any parents caught in the crossfire yell for mercy.

On May 31, 2016, those parental yells must have turned into whoops of congratulation for five kids from West Fargo, North Dakota. In the midst of an all out water war, taking place on the grounds just outside their apartment complex, the boys and girls smelled smoke.

The smell of smoke lead them to the deck outside of a man’s apartment. It was on fire and the flames were spreading fast. Worse yet, the man was housebound, on oxygen and couldn’t leave his unit. The kids snapped into action as they turned from soaking each other to soaking the flames of the growing fire.

By the time the Fire Department arrived on the scene, the fire was smouldering and pretty much put out.^[7]

3 Stuffed Toys Save Adults Too

British politician, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown thought of throwing away the bag full of stuffed foxes he was given by a Chinese Internet firm. Then he thought of his family and decided to keep them. Good thing he did.

While walking outside a hotel in Beijing, Clifton-Brown fell down a concrete shaft. “Finally the crunch came 20 feet down this sheer concrete shaft with a concrete floor,” the shaken MP said.

Those stuffed toys he thought of trashing ended up cushioning his fall, “I took this huge bag of stuffed foxes and by pure luck it literally saved my life.”^[8]

2 Video Game Driving Skills Save The Day

These days, it seems like you can’t surf the net or flip channels without running into talk of whether or not video games kill. To some, that question remains an open one, while the answer to whether or not video games save lives has been answered in the affirmative by a 10 year-old boy from Golden, Colorado.

One day, Gryffin Sanders and his 4 year-old brother were passengers in a vehicle being driven by their grandmother. Suddenly, mid-sentence, she passed out. After failing to wake her up and with the car veering into oncoming traffic, Gryffin jumped into action. With the vehicle traveling at a high speed, he carefully steered off to the side of the road and into a muddy ditch. They slowed to a stop and everyone was alright.

His grandmother was eventually airlifted to a hospital where she recovered.

Interviewed afterwards, Gryffin credited the driving experience he gained by playing Mario Kart for helping him stay cool and steer to safety.^[9]

1 Little Red Wagon Saves Childrens’ Lives

A dad was out one day pulling his 15 month old son and his 2 year-old daughter on a red plastic toy wagon. All was well until a woman driving towards them momentarily took her eyes off the road and ploughed into the wagon—sending the two children under her car.

Miraculously, the siblings survived and it is all because of that little red wagon they were riding in. Amazingly, even though it was sucked under the woman’s car and dragged for 50ft, the wagon stayed solid and protected the two young children from otherwise certain death.^[10]

About The Author: Lifelong writer of scripts, songs, short stories and lists. Loves movies, music, politics and hockey. Founder and Writer of the film blog, “So Many Films, So Little Time”

The world is a dangerous place. It is especially dangerous for kids, whose little bodies and far-too-trusting brains aren’t always prepared to deal with all life has to throw (sometimes literally) at them. But it’s not just cars and guns and kidnapping that kids have to worry about; it’s often their own games. 

Many of the games kids design themselves for the playground and the home are downright ridiculous in their inherent danger. A lot of the ‘challenges’ that kids now play together online are worse. And as crazy as it is, a lot of the mass-produced, high-budget games kids buy can be the worst of all. There’s just no end to the way in which kids can get hurt. And though sometimes it’s all a part of growing up, like how falling off your bike toughens you up, sometimes it can lead to not growing up at all. 

With that in mind, here are ten of the most dangerous children’s games ever invented, sold, and/or played.

10 Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game

Alright, this first entry is a bit of myth-busting. In 2007, the Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game was pulled from shelves and the news had a field day. Since then, it’s continued to show up on deadly toys and games lists almost every time. Oh, it’s still dangerous. When tested for lead in its paint, it was found to have a staggering 3,056 parts per million (ppm), a full 76 times the recommended amount of 40 ppm. 

That cutesy party game for tweens is a stone-cold killer.

But it’s also just one of the 35% of all children’s products (you read that right) that were found to contain lead as part of that testing sweep. Backpacks featuring Diego—Dora the Explorer’s uncanny valley-looking cousin—were also recalled but were not blasted in the media. The same goes for a number of block-stacking games for toddlers, but Miley, as usual, took the bulk of the public’s lashing.

9 Aqua Dots

While we’re on recalls, we have to mention Aqua Dots/Bindeez/Aqua Beads. And while yes, they’re mainly a toy instead of a game (I see you, pedants), children did make a game out of them: it’s called See Who Can go the Longest Without Being Roofied.

The Dots were made with the wrong plasticizer, the chemical that makes them squishy. The one mistakenly used, if swallowed, promptly turns into GHB—commonly known as the date-rape drug. You might be thinking, ‘well then don’t swallow them, idiots,’ but the Dots were sold to children four and up. Try raising a 4-year-old who wouldn’t eat even one of a hundred pea-sized, candy-colored beads. 

In 2015, the manufacturer lost a lawsuit from affected parents, and now any Google search for Aqua Dots yields the result “Aqua Dots loses date-rape-drug poisoning lawsuit.” Oof.

8 Roblox

You might not have heard of Roblox, but your kids have. Statistically, it seems every kid in the world has. Roblox is one of the most downloaded apps on the planet, and some 40 million people, mostly young kids, play it daily. It’s an online game where kids interact with a simulated world, each other, and, unfortunately, a whole load of child predators.

In one case, an adult messaged an 11-year-old on Roblox and threatened to harm them and their family if they didn’t send nudes pictures. In another, an adult man on Roblox received nude photos from an 8-year-old girl in exchange for some of the in-game currency. Roblox, like any online multiplayer game primarily for kids, is a whole new type of danger.

7 Any Eating Challenge

Speaking of dangerous games kids play online: eating challenges. There are many different challenges, the most famous of them being the cinnamon challenge, the gallon challenge, and the Tide Pod Challenge, but all share some things in common. They are all recorded attempts to eat something inherently toxic, or in too great of an amount. Users would spread these games by challenging someone else or being inspired by another—and they are all thoroughly stupid. 

The Tide Pod challenge, which is just eating laundry detergent, killed at least eight people, most of them children or young adults. Though it has not led to fatalities, the cinnamon challenge has put multiple kids in the hospital with scarred and even collapsed lungs. The gallon challenge, which involves drinking an entire gallon of whatever liquid in a set time frame, has killed at least two people. 

6 Car Surfing

Car surfing is just what it sounds like: standing atop a moving car like it was a surfboard. And it’s not just a ridiculous scene from 1985’s “Teen Wolf.” For decades, kids have actually been car surfing, sometimes solo and for fun, sometimes competing (for a Darwin Award).

It’s a common enough, and deadly enough, occurrence to have spawned a comprehensive 2008 report by the CDC (for some reason). They found that, between 1990 and 2008, 41 people had been injured car surfing and 58 had died. Almost all of them were teenagers (their wolf status is unknown).

5 Blue Whale

The Blue Whale Challenge, known simply as Blue Whale, is in fact a long series of challenges. Allegedly, the game works by one game runner (found to usually be a preteen or teen) tasking the player to one challenge per day for 50 days. The challenges start innocuous enough but eventually balloon into crime, self-harm, and on the 50th day—suicide.

When reports of suicides being linked to the game first circulated, many doubted the connection. As the linkage between the deaths and the supposed game was mostly anecdotal, perhaps they were right. At first. Then the game gained a cult internet following and spawned copycats, and eventually, the myth of the Blue Whale became the morbid (if not quite as common as was thought) fact of the Blue Whale.

4 Atomic Energy Laboratory

We mentioned lead and GHB, and rounding out the toxic substances trilogy, the Atomic Energy Laboratory was probably subtitled: Hollow Bones the Fun Way! The AEL was a toy developed by famed inventor Alfred Carlton Gilbert, who set out to improve the “solid American character” of the next generation by selling toys that increased scientific knowledge in kids. Though an admirable goal, giving thousands of children uranium to play with was a misstep.

The AEL was a mini chemistry/physics laboratory set that allowed kids to play with radioactive elements (/their radioactive isotopes) such as uranium, ruthenium, polonium, and lead. Its packaging actually told kids to “play hide and seek with the gamma-ray source” by hiding radioactive metals in their rooms and seeking them out with a Geiger counter.

3 Any Game with Toy Guns

You would think that giving functioning guns to children is a bad idea. Even cap guns, pellet guns, and paintball guns shoot actual, non-Nerf ammunition that have the potential to seriously wound or even kill.

Perhaps the most infamous of all toy guns was the Austin Magic Pistol, a gun invented in the 40s that shot ping pong balls. For this gun, the ammunition wasn’t the danger; it was the firing mechanism. To launch the ping pong balls, the gun used calcium carbide pellets. Those pellets, when exposed to water—including kids’ spit and tears—would expand until they exploded, sending bits of gun everywhere. Needless to say, an exploding gun in the hands of a child never has a good outcome.

Not to mention, there have been cases with people mistaking toy guns for real guns. Young people have been injured and even killed when someone thought they were holding a real gun and retaliated with an actual real gun. Most commonly mistaken are airsoft guns (which shoot pellets).

2 Lawn Darts

This is the classic. You can’t mention deadly games without mentioning lawn darts, or as they were later rebranded: Jarts. Originally, the darts were almost identical to traditional pub game darts, except about five times the size and ten times the weight. They were used in a game played much like cornhole, except with far more injuries.

As everyone now knows, giving kids giant, sharp, metal darts to throw is a terrible idea. Before their inevitable ban, they caused thousands of injuries and even killed multiple children. They were later renamed Jarts and given round, plastic tips, but the damage was done.

1 Baseball

As surprising as it is, baseball is the single deadliest game for children. It sounds almost ridiculous, but it’s true. Though other sports, like football and basketball, cause more injuries to children, baseball kills the most.

In 2009, Stanford compiled statistics on sports-related injuries to children. They found that, just in that one year, almost 110,000 kids went to the hospital from baseball injuries, and that “Baseball also has the highest fatality rate among sports for children.” Nationwide Children’s Hospital found much the same numbers and further stated that the 110,000 injuries were sustained year after year. How? Put simply: “being hit by the baseball and being hit by the bat.”

In bygone days, before modern technology, people had to rely more on their imaginations to come up with entertaining pastimes. This often resulted in some very strange games, especially for children, during the Victorian Age and long before. Some of these games are silly, while others are a little disturbing, and versions of some are still played today.

Here are 10 of the weirdest children’s games from the Victorian era and earlier.

10 Funeral

Some children’s pastimes during this era were startlingly macabre, such as one make-believe game known as Funeral. As strange and disturbing as it may seem today, laying out a doll and performing a mock funeral, sometimes even burying the doll, was common in the 19th century and referred to by authors of the day.

One publication noted that Charles Dickens referenced such a game in his 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop. In the story, the protagonist, Nell, stumbles across a group of children in a graveyard “playing funeral” with a very realistic doll—their baby brother or sister.

Considering the high infant and child mortality rate in this era, it makes sense that end-of-life rituals would be reflected in children’s play. Not only did kids gather together pretending to mourn a loved one, but there were toys made for this purpose, including a tiny black coffin and a tiny black mourning dress.^[1]

9 Honey-Pots

There isn’t much to the 19th-century game Honey-Pots, but that doesn’t mean it was easy. One player rolls their body into a very tight ball, and another player has to lift the person and carry them as if they were a jar of honey being brought home from the market. Depending on the size of the player who’s impersonating the honey-pot and the one doing the lifting, this could be a challenging task. It was probably also uncomfortable being transported in this strange manner.^[2]

8 Apple and Candle

The Victorians liked games involving fire, like Ghostly Fire and the very popular Snap Dragon. Some of these were clearly hazardous, such as the Halloween game Apple and Candle, in which a stick was strung up horizontally with an apple attached to one end and a lit candle attached to the other. Participants would take their turn jumping up and using their teeth to try to snatch the apple from the quickly twirling stick.

However, as The Book of Days explains, “it very frequently happens that the candle comes round before they are aware, and scorches them in the face, or anoints them with grease.”^[3]

7 Knucklebones

The ancient game of Knucklebones is suspected of having originated in either ancient Egypt or Lydia and eventually made its way into Roman and Greek culture. The children’s version of the game involves simultaneously throwing five game pieces up in the air. As they fall, a player tries to catch as many as possible on the back of their hand. In another version, players try to throw one or two pieces at a time into a small hole in the ground or the opening of some small object.

The strangest thing about this pastime is that the actual knucklebones of goats and sheep were originally used as game pieces. Later, they were made of all sorts of different materials, including glass, wood, stone, and even bronze and gold. Games similar to Knucklebones are still played today, such as the children’s game, Jackstones.^[4]

6 Hot Cockles

One famous Victorian party game for children and adults, Hot Cockles, is possibly the most bizarre and violent, which may be why the memory of it has not been lost to history—except for maybe on an episode of Jackass.

A player kneels down, blindfolded, and places their head in the lap of a seated person, then waits for the other guests to take turns kicking them from behind. The objective is for the player to “guess who has just kicked them.” In another version of the game, the blindfolded player would guess the identity of the person who has just slapped them.^[5]

5 Ring Around the Rosie

Everyone’s familiar with the cute childhood game Ring Around the Rosie, which is still popular today. This activity started long before the Victorian era and involves kids holding hands as they dance around in a circle, singing the words to this old nursery rhyme. However, the lyrics may be rooted in a tragic chapter of history. There is a widespread belief that the words describe symptoms of the bubonic plague.

The first line, “Ring around the Rosie,” could easily refer to the bright red rash visible on infected people. The line “Pocket full of posies” could be included because the flower was considered a good luck charm that was thought to guard against the contraction of the virus. Posies were also “sometimes used to overpower the stench of dead bodies.”

The line “Atischoo, atischoo,” is meant to sound like sneezes, so that also fits in with the theory. But children in some places instead say “Ashes, ashes,” which could be a reference to the frequent cremations that were done during the plague. Sadly, the phrase “We all fall down” might symbolize death, as the plague, of course, had a very high fatality rate.^[6]

4 The Bellman

There are many variations on the 2,000-year-old game we know today as Blind Man’s Bluff, in which a player is blindfolded and spun around before chasing after other players who are calling out to them. One version known as The Bellman is a reverse of the standard game. All the players are blindfolded except one, who rings a bell. When the blindfolded players hear the bell, they run in the direction the sound came from, trying to catch the person who rang it.

This is one of many games played in the Victorian Era and earlier that could be somewhat dangerous. As History Collection points out: “It’s very likely that the blindfolded kids collided into one another, and possibly ended up getting a concussion.” ^[7]

3 Ball of Wool

It’s hard to imagine being so bored that it would seem like fun to try to blow a ball of wool off the opposite side of a table, but maybe that’s because we’re not in the Victorian Age. Yes, this was a game. The challenging part was trying to get the ball of wool past the person on the other side, who was supposed to block it from going over the edge. In another version, a player would use their breath to keep a feather in the air for as long as possible.

Imagine trying to entertain children with this game at your next family gathering.^[8]

2 Predictions of Future Husbands

During the Victorian era, there were a number of games that revolved around girls trying to glean information about their future husbands. These were especially popular during Halloween parties. One such game involved the pouring of melted lead through a key into a bowl of water and analyzing the shapes for hints of their future husband’s occupation.

In another game, a girl was supposed to eat an apple by candlelight while looking into a mirror and hopefully see the reflection of her intended standing behind her.

Three Luggies called for a girl to be blindfolded, so common in this era, and have three turns at placing her left hand in one of three bowls to determine what kind of husband she would get, but it only counted if her hand was in the same bowl at least twice. If she dipped her hand in a bowl of water, she was destined to wed a bachelor. A bowl of milk meant she would marry a widower, but if the bowl was empty, it meant spinsterhood, a frightening prospect in the 1800s. No wonder they played it on Halloween.

There was also a version of this game for males, but the bowl that meant the young man would marry a widow contained fowl water instead of milk.^[9]

1 Marriage Games

A marriage-themed game might sound goofy today, but since Victorians, in general, seemed to be so preoccupied with who was going to marry whom, it makes sense that there would be a party game based on the topic. These games tended to be geared toward teenagers and young adults. Marriages and Divorces almost sounds like the predecessor to speed dating and has been compared to it. However, the old-fashioned parlor game may have actually been a more effective matchmaking technique. In Marriages and Divorces, all the girls would line up on one side of the room while the boys would line up on the other side. Whoever you happened to be standing across from was your partner. Each player had to write a “character sketch,” including their flaws and their good points.

As if this game wasn’t awkward and embarrassing enough, each participant was required to read these descriptions aloud in front of the group. Depending on how well a couple hit it off, they would either ask the game’s judge to be “married” or “divorced.” However, it was up to the judge to decide if they were compatible enough. In the event that a couple asked to be divorced, despite the judge’s opinion that they were suitable, there was a penalty. The two players had to pay a forfeit.

In a different version of the game, just called Marriages, everyone would name a famous person, alive or dead, or a fictional character. The male participants, assuming the role of one of these celebrities, would propose to a female player, who would either accept or reject the proposal. However, if she declined, she was obligated to explain why. After everyone was matched up, the males had to explain why their character proposed to the female player. This game could be a way to explore romantic attitudes in mixed company but with a less personal and direct approach than Marriages and Divorces.^[10]