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. 

The thrill of searching through thrift shops and flea markets is that you never know what you will find. Chances are that you will find something that catches your eye for a couple of bucks and go home happy. Of course part of the allure is that you might grab a bargain. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure after all. Sometimes that trash really is treasure.

Here are ten things found at flea markets that were secretly worth a fortune.

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10 Alexander Calder Necklace

Alexander Calder was a 20th century American sculptor from a family of famous artists. His wire and metal mobile sculptures can be found in galleries and museums across the world. As well as paintings, prints, and a range of other art forms Calder also turned his hand to jewellery.

His rings, necklaces, and earrings were usually made of brass and steel. They were not commercial items and he usually made them specifically as gifts for his artistic friends. Joan Miro got a ring, Peggy Guggenheim received earrings, and Georgia O’Keefe was given a Calder broach. When a piece of Calder jewellery turns up at auction you can expect it to make big bucks.

Norma Ifill got a great bargain then when she picked up a necklace for just $15 at a Brooklyn flea market. Once the Alexander Calder estate authenticated it the necklace made $267,750 at auction.^[1]

9 Martin Johnson Heade Paintings

The art usually found at rummage sales is either bad, creepy, or a reproduction. When a man from Wisconsin found a charming little painting of some flowers for a low price he snapped it up. He had a pressing need for the picture too – he used it to cover up an annoying hole in his wall. One day while playing an art based game he recognised a painting similar to the one on his wall. Contacting a museum its value was realised and it subsequently sold for $1.25 million.

Oddly this was not the first time a Meade painting was picked up for a bargain. “Two Magnolias on Blue Plush” was bought for just $29 but later sold for $882,500. One person was lucky enough to get two Heade paintings for just $100 at an estate sale. The larger of the two, “Magnolia Blossoms on Blue Velvet,” was auctioned for $937,500.

If you live in the United States and happen to have a painting of flowers resting on fabric it might just be worth getting it valued.^[2]

8 Chinese Bowl

Lots of the stuff found in thrift shops will have ‘Made in China’ stamped somewhere on them. One Chinese item that did not turned out to be 1000 years old and worth more than you might expect.

Picked up for just $3 the white bowl is not immediately striking. It is only five inches in diameter and plain white in colour. It had a pretty pattern on the inside though that attracted the buyer enough to part with their dollar bills. The owners put the bowl on display in their living room and at any moment they might have knocked it over. Still, they would only have lost $3.

After a while however the owners became interested in the history of their bowl and took it to an auction house. After realising it was from the Song dynasty of Chinese history and one of the most valuable types of ceramic produced at the time – Ding pottery.^[3]

When sold at Sotheby’s it raised $2.225 million.

7 Declaration of Independence

There is no more uniquely American document than the Declaration of Independence. Children learn about it, politicians refer to it, and Nicolas Cage tries to steal it in movies. You might expect then that all the copies of it are located and kept in secure locations. Yet only a few of the copies originally sent out in 1776 are still known to exist.

In 1989 an old painting was bought for $4 at a flea market. The painting however was not what the buyer was after, he liked the look of the wooden frame. When he pried the painting from the frame something slipped out of the back – a Declaration of Independence. In pristine condition the document was taken to an auction house who immediately realised what it might be worth.

The copy that was found was one of just 24 known to exist that were printed for July 4th, 1776 in Philadelphia. When sold at Sotheby’s the surprise find made $2.42 million.^[4]

6 Constable Painting

John Constable is one of Britain’s most famous painters. His ‘The Hay Wain’ is often voted as the nation’s favourite paintings. When one person bought a job lot of trinkets for £30 he never expected that one of them would turn out to be a painting by Constable.

One of the paintings found in his collection was no bigger than a postcard but was in a large and gilded frame. When the original buyer gave the picture to his son Robert Darvell he decided to investigate the little masterpiece. A faint signature on the back of the painting was the only clue that it might be more than it seemed.

Turning the painting over to a British television show that investigates whether art works are real or forgeries it took a year of study to confirm the painting was by John Constable. With that attribution the painting suddenly leapt up in value – experts suggested a valuation of £250,000.^[5]

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5 Renoir Painting

Mixed boxes at junk sales generally contain stuff that could not be sold on their own. One buyer took a chance though and came out with a valuable Impressionist painting. Usually the clues to whether a painting is worth a lot can be quite subtle but in this case they were written right on the frame.

It was only after the painting was bought for $7 that the new owner spotted the name on the frame – Renoir. Of course you can’t just trust everything written on a frame so the owner looked at a note on the back referring a gallery. By checking the number on the note against a catalogue the owner found a picture that looked exactly like the one she bought.

‘Paysage Bords de Seine,’ as Renoir called the painting, dates from 1879 but had not been known to the art world since 1926. With its authenticity confirmed it is thought to be worth at least $75,000.^[6]

4 Andy Warhol Sketch

If you learn one thing from this article it is that you should always take a peek behind the frame of any paintings you pick up in a thrift shop. When Andy Fields bought 5 paintings for $5 in Las Vegas he already thought he had got a bargain. It was only when he reframed them that he discovered a sketch hidden behind one of them.

A colourful face was staring back at Fields and there was a subtle clue as to who the artist might have been – the name Andy Warhol. It is now known that the sketch is of 1930s singer Rudy Vallee and was done when Warhol was just ten years old. The bright colours already show some of the themes Warhol would adopt in his later artworks.

Though Fields does not want to sell the work yet some experts think it could be worth up to $2 million. Andy Warhol’s brother on the other hand considers the work a fake. The picture went up for sale on eBay for £1.25 million.^[7]

3 Chinese Libation Cup

For $4 you would not expect a cup to be made from anything other than the cheapest plastics. One intricately decorated cup picked up in an Australian charity shop looked like particularly stained plastic at that. But when the cup was examined by experts it was realised that it was carved from rhino hand and was a rare Chinese libation cup.

Libation cups in China were often carved from rhino horn and were given to scholars who had done especially well in examinations. The cup would have been used at communal and special events. The one picked up for a few bucks in a charity shop was decorated with magnolia flowers and dated from the 17th century.

Because of a small chip in the rim of the cup its value was reduced. It made a mere $75,640 at auction.^[8]

2 26-Carat Diamond

All that glitters at a car boot sale is not gold. Boxes piled high with jewellery are a common sight at yard sales but it is usually a safe bet that none have any gold or diamonds in them. When one person saw a ring with a large stone in the middle they assumed it was just a chunk of glass. They paid around £10 ($13) for it and enjoyed the ring as a piece of costume jewellery.

Now known as the Tenner Ring for its price the owner wore it as she went about her daily tasks. It was only after thirty years of enjoying her ring that she suspected it might be real. An auction house confirmed that the stone in the ring was actually a large and important diamond cut in the 19th century. In total the diamond weighed in at 26.27 carats.

The diamond ring fetched £656,750 (850,000 USD) when put up for sale.^[9]

1 Fabergé Egg

If you go to a flea market it is not likely that you will end up spending $14,000. One dealer in scrap gold however was there looking for objects he could melt down and sell off for their weight in gold. When he spotted a highly decorated egg with a hefty amount of gold in it he was prepared to pay a hefty price for it. He almost lost the real value of his investment however when he nearly melted down a Fabergé Egg.

Karl Fabergé was one of the most famous jewellers in 19th century Russia. Each Easter he was tasked with producing gifts for the Russian Imperial family. Often these took the form of elaborately jewelled and decorated golden eggs. After the Russian Revolution this collection of eggs was scattered across the world.

The one found at the flea market was probably made for Czar Alexander III to give to the Empress Maria Feodorovna in 1887. The last time it had been sold was in 1964 for just over $2000. When the egg was reappraised after its discovery it was valued at as much as $33 million.^[10]

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