Other Toys from the Mainway Toy Company soon to be banned:
Pretty Peggy Ear-Piercing Set, Mr. Skin-Grafter, General Tron's Secret Police Confession Kit, and Doggie Dentist, Johny Switchblade....
Posted on 01/04/2008 3:08:54 PM PST by jdm
Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill yesterday that prohibits the sale of a children’s toy called “Yo-Yo Waterballs” in New Jersey. The toy has been blamed for injuring hundreds of children nationwide and has already been banned in Canada, Britain, France, Switzerland and Australia. Violators of the New Jersey ban, which goes into effect in three months, face a fine of up to $10,000 for a first offense and up to $20,000 for all subsequent offenses.
Yo-Yo Waterballs, which also are sold under various other names, are squishy toy balls on a bungee-cord string with a finger loop at one end. The ball is filled with toxic liquids, it is flammable, and the string can become wrapped around a child’s neck, causing strangulation.
“Yo-Yo Waterballs are a commercialized death threat to our children,” said Assemblyman David R. Mayer (D-Gloucester), the bill’s co-sponsor. “They are inherently dangerous and deserve to be banned.”
Assemblyman Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester), a co-sponsor of the bill, said that “the Yo-Yo Waterball is easily accessible at convenience stores and toy outlets. … We obviously cannot stop a toy manufacturer from producing substandard toys, but we can stop them from turning a profit in New Jersey and causing further harm to our children.”
“Does anyone remember the Clacker? Two hard plastic balls molded on a cord with a ring handle?”
Yep. Also remember the bruises. Stupid toy. Lawn darts were fun, though.
I hate Jersey Nazis....
Back in ancient times when I was a kid(the 50’s) we had all sorts of fun things that would drive today’s bureaucrats into frothing fits of rage: toxic varnish on Lincoln Logs, lead soldiers made from actual brain-rotting lead, pistol caps with real gunpowder, beautiful glass marbles, metal darts, die-cast cars that little kids could swallow and that did a fair imitation of a rock if you threw one.
I remember one kid who brought a little vial of metallic mercury to school and we had a lot of fun trying to pick it up after he dumped it on the floor. Today, this would lead to a Hazmat team in space suits being summoned and the school being shut down for a multi-million dollar cleanup.
If current standards are any guide, it’s a wonder my playmates and I survived childhood at all.
Sometimes it seems amazing that us older folks made it out of our childhoods with all the deadly toys we had and the deadly games we played and no safety nanny deciding for us.
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I think you were lucky with bruises. I had them too. I remember stories of broken wrist bones and the plastic balls exploding. I don’t know if either are true.
Great post! Thanks for your kind reply.
My mom used to buy me those candy cigarettes back in the early ‘60s.
“I remember stories of broken wrist bones and the plastic balls exploding. I don’t know if either are true.”
I think the explosion stories were absolutely true. One of the reasons they disappeared quickly.
This is true and I was a playground witness to this happening :)
They were LOUD and fun, but yes, I think a bit dangerous. Quite a bit of shrapnel when they explode. My best friend had Jarts - we loved them, but now that I think about it, also a bit dangerous. We used to heave the up in the air as high as possible. Would have been ugly if one came down on our foolish, adolescent heads.
I can vouch for the bruises. And they didn’t really explode, they’d just starting getting big chips knocked off. We loved them as kids but probably should have used eye protection for when the fragments started flying.
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