sidcow Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 Just now, sidcow said: I mean, they used to give children soldiers made out of lead to play with. An actual highly poisonous metal. Good job children are not known for putting things in their mouths. it's a miracle any boys made it to manhood in those days! Then again in my fishing days I was always fitting lead shot to the line with my teeth then chewing them back off again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 Cap guns. 1) We used to set the caps off by scraping our nails over them causing a lot of burns and 2) try to load as many caps into the gun as possible and still explode them. You could usually fold up 3 or in those rare magic moments 4 may go off and nearly blow the cap gun apart. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysAVFC Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 15 minutes ago, sidcow said: Cap guns. 1) We used to set the caps off by scraping our nails over them causing a lot of burns and 2) try to load as many caps into the gun as possible and still explode them. You could usually fold up 3 or in those rare magic moments 4 may go off and nearly blow the cap gun apart. Amazingly I didn't get told off for it but I threw a cap bomb, one school morning. Unravelled a roll of caps, fold the narrow strip in half, then wrap it around a 2p. I hadn't actually done it before so didn't know what to expect. A big bang, flash and a load of smoke just as a teacher was driving in to park 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 16 minutes ago, AlwaysAVFC said: Amazingly I didn't get told off for it but I threw a cap bomb, one school morning. Unravelled a roll of caps, fold the narrow strip in half, then wrap it around a 2p. I hadn't actually done it before so didn't know what to expect. A big bang, flash and a load of smoke just as a teacher was driving in to park Never heard of that one before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 Can you still get those rolls of percussion caps, or are they banned now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferguson1 Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 Not sure if dangerous but these little fella’s let off in assembly had everyone feeling ill. Proper rotten egg smell if I remember…… 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 17 minutes ago, ferguson1 said: Not sure if dangerous but these little fella’s let off in assembly had everyone feeling ill. Proper rotten egg smell if I remember…… Yeah, they were great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 Sheath knives. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 2 hours ago, sidcow said: I mean, they used to give children soldiers made out of lead to play with. An actual highly poisonous metal. Good job children are not known for putting things in their mouths. it's a miracle any boys made it to manhood in those days! With all the lead in the air, what difference does a little more in toys make? There's a theory that decades of lead poisoning was responsible, globally, for higher rates of violent crime. Crazy to think about it really 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bielesibub Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 3 hours ago, sidcow said: I mean, they used to give children soldiers made out of lead to play with. An actual highly poisonous metal. Good job children are not known for putting things in their mouths. it's a miracle any boys made it to manhood in those days! Citadel miniatures from the Games Workshop were great when they were lead. a friend also had a load of casting moulds that you'd have to melt a tonne of lead on the stove first and pour in, perfect for any 10 year old to play with - I honestly can't remember ever using the lead for what it was meant for. It was far more fun to pour the lead over anything and everything, or give insects lead baths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 28, 2023 Moderator Share Posted June 28, 2023 Case closed. Atomic Energy Lab with Uranium. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted June 28, 2023 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 5 hours ago, sidcow said: I mean, they used to give children soldiers made out of lead to play with. An actual highly poisonous metal. Good job children are not known for putting things in their mouths. it's a miracle any boys made it to manhood in those days! Got a whole set of them when I was 8 -- in Birmingham, actually. Lead poisoning would explain a lot about my life ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 As a kid we’d go down the old steam trains. You could scoop the gloopy stuff out of the rusting steam engine boilers, mould it in to a bike ramp and then wait a few days for it to dry out and harden in the sun. Then you could go back and race the new bike course you’d set up. Hours of fun, and it was good for teaching us to invest a little time one day, for the biking stunts pay off another day. Of course, it was asbestos and now I can’t be cremated because it would take too long. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted June 28, 2023 Moderator Share Posted June 28, 2023 1 hour ago, chrisp65 said: Hours of fun, and it was good for teaching us to invest a little time one day, for the bikini stunts pay off another Typical Barry behaviour 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 19 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said: Did you play with any strange and possibly hazardous toys? Perhaps you re-purposed something in a way it wasn't meant, and made it dangerous. Maybe you're a parent and you've stepped on a Lego piece and nearly killed yourself. My sisters had the infamous Easy Bake Oven. I do seem to remember some howls from minor burns. I owned Clackers/Klackers around 1977 or so. Excellent things. I don't remember anyone every hurt by them. Well, it's coming back to me. Kids would hit each other with them , but that was considered a no-turning-back aggressive move that would lead to fights. I feel like I saw those things in change jars and utility drawers for decades later. Don't know what I ever did to lose them. They seemed indestructible. The ‘news’ story was just a close up of some girls vulva for half the piece. The 70’s must have been wild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straggler Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 I had one of these..... The mercury maze. The silver blob at the top is mercury. I spent a while trying to break it so I could touch the silvery blob, but I didn't manage to get in and lost interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one_ian_taylor Posted June 28, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 6 hours ago, ferguson1 said: Not sure if dangerous but these little fella’s let off in assembly had everyone feeling ill. Proper rotten egg smell if I remember…… Used to stink bomb pubs with those. Mainly the Slug and Lettuce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted June 28, 2023 Share Posted June 28, 2023 13 hours ago, sidcow said: Not a toy but candy cigarettes are an insane thing to the modern mind. Making sweets to actively encourage children to pretend they're smoking. Yes! I remember those things. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted June 28, 2023 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 5 hours ago, chrisp65 said: As a kid we’d go down the old steam trains. You could scoop the gloopy stuff out of the rusting steam engine boilers, mould it in to a bike ramp and then wait a few days for it to dry out and harden in the sun. Then you could go back and race the new bike course you’d set up. Hours of fun, and it was good for teaching us to invest a little time one day, for the biking stunts pay off another day. Of course, it was asbestos and now I can’t be cremated because it would take too long. But the important bit is, you probably all wore bicycle helmets, right? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted June 28, 2023 Author VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2023 Around the same time as Klackers, every boy on earth that I knew used to make these. We'd make the rods in wood shop class. We all did. I think the UK was probably wise enough to prevent this fad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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