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Very Bad Toys(continued)7. Sky Dancers 
THE NUTCRACKER Keep your distance from this femme fatale In December of that same year, a New York Times article predicted that if Galoob met its goals, Sky Dancer would "be all the rage, the sort of product that engenders black markets, toy-related bribes, and giddy newspaper stories invoking the word 'phenomenon.'" The writer, giddy himself over the "sprite's powerful launch," added, "For every parent who doubts Sky Dancer's safety ... there are 10 who feel the foam wings and take their softness as an assurance of safety." But six years later, the Sky Dancer was grounded. When spun aloft, the wings—which felt so soft and cushy in the aisles of Toys "R" Us—turned into steely-hard child manglers. In 2000, the CPSC announced that more than 150 children fell prey to Sky Dancer's helicopter-blade arms and erratic "Oh-Jesus-it's-chasing-me!" flying patterns. Injuries included scratched corneas and temporary blindness, mild concussions, broken ribs and teeth, and facial lacerations that required stitches. Nearly nine million Sky Dancers were eventually recalled, leaving aspiring ballerinas to earn their battle scars the old fashioned way—with an eating disorder. 
I saw these two days ago at the Family Dollar store near my home in St. Louis; I almost bought one for my niece! Posted by: eliz137 on December 14, 2006 12:50 PM My Mom bought my Daughter 2 of these for Christmas when they first came out. Posted by: Roachmill on December 14, 2006 1:31 PM i had gotten these for my daughters when they first came out. i taught them to point them upward only and upward being the key word and they did fine. lets just all but our kids in bubbles and not let them play with anything. good lord i played with alomost all these toys and my brothers and i survived.~~momonstrike~~ Posted by: momonstrike on December 16, 2006 12:14 AM You write well and don't really need to resort to negative stereotypes like "ballet-students-with-eating-disorders" to get an easy laugh. Posted by: dwjensen on December 16, 2006 1:40 PM Advertisement I had these when they first came out. I wasn't one of the retard children of the new millenium who are always getting wounded by their toys creating massive amounts of lawsuits. Sure, sometimes these things would hit your finger but they never took my eye out or "chased" me. What the hell is wrong with kids today? Posted by: ixplodestuf on December 16, 2006 5:25 PM I had this toy when I was a lil girl. I loved it! Sure if I intentionally stuck my hand in the way before the thing took off it might hurt a bit, but nothing serious Ever happened. Nothing serious happening ever even occurred to me at that age. Posted by: TheRedSock on December 17, 2006 10:37 PM I got this for my 4 year old daughter in 95. What a blast!! I think I had more fun with it than she did. neither she nor I were ever injured or hurt in any way. Jeff Posted by: jeff62 on December 19, 2006 2:25 AM I also got this for my daughter back then. I can attest to the panic that sometimes occurred when these little suckers took off, but no one was ever hurt. Posted by: mk on December 20, 2006 10:48 AM to xplodestuf, Want to know what is wrong with the kids today, the parents. If kids weren't babied so much then things would still be fine. Kick them out the door and away from video games, let them climb trees, play with "dangerous" toys, etc. And when they get hurt, patch them up and send them back out. And when they get in trouble for God's sake, spank them. Not this, "Now Timmy, you shouldn't do that. It is wrong." bs. But if you do that, the kid will grow up traumatized and need to go to a psychaitrists the rest of his life. Stupid people. Posted by: Tex on December 23, 2006 9:21 AM What? This is ridiculous. I played with a lot of these toys and never had any problems. Espescially with a SKY DANCER. They are foamy. We used to make them go at eachother and yet nothing happened. No scars, no missing teeth. Teach your children the safe way to use things. Come on, y'all. What's to say a jump rope isnt seriously dangerous? They might trip over it and break their faces. Please... Posted by: Mary Jane on July 7, 2007 6:21 PM What? This is ridiculous. I played with a lot of these toys and never had any problems. Espescially with a SKY DANCER. They are foamy. We used to make them go at eachother and yet nothing happened. No scars, no missing teeth. Teach your children the safe way to use things. Come on, y'all. What's to say a jump rope isnt seriously dangerous? They might trip over it and break their faces. Please... Posted by: Mary Jane on July 7, 2007 6:21 PM I had these when I was a kid (I am 20 now) and I loved them. I actually never got hurt.... My brother even had some boy-ish version of them. Stupid kids... Posted by: etteloc on November 28, 2007 11:51 AM My little sister had one of these. I used to get hit by it all the time and never got hurt. I'm really wondering how kids got hurt because I remember this thing having soft wings and not being that pointy. I could see toddlers being hurt, but not kids of the right age to play with it. Posted by: elpea on November 28, 2007 1:25 PM lol i still have mine [up in the attic] theve been made illegal now [uk] xD Posted by: krosavcheg on April 11, 2008 11:41 AM Post a commentYour comment will not be visible for about a minute. If you don't see your comment when the page reloads, do not post it again. Reload the page in a minute, and you'll see it. < BACK TO Features |
    
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