I miss insanely dangerous Christmas toys.

[monadnocky]

Yes, this is one of those "when I was a kid" threads. But that wasn't too long ago - mostly the late 70's into the 80's.

I miss Jarts. I miss how insanely, completely, over-the-top dangerous they were but nobody really realized it at the time. I mean my friend Ryan and I did put one through his sister's foot once, but hey, she shouldn't have been in that spot in the first place.

I miss my old chemistry set. I distinctly remember the instructions had me making gunpowder. I loved the smell of sulphur. I wonder how lame chemistry sets are now. I didn't learn anything about chemistry, really, but I learned a lot about what happens in the experiment I called "let's mix all of this crap together and/or try to light it on fire and see what happens."

I remember buying caps, meticulously ripping each one open, collecting the gunpowder or whatever it was, and then seeing what happens when you whack it with a hammer. What happens is that it explodes quite impressively and you get some of it in your eye but you don't tell your parents for fear of being murdered by them. I don't know if you can buy caps anymore, but if not, the world is a sadder place without them.

I had a Stretch Armstrong once. What happens when you stretch Stretch too far? Some purple liquid comes dribbling out and actually burns the crap out of any skin it comes in contact with. I have no idea what this stuff was, but knowing what I know now, I'd guess some type of highly radioactive very low pH acid.

Now toys are kind of plastic and generic and very safe I am sure. That's a shame.

[MarkC]

Johnny Switchblade Adventure Punk

[boxerboxer]

Relevant:

jarts.jpg

[steve garro]

Well, there's always fire.

- Garro.

[boxerboxer]

I think it's mostly marketing, right? You can still find plenty of dangerous shit to give someone for Christmas, just not in the toy section at Sears.

[steve garro]

You can still find plenty of dangerous shit to give someone for Christmas

5lb bags of candy left & right!

- Garro.

[djg21]

Johnny Switchblade Adventure Punk

What was a summer picnic without Jarts?

[ZenNMotion]

Yes, this is one of those "when I was a kid" threads. But that wasn't too long ago - mostly the late 70's into the 80's.

I miss Jarts. I miss how insanely, completely, over-the-top dangerous they were but nobody really realized it at the time. I mean my friend Ryan and I did put one through his sister's foot once, but hey, she shouldn't have been in that spot in the first place.

I miss my old chemistry set. I distinctly remember the instructions had me making gunpowder. I loved the smell of sulphur. I wonder how lame chemistry sets are now. I didn't learn anything about chemistry, really, but I learned a lot about what happens in the experiment I called "let's mix all of this crap together and/or try to light it on fire and see what happens."

I remember buying caps, meticulously ripping each one open, collecting the gunpowder or whatever it was, and then seeing what happens when you whack it with a hammer. What happens is that it explodes quite impressively and you get some of it in your eye but you don't tell your parents for fear of being murdered by them. I don't know if you can buy caps anymore, but if not, the world is a sadder place without them.

I had a Stretch Armstrong once. What happens when you stretch Stretch too far? Some purple liquid comes dribbling out and actually burns the crap out of any skin it comes in contact with. I have no idea what this stuff was, but knowing what I know now, I'd guess some type of highly radioactive very low pH acid.

Now toys are kind of plastic and generic and very safe I am sure. That's a shame.

I learned how to make gunpowder- and fireworks (!) from a book that I had checked out for nearly a year from my Junior High school library. As I recall, given the number of date stamps, that it was a very popular book. After about my third visit to my small town local pharmacy buying sulphur powder and potassium nitrate, the pharmacist finally came out to the counter to ask why a skinny 12 year old would need so much saltpeter. I will be ready for the revolution...

[rwsaunders]

Drones are the new Jarts.

[Bob Ross]

I miss Jarts. I miss how insanely, completely, over-the-top dangerous they were but nobody really realized it at the time. I mean my friend Ryan and I did put one through his sister's foot once, but hey, she shouldn't have been in that spot in the first place.

To this day I still fondly remember the afternoon in 11th or 12th grade when my buddy Rick & I cut school, went to his house, got stoned, listened to music...and then discovered his old Jarts set in the basement. Immediate inspired glee/mayhem. Nobody got hurt...but only because of some miracle, presumably.

I miss my old chemistry set. I distinctly remember the instructions had me making gunpowder.

After my gradfather noticed how much I enjoyed my chemistry set as a kid, he gave me his old Chemistry For Boys textbook from 1923. It had a recipe for thermite!

It had a recipe for thermite!!!!

Things were never quite the same around the Ross household after that...

Drones are the new Jarts.

^^^This. My friend's Christmas Day Facebook status was something about "Taking the wife to emergency room due to holiday drone accident" ...he'd been flying his new mini-copter around the living room and wound up t-boning her forehead.