Quick POETV poll: how many people every actually played with Jarts or generic lawn-dart? Sign below.

The Mothership

I played with Jarts at least once, they belonged to a cousin or something. They were around for a surprisingly long time, considering what they were. That tip was heavy! That thing could have gone right through someone's skull. Also had the thingmaker. I don't remember any fumes, but I know I got burned once or twice.

I had Jarts. Shit, I had over half the toys on this list.

If some of my friends and I weren't getting hurt or injured by Jarts then we weren't having enough fun.

chumbucket

We had Jarts, but they were to be used only with parental supervision. Because my parents were the Flash and they could intercept darts in mid-air.

Now I'm jealous of Bort. Not only did he get dangerous toys, but he had a superhero as both parents.

Yup.

All I had as a kid was remnants of a set of Jarts, we had the rings, but I didn't realize that was part of the game, just giant fucking darts you could throw at shit in the yard. They got taken away after breaking a bunch of my grandma's lawn ornament whirley-gigs with them.

Learn with the Creepy Crawler Maker, burn with the Creepy Crawler Maker.

The ping pong ball gun is small potatoes compared to the homemade toy guns my dad and uncles used to make back in the 50s. Same basic principle except you loaded them with firecrackers and they shot marbles. At each other.

Personally I only ever played with jarts once or twice, we never owned them because they were too dangerous. Which is ironic because my parents were totally OK with me making shoddy DIY fireworks back in 5th grade as long as I didn't shot them alone.

Never once even came close to getting hurt, either.

When I was like 8 years old I would play with lawn darts with our redneck neighbors, it was great. I don't think anyone got injured, although I have a memory of drinking from a Coke can and getting a mouthful of cigarette ashes.

Wouldn't have been a big deal if it was a relative to Nyquil or something.

Do you have webbed toes?

Still have it? They're worth a fortune

It's easy to imagine that toy never broke on its own.

I swear one of those was actually a set of ben-wa balls

Some unknown entity gave a pair of these to Oscar back in college daze. I would wait until everyone at one of our dormroom parties was sufficiently ripped, then whip out the toy and announce "watch this!" and bang the fuckers together. Invariably, the most inebriated reveller would be drawn like a moth the flame. Then the real fun would begin.

"Sure, you can try it! It's easy."

Those modern spherical " buckyballs" ones would, but it seems like they conflated those with an older toy.

They also said "digested" when they clearly meant "ingested", so I don't think they were trying too hard to get things right.

I know you're stupid and/or play a stupid troll on PoETV, but uranium ore is dangerous around kids because they could swallow it. Swallowing radioactive things is much worse for your health than external contact, even for long periods.

What, you didn't have a carbide cannon when you were kids?

Oscar looked far and wide for that Gilbert set, but the only thing he came up with was the spinthariscope part. Whatever isotope they used had decayed, so not much to be seen peering into it. It was lost in the great lab fire of '80.

The cult of paranoia an fear was alive and well long before 9/11. 9/11 just gave it back some of the focus it has lost since the USSR fell, people got used to AIDS and the massive national crack epidemic never actually happened.

Toys are harmful when swallowed! Egads, what a revelation!!! Look, SolRo, maybe you don't understand the concept of "kids", but swallowing parts of toys is a legitimate problem... for babies. This is because babies are naturally inclined to stick objects in their mouths. Harmless Awesome Uranium Science Toy is clearly not intended for babies. If your kid is old enough to play with a science set and is still swallowing his toys, then the problem doesn't lie with the toy. The problem lies with the kid.

OZ - good point!

You know who didn't let their kids have fun toys...?


THE NAZIS.

Radioactive things like bananas and lima beans

Who cares about uranium? It comes from the environment, in many many kinds of rocks all around you. You can buy nice samples from a host of websites, its not illegal and its not dangerous if you don't eat it or keep it under your pillow.