Babes in Toyland: Dangerous Designs

My god how sad is this site!

They have missed out some of the most dangerous toys going.

Here's my top ten

1) Pushbikes - How many children come home with holes in there knees/elbows and even broken bones after riding one of there.

2) Barby - The promotor of Anorexia

3) Slinky's sharp ends, could strangle yourself or you could fall down the stairs chaising after them not a good idea

4) Action Man (GI Joe) Promoting war and violence

5) The Telly Tubbies telling kids they should stick arials in there head and eat TV's

6) Play doe making monster shapes that could scare and scar a small child mind for life

7) Jigsaw puzzles they teack children disapointment when they almost complete them only to find 1 bit missing

8) Dolls in general which increase the chances of children wanting to get preganent at an earlier and earlier age so they can have the real thing.

9) Any sort of board game that has a winner and a looser as they promote compertition as this can undermine the loosers self confidence.

and alst but not lease

10) Soft toys they teach our children that bears are cute and you can hug a loin. while this do not harm the children but what happends when there older? they could see a bear in the woods and try to give it a cuddle? or go to pay a loin i think you'll all agree that would be dangerous.

There are hundreds of other dangerous toys Skates, Skateboards, Kites, football boots, knives, BB Guns, Water Pistols ...........

The list goes on

Well maybe we should lock all children in a padded room feed them some taistless gunk, keep them clear of anything that could hert them until there 21 to keep them from harm.

or just let them play with all these "Dangerous" toys just like we use to and lean for themselves that getting hit with a arrow can hurt and falling off rollerskates (or Healies) takes the skin off there elbows. Thats the way you learn, thats the way I learnt and I guess all of you. If it hurts don't do it again.

It's so sad to hear that what we enjoyed as a kid is now not allowed as it's unsafe.

If we looked at other things maybe they should be banned as well as they can hurt people like - Cars, Motorbikes, Planes, Staplers, Electricity, pens, politics, religion, brooms, taps, water ... again the list is endless but i think you get my point

Actually, I don't get your point. This is a place for news and discussion about engineering-related topics. Product design fits into that category. Your rant about anorexia, hurt feelings, politics and religion does not.

Well I get his (or her) point. I went to the WATCH site and looked at the toys there on the top ten list. One of the toys listed, the candy toy, "encourages eating competitions"?! Really? How is that different than any of the examples given by the other guest or do you think that anorexia is a lesser problem that obecity?

Most of these toys don't have any Engineering problems that can be seen from the information given.

Some of us think that things have gone too far to protect children. The real problem is not the toys but the parents. Anything can be dangerous if given to a child and then the child is left alone with it. We can't protect childern from all of the dangers of toys but we can supervise and spend time with them to ensure that the toy is used properly and that the child doesn't get hurt. Even the most popular toy of all time, Crayons and paper, can be dangerous. They could choke on the crayon or even cut themselves with the paper. Surely we are not going to ban these two things from childrens lives.

Every activity has risks. I agree that we should minimize the risks to children until they are an age when they can manage some of the risk themselves but we shouldn't do it by denying them experience. We should do it by enriching the experience with parental guidance and love. This is not an engineering problem, it is a social one.

There are always those people that either panic over everything or find fault in everything, these are, in my experience, usually the least equipped to voice an opinion. In Canada we have a stupid gun law costing us millions of dollars to register legal firearms so that criminals won't shoot anyone. When was the last time, do you think, that someone contemplating shootong someone stopped to consider that the gun might not be registered? Yes this is the same sort of thinking. Perhaps we should put the pompus "I'm an Engineer" attitude away and realize that "if a thousand people say a foolish thing; it is still a foolish thing.

My problem with Guest #1 is that he's an extremist. He begins with a blanket condemnation of CR4 ("My god how sad is this site") and concludes with a rant about politics and religion. In between, he lists a bunch of toys that don't even appear on the WATCH list. His examples are absurd and don't even deal with physical injury. The fact that he can't use spell check or be bothered to register with this site doesn't win him any points, either.

My problem with Guest #1 is that he's an extremist. He begins with a blanket condemnation of CR4 ("My god how sad is this site")

I think he was talking about the W.A.T.C.H site - saying how sad it is because it didn't include the toys that he/she would've included. Just the way I took it.

Too bad this guy never had a speak and spell.

Steve raises a valid point. I went thru the posted site and some of the toys listed are indeed quite dangerous. I guess corporate greed takes precedence here as well....

Ok guy's

If you can't see the design problems with the top 10 you are

1. Not an engineer
2. In need of a new profession

At least Guest #1 practices what he preaches, as he has apparently ensured his own protection from any of the many dangerous items that might improve one's spelling.

U wouldn't want to try a car with badly engineered brakes on it, just to learn... right ? Because thats not learning, that would be stupidity. And you wouldn't try them since u have developed sense to realize that a car with faulty brakes is not good for you.

We need to protect our kids, specially toddlers, from badly engineered toys because first, they dont have sense yet to make a good toy from a bad one and second, there would probably be no second chance for him when he learns that strangulation from a bad toy...is bad.

We have missed the point here. The intent of this blog I believe is to discuss the safety issues in the listed toys and perhaps recommend improvements to make them safer.

Interesting conversation we have going, as the father of a 2 year old (as of today!!) I'm very aware of what my son plays with. He has a severe disability like all of us on this site, he wants to know how everything works!!! OK, maybe not a disability, more like a calling....... He knows the general idea of tools (real tools) and when we're working in the garage will actually get tools and and "work" on stuff. Needless to say there is a lot of supervision and coaching but I'm embracing the fact that he's even interested. It's great to see. What's my point and how does it relate to this conversation? As an engineer and parent, I wouldn't buy any of that junk and the toys I do buy have been well thought out. My OPINION is that it's my responsibility to think for him (for know) and teach him how physics works. i.e. cause and effect. I would encourage everyone to do the same, who really needs a stacking set from Pottery Barn? That to me screams you're too worried about status, Fisher Price has inflatable ones for half the price. Strangulation from the dog leash, watch your damn kids! My son will walk our real dog. I have blinds in my sons room but I have taken measures to prevent him from playing with them. Sorry for the rant, I don't disagree with the watch list and making people aware, but if we don't know what's dangerous and what's not, that doesn't speak well of our society.

Well I wouldn't drive a car with dodgy breaks either but that wouldn't help when some stupid old gezza pulls out of a side road in front of you. so cars are dangerous. everything is dangerous and if everyone pushed to list there top ten dangerous things then we could get them all baned and jump back to the stone age but of cause we would have to ban stones as well cause they could have your eye out.

When people make these list it's only for there own self promotion because eveything has an element of danger.

I use to ride motorbikes and never came off due to a fault of my own only when cars were put in my way so if cars were baned I would be safe.

The point is that the danger is only perseaved it's a bit like beauty it's in the eye of the beholder.

and as for my spelling well you all have seariously harmed me by all your comments.

mental harm is as if not more damaging than physical harm

And my coment about the site was aimes at the WATCH site and not CR4

I truly apologize if my comments have seared any persons or caused any other harms. Although, my comments were made while I was recovering from (but still acutely suffering) the mentally harmful ill effects of enduring wantonly careless spelling. Thus, I presume we're even.

Sheesh! And I don't know if that is spelled correctly or not. Some people just don't understand that "Just because you have the right to say something doesn't mean it is right to say it". I am glad that the site mentioned has those toys listed. As far as them having an agenda, I don't care I simply wanted the info...