Gift ideas for the freeper in your family

[alfredo]

http://www.radarmagazine.com/features/2006/12/toys.php

We've coddled our kids long enough. Enough with the wimpy toys that are designed not to kill or maim.

[NoPasaran]

1. The Atomic Energy Lab

A WMD program in a box!

[alfredo]

7. I had a Gilbert Chemistry set. I loved it. I think it had

a radioactive cloud chamber. I learned that Phenolphthalein in a urinal could be a source of fun. It turned red when it comes in contact with urine.

[bahrbearian]

2. They still sell big on E-bay

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Oh my!

I'm glad I make my gifts -- and very glad I have no freeper relatives.

[krispos42]

4. Oh My God... they gave kids depleted uranium?

Did it come with a tasty candy coating?

:nuke: :wow:

[alfredo]

19. And a nougat filling. Actually they gave a sample of ore.

Those glow in the dark wrist watch hands use radium.

[krispos42]

21. That worries me a little.

I didn't know that natural ore was radioactive enough to be pick up by a kid's science kit from the 1950s. And I thought they used tritium in those watch hands? I know they tritium on gun sights.

[alfredo]

23. Radium was used before 1968. They changed after that.

You can tell if it is Radium by putting it in a drawer or box that blocks out all light. Wait a few days. Then in the dark find the watch and see if it is glowing. If it is, it is Radium.

[Warpy]

5. HAHAHAHAHA! I would have loved the Junior Atomic Energy Lab

However, after the year I asked for a train set and got a damned Betsy Wetsy doll, filled it up and left it in the middle of their bed, they got the point and I did get both the chemistry and biology sets from Gilbert, at ages nine and ten, respectively.

I failed to blow a hole in the roof like my mother had, but I did manage to make some fairly respectable fireworks when I figured out how to get the few things they left out of that set.

[LiberalEsto]

13. My brother and I tried very hard

to make explosives with our chemistry set back in the early 60s. But the only thing we managed to create was something that dyed a small piece of cloth green. To show off our "achievement", we mailed it to a friend in another town. The friend later told us the material was so acid that it practically ate through the envelope and the mailman could barely read the address in order to deliver it.

If high-fives had existed back then, my brother and I would have done a few.

If we'd mailed that experiment today, we would probably be sitting in maximum security prison as suspected terrorists.

[gulliver]

6. Those are great!

I especially liked the Johnny Reb cannon commercial.

[alfredo]

8. I remember that!

[treestar]

17. "What better way to maim your little brother and teach him a lesson on

on states' rights?"

:rofl:

[tridim]

9. Nothing beats the antique spring loaded cannon my Grandfather had

We used to love playing with it, but it was crazy dangerous. It shot spring loaded lead shells and was actually meant to do damage to the target. Of course the spring mechanism wasn't very reliable so the shells would tend to go off before loading them into the barrel, usually directly into the face.

They don't make toys like that any more!

[YOY]

10. No Doze

So they can wake the f*** up.

[Turbineguy]

11. A true story

My young Son's "friend" gave him a blow gun that shot steel needle darts. These things were advertised in kid's comic books for sale to persons over 18.

I found out he had the thing when my daughter complained that he had put a hole in her friend's bicycle tire. I told him to get rid of the damn thing and fix the tire.

Two weeks later the police came to the house. That's when I found out he had not gotten rid of the blow gun and (using the device as intended) shot another boy in the neighborhood. Naturally if the police could charge a 15 year old with attempted murder they could get themselves on TV. Another friend who was with him at the time sang like a bird and all was revealed. Luckily there were no lasting injuries and we did not get sued. Wow, are defense lawyers expensive! My son got community service and we were duly punished as well as my son had some skills at this.

The kid who gave my son the blow gun later became a policeman. Set one to catch one I guess.

I am still amazed that I own my house, my car and my belt buckle.

[alfredo]

15. I had one of those. It used the same tubing as hula hoops.

I loved it. I fashioned pistol grips out of scrap wood and tape.

[FormerDittoHead]

12. Certainly we should let the "market" dictate what's safe and what we shouldn't have...

...and we should also make it very expensive / difficult to sue a corporation, and to start a class action suit.

:sarcasm:

Sam Seder was talking about the numerous reports of e. coli breakouts, and noted that the reports coincided with reductions in federal safety regulations and inspections...

[Yukari Yakumo]

14. And I thought someone was going to suggest a white sheet for a freeper...

But the Johnny Reb Cannon is close enough.

Adjusting for inflation, the Johnny Reb Cannon would cost a kid today about $75.

Also, The Atomic Energy Lab would cost more than a new Wii at almost $380 after adjusting for inflation. But this isn't something you'd give a freeper spawn, you'd give it to some other kid on the block. Then the freeper spawn would accuse that kid of planning to make WMDs and threaten to attack his house (with the Johnny Reb Cannon, no less). He won't (yet), because he's too busy making a mess of the house of the other kid's neighbor. And the whole neighborhood wants him to stop (but he won't listen, even to his own family).

[alfredo]

16. Our cannons were the wrist rocket.

[tammywammy]

18. That was great

Thanks for the laugh. As a child of the 80s I definitely would have wanted that Cabbage Patch Eating Mahcine if I was still little.

[BlueStorm]

20. I remember when we had those damn slap bracelets

you know, ones that were made of metal that you straightened out and then "slapped" around your wrists. I just remember them being so controversial because they caused small injuries.

I wanted one.

Blue

[Swamp Rat]

22. Clackers

The old shattering type.