Top 10 BANNED British Kids Toys

Top 10 Banned British Kids’ Toys

Welcome to WatchMojoUK, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Banned British Kids’ Toys.

For this list, we’ll be looking at some classic children’s toys that were once sold in the UK - but have since been withdrawn from the shelves.

Did you grow up playing with any of these? Share your memories in the comments!

#10: Candy Cigarettes

Marketing cigarettes to kids - even pretend ones - seems pretty dark in a world where we know the risks. Today tobacco companies are banned from advertising their products and even the packaging is designed to warn you off. But it was a while before candy cigarettes disappeared from sweet shop shelves. The edible toy cigarettes were made from sugar and sometimes chocolate wrapped in rice-paper. They were designed to look like the real thing, with glowing red tips and official looking packaging. Some versions even blew out a cloud of sugar smoke when you puffed on them. It was eventually decided that playing with fake cigarettes would encourage children to become smokers in later life and the sweets were discontinued - or rather, rebranded as “candy sticks.”

#9: Snacktime Cabbage Patch Kid

Eighties kids in the UK - just like the rest of the world - will likely remember the craze for cabbage patch kids that swept the nation and drove parents to distraction. These cuddly cloth dolls with their unique faces and adoption certificates didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but in 1996 that all changed. The “Snack Time” cabbage patch kid was designed to eat plastic snacks, which would exit through the back of the head into the doll’s backpack. Unfortunately, the dolls got hungry for more than fake celery and began snacking on their owners’ hair and fingers instead. Horror stories of cannibal kids began flooding in to Mattel and the doll was recalled a month later.

#8: Magnetix

You can still buy these magnetic construction toys in the UK, thanks to a 2007 redesign. However, any 2000s kids hanging on to an earlier set should be wary. Over four million products were hastily recalled after some frightening findings. The powerful magnets used were too easily separated from the toy. Ingestion of the magnets tragically caused the death of one child and others suffered from intestinal injuries. According to the recall notice: “If a child swallows more than one tiny powerful magnet detached from the plastic building pieces or one such magnet and a metallic object, the objects can attract to each other inside the intestines and cause perforations and/or blockage, which can be fatal, if not treated immediately.”

#7: The Christmas Mouse with Poor Pronunciation

You may have suppressed the memory of those singing toy mice that were everywhere for a while during the noughties. This particular rodent was removed from the shelves after complaints that his Christmas jingle was less than merry. Supposedly, the mouse sang “Jingle Bells” but the unfortunate diction of the man behind the voice recording, caused some confusion among consumers. Of course the mouse wasn’t really singing “paedophile, paedophile” but the company was forced to make a statement. “We've slowed the song down and it definitely says Jingle Bells.” A spokesperson reassured the papers. “But we have recalled them now just in case anybody might take offence."

#6: Quik-Clik Polly Pockets

In the nineties, Polly Pockets were teeny tiny things that came in plastic playsets. These were loads of fun, but presumably too easily swallowed by small children. By the 2000s, Polly had grown in size, but the new rebrand came with new hazards. The “Quik-Clik” Polly Pocket had plastic clothes that clicked together with magnets. As with Magnetix, this caused problems when kids began accidentally ingesting the magnetic parts. Over four million of the Quik-Clik sets were recalled. As of 2018, Polly Pockets are back, and miniature once again - but we’re guessing the magnets won’t be making a return.

#5: Sky Dancers

Plastic children’s dolls that are propelled into the sky at the pull of a string like spinning dervishes - what could go wrong here? Sky Dancers were marketed as graceful fairy creatures, whose wondrous flight would naturally be watched from a safe distance by their child owners. In reality, they were a liability. Foam wings notwithstanding, if a hard bit of plastic is launched into the air, at some point it’s going to come down again and you don’t want to be on the receiving end. The fairies were difficult to control and often a destructive force. Reports of temporary blindings, broken teeth and concussions led to the eventual recall of the dolls.

#4: Slap Bracelets

The clue to the slap bracelet problem is in the name. These stainless steel bands, popular in the late eighties and nineties, were encased in colourful material and included a bistable spring, designed to curl around your wrist when slapped on with force. Naturally, they were banned in schools when kids started using them to forcefully slap each other instead. When the outer material on the bracelets wore out there was also the risk of injury from the sharp edges left exposed. In 2018 a short slap bracelet revival came to an end, after they were declared “a laceration hazard to young children.”

#3: Yo-Balls

This unfortunately named product enjoyed a brief craze during the nineties and early noughties, before being banned in schools and afterwards by the UK government. These spiky balls full of goo were hung from a long stretchy string attached by a finger loop. A Glasgow company that sold the toys insisted that the balls were only as dangerous as an ordinary skipping rope or yo-yo. However, when wrapped around a child’s neck they were difficult to remove. One boy was found unconscious and turning blue and a girl was left with gouges in her skin after the elastic took over a minute to untangle from around her throat. After several similar cases of near strangulation, the consumer affairs minister made the decision to impose a ban.

#2: Clackers

Yo-Balls may have been a disaster, but at least they weren’t made of glass, like the earliest version of this ball and string toy, popular in the seventies. The idea was to get two spheres, hung at either end of a piece of string, to smash together, making the trademark “clacking” sound. Of course, when clacked too violently, the balls would shatter and injuries would occur, usually to someone’s face. Pretty quickly the manufacturers gathered that glass is not a practical material for children’s toys and clackers were afterwards made out of plastic. It didn’t make much difference though, as when clacked hard enough, the plastic would shatter too. However, a more kid-friendly clacker (shatter-free) made a brief comeback in the nineties.

#1: Bindeez/Aquadots

Sold in the US as Aquadots and the UK and Australia as Bindeez, these plastic beads are supposed to be a fun kids’ craft kit. You arrange them into designs then spritz them with water to fuse them together - no heat required. You’re not supposed to eat them either, but you know what kids are like. The particular danger with Bindeez was that the beads contained dangerous amounts of gamma-hydroxybutyric acid - also known as a ‘date rate’ drug. When ingested, the beads were sending children into comas and several were hospitalised - although the Bindeez distributor claimed that “there were no long-term effects.” The product was banned worldwide, although a safety-tested version was produced soon afterwards.