When you were a kid, what toy did not live up to the commercials on television. My two major fails were Easy Bake oven

[debm55]

and Etch a Sketch. And I put it on My Wish List to Santa. Did you have a Major Fail toy?

[The Blue Flower]

1. Keds shoes

They said they'd make me run faster and jump higher. They did not.

[C_U_L8R]

6. Those were P.F. Flyers.

Regardless, we didn’t stop trying to run faster and jump higher

[debm55]

34. Thank you very much C_U_L8R. I like the ring the best.

[The Blue Flower]

54. I stand corrected

thanks

[C_U_L8R]

59. We were all going so fast, it was blur

And getting higher... well, that came later

[The Blue Flower]

68. LOL

I was never that fast and never that high.

[debm55]

33. Thank you very much, The Blue Flower. I had Keds shoes and I never ran faster or jumped higher.

[dem4decades]

2. Fly Over Chicane slot cars and track, on the commercials the cars flew thru the air

And continued racing, in real life the just crashed.

[debm55]

36. Thank you very much for sharing your Major Fail with us. dem4decades. That must have been very disappointing to you.

[buzzycrumbhunger]

3. I only remember...

My sister got Barbies—including the new one with bendable legs--and I got a damned Skipper with stiff legs. We used mum’s high heels as sportscars and poor Skipper couldn’t fit properly with her leg sticks.

I don’t remember really asking for anything specific for gifts, though. I think it was so tiresome seeing my older sister whine and get everything she asked for that I resolved just to take what I got and be happy with it. That worked out pretty well because I usually got cool art supplies instead of toys.

[debm55]

38. Thank you buzzycrumbhunger. I didn't like the bendables, The skin could not keep up with the day to day play and got

dirty. Your idea for a car made from a show is great. I was into art also and got coloring books the 64 pack of crayons and water colors.

[radical noodle]

4. Betsy Wetsy

After the first "wetsy" episode, she lost her appeal.

[debm55]

39. I had a Betsy Wetsy. Mine had the, "milk bottle " where it looked like she was drinking the milk. So no diaper change.

When I gave Betsy water it went right through her. Thank you radical noodle for sharing.

[mucifer]

5. My best friend and I LOVED easy bake oven. Our moms did not because it was messy. My let down

was a doll that talked on the phone. I don't remember what the name of the doll was. I just remember it wasn't at all like the commercial.

But, I loved the little cakes baked with a lightbulb.

[patphil]

9. Was that Chaty Cathy?

[mucifer]

69. Maybe. She was so much better on tv

Did u have one ?

[patphil]

72. No, just saw the ads.

[debm55]

45. Thank you mucifer for sharing, My Easy bake over never thoroughly cooked the muffins, cakes, or cookies. I had better

luck, cooking in the adult oven.

[surfered]

7. The Hula Hoop. I couldn't do it.

[patphil]

10. Neither could I.

[debm55]

46. Thank you surfered. It took a little practice to get it going.

[hunter]

8. My mom figured that if we were old enough for an Easy Bake Oven...

... we were old enough for the real thing.

My siblings and I all can cook, one loves to cook and has done it professionally.

I don't really like to cook. Give me a rice cooker and a big bag of rice and I'm happy. Give me an electric kettle and a jar of instant coffee and I'm ecstatic.

I'd say an Wham-O Air Blaster was the most disappointing toy, not because it didn't work, but because it broke too soon. The die-cast metal mechanism inside didn't survive all the use it got from me and my siblings.

[debm55]

47. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA. Thank you very much for posting the air gun ad. It was funny. I don't remember that one.

[Marylh]

11. Sea monkeys

Sea monkeys never hatched and magic rocks never grew

[debm55]

14. Hahahhahah. That"s a bummer.

[GreatGazoo]

12. Slinky

goes down the stairs. so what

Suckered in by that great song!

[debm55]

13. The best part of slinky was the song. I set mine up to go down the steps and it tipped over and came sideways down the

steps getting all tangled up. Tried to untangle, that was impossible so threw it away.

[Diamond_Dog]

32. Slinky was a fail for me, too.

I couldn’t get it to walk down the stairs. It was basically a just big floppy spring. No fun.

[debm55]

40. Thank you Diamond_Dog. Do you remember when they came with the Slinky dog?

[Diamond_Dog]

50. Yes, now that you mention it!

What was the purpose of that, anyway? Never had another Slinky toy after bad experience with the first one.

[Thunderbeast]

15. MOUSE TRAP game

Game itself was boring. After a few times building the Rube Goldberg contraption, I lost interest.

[debm55]

48. I could never get the Mouse Trap game to work. I loved the ad, but it was a major fail for me. Ty Thunderbeast.

[regnaD kciN]

16. Tudor Electric Football...

It seemed great until you actually tried it, and realized that the players all just wander off in random directions every play.

[debm55]

49. Thank you regnaD kciN. I agree. My brother had that game and the players scattered all over the metal field. If I

remember correctly, you had to plug it in.

[RazorbackExpat]

83. I had that, too

And yeah, the "players" always just wandered off in all directions. So we just decided that the last "player" to remain upright in-bounds scored a touchdown

[electric_blue68]

17. Etch-a-Sketch was kind of a mix for me....

The straight up and and horizontal left right was fine - but turning the knobs at the same time in certain combinations to get diagonals was hard, And circles were a no go!

Can't think of anything else off hand.🤔

[debm55]

63. Thank you electric_blue 68. It was impossible to make a circle on Etch a Sketch.

[electric_blue68]

77. 😄 indeed!

[AZJonnie]

18. Anything that was called an "action figure" in a commercial was, in fact, the exact opposite

And don't get me started on the "X-Ray Specs" and "learning to throw your voice kits"

[debm55]

62. Thank you AZJonnie,, My brother had GI JJoe. and it was made out of such hard plastic it was very difficult to move let

Alone to do any action moves. Do not tell me Santa brought you the X-Ray Specs.??? They with the swimming monkeys, and growing crystals were always in the back of comic books.

[PikaBlue]

19. Not major fails, but

Silly Putty and Slinky.

[debm55]

44. Thank you PikaBlue. I liked my Silly Putty. I would put it on the Sunday colored comics and pick up the image of the

cartoon. Slinky was a disaster. Only used once. Set it on the steps. it tipped over and arrived at the bottom steps in a tangled mess.

[surrealAmerican]

20. click-clacks

They were entertaining for about ten minutes. Then, of course, banned from school.

[catbyte]

22. I think I still have a knot on my head from those darned things.

Ah, the good old days when toys were deadly weapons.

[debm55]

43. Thank you catbyte. Same thing happened to me--hit in face. I never told anyone. I slipped them in the can.

[debm55]

65. Thank you surrealAmerican. They were dangerous.

[catbyte]

21. Barbie's Dream House

The cardboard didn't hold up.

I had an Easy Bake oven and was using it, but forgot about it when I was called to dinner. Halfway through the meal, we smelled burning plastic and we discovered that it was coming from the Easy Bake oven. My dad was so mad he unplugged it then cut the cord in half.

My career as a baker came to an abrupt end at the snip of a pair of scissors.

[debm55]

25. My Barbie's Dream house was cardboard too. It was like a studio apartment. Yes. did not last. Easy Bake Oven was a major

fail, Any thing I cooked was not cooked in the center. Your post about your Easy Bake Oven is funny.

[Emile]

23. My sister had the Easy Bake Oven, that was a joke. Lawn Darts

was my failure. It's a miracle we never got hurt.

[debm55]

24. Thank you very much Emile , the Easy bake oven and Lawn darts were two major fails for kids.

[MIButterfly]

26. I don't remember being disappointed with any toy I got.

I don't remember any fails.

Maybe I just blocked it out. That was a long time ago.

[debm55]

42. Thank you very much for sharing with us, MIButterfly.

[Abstractartist]

27. Clackers

My clackers cracked and flew apart. I was so lucky as a stupid kid…. Us young one played army in the fields behind our houses…. With real rocks as grenades..😳😆, Evil Knievel had nothing on us…. Ramps of old 2x4s and thin assed plywood, banana seat bikes, no helmets, knee pads or sometimes shoes…🤔… so yeah… watching my clackers cracked and chip away was my crappie Toy Story.

[debm55]

41. I had the banana seat bike and high handle bars to my bike. Then I painted it silver. I did it myself. Loved it. With

clackers I hit myself in the check. Never told anyone then. Never played with them again.Ty. Abstractartist.

[Abstractartist]

70. Oh yeah

Yup high handlebars… knobby tires… and these tires were tough too. I don’t remember ever changing my tires on the bike because of wear. I had a flat or two due to nails, screws, etc. Now. I have a mountain bike… and have changed the back tire 2 times in 5 years….. cheap tires now….

[debm55]

71. Thank you very much Abstractartist. It was the way to go . Riding my bike made me feel free.

[Abstractartist]

81. 🤙🏻

Yeah we did

[get the red out]

28. Snow Cone Maker

I got a snow cone maker, you put ice in, turn the handle around a while and got snow cone ice coming out. Unfortunately little bits of plastic from the machine went into the "snow" too. I didn't tell my Mom at first, I loved the thing, but got tired of the plastic bits and finally told her that it was grinding itself up. It hit the can at that point

[debm55]

30. Oh wow. I remember the snow cone maker. That was dangerous. Thank you for posting your major fail, get the red out,

[woodsprite]

76. Yes! I forgot about that one!

About a week after Christmas it was shaving off pieces of plastic into my snow cones! Had to toss it out and mom refused to get me a replacement.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

29. I wasted so much time trying to make a drawing on my Etch a Sketch!

My biggest toy disappointment though was a set of Wilkins and Wontkins puppets. They were characters (early Muppets tho' not called that) used in commercials and then offered as premiums by Wilkins coffee. My family enjoyed the commercials and parents drank the coffee, and my mom sent away for a set of the puppets. I was so excited, thought they would be like what I saw on tv. But they weren't. Instead of being made of flexible and expressive fabric, they were each just a piece of molded stiff vinyl. They were hollow so you could stick your hands in them, but you couldn't manipulate them in any other way.

Still bitter after over 65 years, LOL!

Here is the real thing.

[debm55]

31. Thank you very much for sharing with us 50 Shades of Blue. They do look like the Muppets and the ads are very funny.

What a bummer to get the plastic ones. I did the Etch a Sketch. Could only make squares and rectangles---small ones and large ones. Making circles was impossible for me.

[intheflow]

35. Shopping Sheryl

She came with her own shopping cart and grocery store, she had magnetic hands that could pick up "cans" of food. I cried bitterly when she didn't come at Christmas in 1971, so my parents got her for me for my birthday in January. I was SOOOO happy!! Played with her for about 10 minutes and then never really played with her again. The longest lasting memory from that toy was the little shopping cart. When I got a hamster a few years later, I gave it rides in that shopping cart.

https://www.angelfire.com/art/dollmemories/shoppingsheryl.html

[debm55]

37. Thank you very much for sharing your Major Fail, intheflow. I like the cart too. Did she walk on her own to the can

goods. Agree, it seem boring.

[Freddie]

51. Flintstone Building Blocks

Which were basically large styrofoam Legos with Fred and Barney on the box. Santa brought the small set (which could make 1 or 2 things) and the kid across the street got the much better large set. Santa was always a cheapskate at my house.

[debm55]

61. HAHAHAHAHhAHAHA, Thank you very much, Freddie.

[gab13by13]

52. Slinky, no question,

I did get it to go down my grandma's steps one time, out of 100 tries.

[debm55]

58. Thank you gab13by13. You did better then me. It looked so easy in the ads. Loved the song.

[Sneederbunk]

53. Fire eating kit.

[debm55]

57. Sneederbunk, thank you, But why would your ask Santa for that?

[Dorothy V]

55. The Erector Set. It was fine, but I never got to play with it. Dad, on the other hand, had a blast with it. Now I can

understand - the Depression Era kid making up for the toys he didn't have when he was little.
He would buy me toy cars and then get down in the floor and play with them with me. That was fun, but the erector set turned into a single player thing - I was probably a bit too young for it.
I didn't understand back then how terribly impoverished Dad's family was in the '30s.

[debm55]

56. Thank you sweet Dorothy V. I loved playing with cars. Never had an Erector Set. May the memories of your father be a

blessing to you.

[electric_blue68]

78. Wow. Didn't have that, but I had/loved Tinker Toys!

[UT_democrat]

60. Pac-Man on Atari 2600

My god was that trash. Saved all my paperboy money to get a $60 game that was just the worst. It didn’t look like Pac-Man. It barely played like Pac-Man. We were all taken for a ride.

[debm55]

64. Thank you , UT_democrat. I agree with you on the Pac-Man game on Atari 2600. bummer

[LudwigPastorius]

66. I begged for a boomerang one Christmas.

I got it, but could never throw it so it would circle back for me to catch it.

Reminds me of the joke, What do you call a boomerang that doesn't return?

A stick.

[debm55]

67. HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHH. That is so funny, Thank you LudwigPastorius.

[electric_blue68]

79. Bwaaahahahaaaaa!

[lostnfound]

73. I loved the Easy Bake, the Etch-a-Sketch, AND the hula hoop .. oh, and a chemistry set

We weren’t a rich family by any means but those three things must have been a Christmas present for 3 years

The chem set had actual toxic chemicals in it! Copper sulfate, potassium manganate… and you could use an alcohol burner to heat up chemicals, and create a pink fountain with phenolphthalein inside an upside down flask.

Loved that set! Caught my mom’s dining room table on a fire a few times (but nothing serious).

Now, the chem sets for kids are SOOO lame!

[debm55]

74. Oh my, Thank you for your selections, lostnfound. I thought they took chemistry sets off of the market?

[lostnfound]

82. These days there are fake chemistry sets. I am lucky to be old. Nt

[GP6971]

75. Kellogg's Cereal Frogmen...what a bust!!

[debm55]

80. Thank you very much GP6971, Was it in the box or did you have to pay for it?