Launched in 1971, Wonder Sauna Hot Pants were an inflatable product designed to be worn to produce a "sauna" effect, with the aim of melting fat while the wearer simply sat. Instead of cutting calories or hitting the gym - just "wear these hot pants ...
Moxion Power raised $126M to replace diesel generators - used in construction sites, live events, film sets - with clean mobile battery-powered energy storage units. However, they aggressively ramped up production and headcount, as well as committe ...
Launched in 1964, the Milton Bradley Time Bomb game involved passing around a toy "bomb" on a timer until it clicked. However, parents weren't comfortable with violent themes, the game novelty wore off fast for kids, and the timer mechanism sometime ...
Launched in 1974, the Presto Burger was a small, electric hamburger cooker marketed as a "mini-appliance" designed to cook a hamburger quickly (in about a minute) with minimal mess. However, grease spattered everywhere, the device frequently produc ...
Launched in 1974, the Presto Hot Dogger was an electric hot dog cooker that could cook several hot dogs at once by electrifying metal prongs that pierced the ends of each hot dog - essentially using electricity to heat the meat directly. However, ma ...
McDonuts were launched in the late 1980s and discontinued in the early 1990s. McDonald's was known for burgers, fries, and breakfast sandwiches, not bakery goods. Customers didn't associate the brand with fresh donuts like they did with Dunkin' or ...
In 1999 Mattel launched the Rad Repeatin' Tarzan action figure to tie in with Disney's animated film Tarzan. The 12-inch electronic figure could move its arm and repeat phrases when you pressed a button. It came with Tarzan's signature jungle yell ...
In 2007, Bindeez were beads that stick together with water to make art. It contained a cheap chemical that was a pharmacologically active sedative instead of the safer chemical specified by the designers. Several kids went into comas after swallow ...
In 2007, the CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit was a toy kit for kids to dust for fingerprints. However, the dust contained a substance in the powder, specifically tremolite, one of the most fatal forms of asbestos.
The Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb Ring, a promotional item from Kix cereal in 1947, promised kids they could see atomic energy at work. While advertised as "perfectly safe," it contained actual radioactive material and emitted alpha particles close to ki ...
