History Horrible / Toys

* '''Flubber''', a Silly Putty-like mixture of synthetic rubber and mineral oil released by Hasbro[[note]]at the time called Hassenfield Bros.[[/note]] in September 1962 to promote the upcoming film ''[[Film/TheAbsentMindedProfessor Son of Flubber]]''. A poor mixing of the combination was extremely toxic, though, as was the first batch released to the public, and many who played with it came down with serious fevers and rashes. Hasbro kept claiming innocence, and the FDA told people to stop worrying, but the case numbers kept increasing until Hasbro, still under public pressure, recalled the Flubber on May 1, 1963, and prepared to dispose of it, but that was [[RasputinianDeath an uphill battle]]. First, they tried the local landfill, but they told the company to shove off. Then they tried burying the stuff at sea, but it floated to the top. Then, when they tried burning the goop, it ''wouldn't ignite'' (plenty of noxious black smoke, though). Eventually, Hasbro buried what remained near their Rhode Island factory, and paved a parking lot over it. An [[UrbanLegends urban legend]] claims that if you look closely at the cracks in that parking lot on hot days, [[NightmareFuel you can still see the Flubber oozing up through them.]]
* The '''Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory''' was a standard toy lab set sold in the early '50s, except for one catch: it contained actual samples of uranium (the metallic and '''radioactive''' element from our periodic table). It didn't last very long on the market. It wasn't actually recalled, though - it was so expensive to make (considering the price of a fissile material that you could make a homemade bomb with if you bought enough of them) that the toy company considered it a liability and stopped making it, according to ''Series/{{QI}}''. It remains a cautionary tale to just how ignorant people were about how dangerous radiation actually is during the atomic craze of TheFifties. WebVideo/PhantomStrider unsurprisingly considers it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnLkte0EIGs the most dangerous toy to ever come out in history,]] with the '''Gilbert Glass Blowing''' set released back in 1909 as a close second.

* While Marvel Legends has had some truly great waves and figures, their build-a-figure wave for ''Spider-Man 3'' was notoriously bad. 3 of the figures (Spider-Man, Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus) were just the figures from the previous movies with worse paint and missing articulation (such as Doc Ock missing the bendy wires in the bottom two tentacles), the Mary Jane figure had the wrong costume (the figure is based off Spider-Man 3 yet the dress she is wearing is from Spider-Man 2), Symbiote Spider-Man was very small, had a terrible sculpt (his head is permanently stuck looking downwards) and had poor articulation for a Spider-Man figure, all of the figures (except Green Goblin, New Goblin, Mary Jane and Symbiote Spider-Man) lacked accessories, the regular Sandman figure was way too small to fit into people's collections, Doc Ock, Mary Jane and Sandman had off-model face sculpts, Venom had an inaccurate sculpt to the movie, several of the figures had oversized limbs, all of the figures had very poor paint jobs and they were very overpriced (they cost 12 bucks each when the previous movie figures were only 6-7 bucks). The Build-A-Figure, which was Sandman, was also notorious for being the worst build-a-figure of all time, as it is a very undersized statue, with barely any articulation, and a poor sculpt and paint, not to mention the wave was pretty much useless to buy because a year later Hasbro released the "Trilogy Series", which were just the figures in the wave but without the build-a-figure pieces, all the articulation intact, better paint jobs, more accurate sculpts, more accessories and they were the same price as the previous movie figures at 7 bucks each.

* The Berserk Guts and Griffith figures made by S.H.Figuarts. Not only were both figures very expensive (Guts being $130 while Griffith being $200), both figures suffered from several major issues. Guts having very poor articulation, he falls apart very easily, the cape piece being frustrating to move, the wrist pegs are too small to hold the sword, some joints can snap easily and the figure looks like a puppet. Griffith on the other hand not only suffered from multiple problems the Guts figure had, the horse the figure came with was just a statue and not an articulated figure, when other companies have released articulated horse figures for much cheaper in the past. Both figures have been massively critisized for good reasons. Fortunately for Berserk fans Bandai has improved themselves with the recently released Armored Guts figure.

* While Hasbro's toyline for ''Film/SpiderMan3'' was in the wrong scale (5-inches when most Marvel toys at the time were in the 6-inch scale), it has its fans and defenders, and the toys were very well-made with love and care, had tons of detailing and articulation, they sold rather well and were cheaply priced (at 6 bucks each), however the toyline for '''''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer''''' was very clearly rushed to cash in on the movie. Not only did the line suffer from the wrong scale the ''Spider-Man 3'' toyline had, all of the figures were massively overpriced (Each figure was 10 bucks each), were made of a really cheap plastic, all of the figures suffered from poor, off-model sculpts, they fell apart right as you took them out of the box, poor accessories, had barely-functioning action features, had loose and spindly limbs, bad paint jobs and non-existent articulation. Fans were not happy with the figures back when they came out and even now, as for much cheaper you could get the previous ''Fantastic Four'' movie figures and the Marvel Legends Silver Surfer (which were in the correct 6-inch scale), and the toys flopped hard and lingered on store shelves for over a year after the movie released at full price, and even on clearance they didn't sell. Hasbro did redeem themselves by releasing a Fantastic Four Marvel Legends wave a month after the movie came out, using the correct scaling for their later movie toylines such as ''Film/IronMan'' and ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk2008'' (6-inch and 3.75 inch). But for ''Film/Fant4stic'', Hasbro did not release any toys for that movie, possibly due to the backlash from the ''Rise of the Silver Surfer'' toys.

* While Hasbro's toyline for ''Spider-Man 3'' was in the wrong scale (5-inches when most Marvel toys at the time were in the 6-inch scale), it has it's fans and defenders, and the toys were very well-made with love and care, had tons of detailing and articulation, they sold rather well and were cheaply priced (at 6 bucks each), however the toyline for '''Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer''' was very clearly rushed to cash in on the movie. Not only did the line suffer from the wrong scale the ''Spider-Man 3'' toyline had, all of the figures were massively overpriced (Each figure was 10 bucks each), were made of a really cheap plastic, all of the figures suffered from poor, off-model sculpts, they fell apart right as you took them out of the box, poor accessories, had barely-functioning action features, had loose and spindly limbs, bad paint jobs and non-existent articulation. Fans were not happy with the figures back when they came out and even now, as for much cheaper you could get the previous ''Fantastic Four'' movie figures and the Marvel Legends Silver Surfer (which were in the correct 6-inch scale), and the toys flopped hard and lingered on store shelves for over a year after the movie released at full price, and even on clearance they didn't sell. Hasbro did redeem themselves by releasing a Fantastic Four Marvel Legends wave a month after the movie came out, using the correct scaling for their later movie toylines such as ''Iron Man'' and ''The Incredible Hulk'' (6-inch and 3.75 inch) and for ''Fan4stic'', Hasbro did not release any toys for that movie, possibly due to the backlash from the ''Rise of the Silver Surfer toys''.

* While Hasbro's toyline for ''Spider-Man 3'' was in the wrong scale (5-inches when most Marvel toys at the time were in the 6-inch scale), it has it's fans and defenders, and the toys were very well-made with love and care, had tons of detailing and articulation, they sold rather well and were cheaply priced (at 6 bucks each), however the toyline for ''Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer'' was very clearly rushed to cash in on the movie. Not only did the line suffer from the wrong scale the ''Spider-Man 3'' toyline had, all of the figures were massively overpriced (Each figure was 10 bucks each), were made of a really cheap plastic, all of the figures suffered from poor, off-model sculpts, they fell apart right as you took them out of the box, poor accessories, had barely-functioning action features, had loose and spindly limbs, bad paint jobs and non-existent articulation. Fans were not happy with the figures back when they came out and even now, as for much cheaper you could get the previous ''Fantastic Four'' movie figures and the Marvel Legends Silver Surfer (which were in the correct 6-inch scale), and the toys flopped hard and lingered on store shelves for over a year after the movie released at full price, and even on clearance they didn't sell. Hasbro did redeem themselves by releasing a Fantastic Four Marvel Legends wave a month after the movie came out, using the correct scaling for their later movie toylines such as ''Iron Man'' and ''The Incredible Hulk'' (6-inch and 3.75 inch) and for ''Fan4stic'', Hasbro did not release any toys for that movie, possibly due to the backlash from the ''Rise of the Silver Surfer toys''.