this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2026
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You’re probably aware but for those who aren’t this is a pun/riff on the Easy Bake Oven, which has been selling since the 1960s (it uses the heat of an incandescent light bulb to cook stuff). It’s one of the most successful toys of all time.
As far as unhinged, I think the winner had to be the Atomic Energy Lab Kit with Uranium, which did in fact come with a chunk of (low-level) radioactive Uranium. It sold for $49.95 in 1950, which is equivalent to almost $700 today.
The kid actors/models always kill me 😂
Was the unit of uranium inert or could it cause health effects even at that level?
It was a commercial flop (probably because it cost $700 in today's money and could do 4 only somewhat-interesting things), so even though it looks crazy today, safety wasn't the reason it was pulled off the market. That said, the U-238 samples came in tiny glass vials that you were instructed not to break. But if you did break them and then ate one of the chunks of Uranium it could do some pretty serious damage inside of you if it wasn't expelled quickly. But that point you'd also have broken glass and a rock-swallowing habit and probably other problems that would kill you before any kind of radiation-induced cancer would.
How could you even operate on the uranium if the instructions didnt allow you remove it?
You weren’t “operating” on the Uranium in as much as observing its radioactive decay. The radiation (alpha particles, which are basically Helium nuclei) go through glass. So I think you’d put the vial in front of the Geiger counter and it would click. Or you’d put it into the little cloud chamber and you could see the trails of the alpha particles as they shot out.
All of that is hilariously and sounds objectively insane for a childs toy, I cant even 😂
IIRC it was not inert and over time with enough exposure, was radioactive enough to potentially cause health detriments.
I assume when you say "low-level" its < 1 microcurie. Thats asking for radiation poisoning otherwise (unless you are taking extreme precautions)
I ask this because uranium sources i use in lab are around the 1 microcurie to 10 microcurie range that i know you can get without a license.
Fid you patronize any other Gilbert Hall of Science(!) project-products?
I’m several decades too young to have, thankyouverymuch. But there’s lots of info on them online. They kind of captured that early space age cultural zeitgeist of the time.
As they deserved to.
Now i just want to find out which executive was responsible for this 🤣 i cant even bring myself to condemn them, this is such a crazy and random thing,
kids probably enjoyed it with a cigarette and a nice port