Vintage and Retro Ads, Promos, Fliers, Etc. It appears these were sold in the 1950s and 60s.
Photo of real ones.
Youtube video which shows a few shots of them in action, but it's not the exclusive focus of the video.
All I can see is a finger remover...
When i was a kid I had a treehouse with a plastic slidet hat accomplished basically that, but without having to lug a vehicle uphill every time I wanted to play on it.
Why did I not find out about these until now? My friends and I would have gone nuts over something like this. It couldn't have been more dangerous than some of the things we played on back then.
I'm sorry did you just say lawn darts?
they're darts... for your lawn...
There was that urban legend about some teenagers who got the idea to play lawn darts over the roof of the house and killed a woman.
I get the impression they were not very popular even in their day. Much less so than backyard jungle gyms or swing sets.
I normally try to summarize interesting info about ads, but I did not succeed in finding a good page dishing details about these, like how many were ever sold, and any accident history there might've been.
I fear for their hands.
Indeed! The little girl in the ad is one careless grab away from some mangled fingers.
That seems so fun. Obviously some potential danger, but not worse than a trampoline
Obviously some potential danger
I was looking for a "still legal in 15 states!" notice.
not worse than a trampoline
Unfortunately, that does not narrow things down very much...
Probably safer than a trampoline.
So it's like a slide but with extra steps
That would have been about $150 in today's money and $70 for the extension track!
While this does come off as "we have rollercoaster at home" I will say that does look like a lot of fun
A similar, smaller one is still sold, obviously made from plastic now:
https://www.step2.com/products/extreme-coaster
That's so much worse
And much more expensive, even after adjusting for inflation.
How does it stay on the track? Is it just wheels with grooves
The wheels have a larger and a smaller diameter part. That keeps the car from moving laterally off the track, and it probably wouldn't get up enough speed to get air. But, I wonder if some rocking effort would be enough to tip it off to one side. Kids that age are not famous for their self preservation instincts.
Here's a closeup of the wheels.
Back before the pussification
Shit take.
Ah, yes. Back in the good old days when only the strong and the lucky children survived.
Yeah cuz kids in masses were dying on these and old school wooden playgrounds…., millions on millions. Pussification of parents finding out they can sue
Who said anything about wooden playgrounds? I thought we were talking about janky steel backyard roller-coasters.
Anyway, maybe 'pussification' isn't quite the best word to describe what you're trying to talk about. People and organizations are more concerned about civil liability now than they were in the days of these roller-coasters, and maybe a discussion could be had about whether that has gone too far. Maybe we could talk about whether our society is overly litigious. Maybe we could talk about the high cost of defending yourself in a lawsuit -- even if you win -- which is a large part of this motivation to avoid lawsuits. Maybe we could talk about health insurance companies subrogating claims -- if, say, a child was injured on this toy and their health insurance paid to treat their injuries, the insurance company could then sue the toy maker to try and recoup the costs, regardless of whether the parents really thought the toy maker was at fault ... and situations like that mean a large part of the blame falls onto health insurance companies, not parents ... and then there's the issue of how expensive medical care is in the first place. Maybe we could talk about whether the toy maker should be liable, or whether it's the parent's responsibility to make sure their children don't play with unsafe toys... But none of that discussion should involve anything about female genitalia.
