The Dangerous Sky Dancers: The Doll That’ll Poke Your Eye Out
It seems like every year there’s a new gimmick in order to sell more dolls and usually, they aren’t dangerous, (except when they’re haunted dolls), but sometimes even the regular ones will try to poke your eye out, and worse.
Let’s go back to the 1994 holiday season when Galoob Toys Inc. released Sky Dancers.
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Might as well have knives for wings
These dolls with wings were a hit, all you had to do was place them on their base and pull a cord to make them fly like a helicopter. Later models used a simple button that revved up the dolls and set them flying in the air to the delight of a lot of children.
With their success Galoob started producing other models besides dolls, they soon had a line-up that included dolphins, flowers, ponies, and others. They even started a line for boys called Dragon Flyz.
The ‘Z’ is how you know its cool
Both Dragon Flyz and Sky Dancers spawn their own animated cartoons as well, so it was going real good for Galoob.
But underneath the foam of those wings was some tough plastic that was connected to a full-on hard plastic doll. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever had a hard plastic toy launched at you but it’s not fun.
“Tell me about it.”
The problem that eventually emerged with these toys was the lack of control when it came to flight. You had toys spinning into the air and just going wherever the wind took them. Picture how much damage an unmanned helicopter could do without a pilot, now scale that down to a plastic toy.
Over the course of six years the toys caused over 150 injuries to adults and children including eye injuries, scratched corneas, temporary blindness, broken teeth, a concussion, a broken rib, and facial lacerations requiring stitches.
At some point, the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission thought enough was enough and stepped in. In 2000 Galoob ended up recalling 8.9 million Sky Dancers and other versions.
Unsurprisingly, today, you can still find someone selling Sky Dancers or Dragon Flyz on eBay or other online sites for a lot more than they were worth so keep an eye out.
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Quick Facts
Galoob was widely known for making the original Micro Machines but they made history when they won a lawsuit versus Nintendo over the sale of the Game Genie
Galoob Toys Inc. was purchased by Hasbro in 1998 which was a big deal as this meant that all Star Wars toy manufacturers were then under the Hasbro umbrella
