Easy Bake Ovens Recalled!

[The Backlash Cometh]

Because children can get their hands burned? I'm confused. Isn't heat a requirement of an oven toy? At this rate, the only game that will be considered safe for kids is Nerf Dodgeball.

I just heard it on the news, btw. Don't have a link.

[walldude]

1. Those easy bakes cook with a lightbulb

are they going to recall lamps, and lightbulbs as well?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Maybe the energy efficient bulbs don't emit enough heat?

And the old ones are energy hogs? Every little step...

[mcscajun]

6. These don't use a light bulb like the older ones, and they bake at 350

just like a real oven. Kids were getting their hands caught in the door and getting burned by the heating element. Older models are not being recalled; just the newest ones.

[Clark2008]

8. Well, what's the fun in that?

Might as well bake a real cake with Mom (or Dad).

The whole point was to have your own little, safe, kitchen in your bedroom. I wouldn't put a 350-degree oven in either of my kids' rooms - wood floors, wood shutters, draperies and clothes strewn about! That's a fire waiting to happen!

Not blaming you mcscajun - just responding to your post. I didn't know they were little fire traps now. I guess I would have learned in a couple of years. I've got a little girl on the way.

[walldude]

9. Oh crap.. showing my age I guess..

When I was a kid all they had in those things was a lightbulb.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Wow. Do you have a link?

[mcscajun]

26. Here's two

http://www.hasbro.com/easybake/default.cfm?page=History/Timeline

http://cbs2chicago.com/consumer/consumer_story_037203144.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Thanks!

The second one was very informative. 30 burned children, under the recommended age, out of one million ovens sold.

[Redbear]

46. Genius at work

CEO: Okay we have one of the bestselling toys on the market. What can we do to improve it?

VP1: Some new, fun decals?

CEO: No. We have to think big.

VP2: Um, we could make the oven door catch so little kids cant get their hands out while the oven is heating up.

CEO: Thats it, yes!

[Paulie]

2. Ever read "The Humanoids" by Jack Williamson

The Humanoid robots said the only thing ANY human can play with is small soft plastic blocks. And if you don't like it, they will either drug you with Euphoride or perform brain surgery to fix your unhappiness.

All in the name of the prime directive, "To serve and obey, and guard men from harm." (book was written in 40's....)

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I can't imagine a generation without access to Easy Bake Ovens.

I didn't have one, and look at me, I'm a lousy cook. We're going to raise a generation of drive-thru customers.

[LeftyMom]

16. I had a real oven and parents who could cook

I was helping as a toddler, and by 8 or so I could prepare a simple dinner from scratch without supervision.

Hardly anybody my age can really cook. It's a damn shame, really.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. My mom worked and raised five kids.

She could only hold it together if we weren't any where near the kitchen. Pretty amazing woman. She wasn't even a feminist.

[LeftyMom]

21. My father was a single parent.

Worked nights, sometimes two jobs, eventually only one but for 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week. We had to learn to cook because sometimes that was the only way we were going to eat and it was important for us to learn.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. Couldn't have been easy. Looks like you got through it alright.

Living on a military base, some kids had to grow up faster than others. My sister's best friend would take the school bus to the commissary once a week to get the groceries for the family. The father arrived to the base already divorced so I never got to meet her mom. The girl was the oldest of four and essentially took up the mom duties. Her early experience as the one in charge must have grated on the others, because now, forty years later, she is now estranged from two out of three siblings.

Another friend who had four brothers took turns cleaning the kitchen after dinner and they had to polish the sink, faucet and pots and pans until it sparkled every night just to make sure the dad was satisfied; I think he was in the Navy.

Another belonged to what I thought was the perfect family. Dad was involved with boy scouts, mom with the brownies and girl scouts. They made Kool-Aid for the kids who visited. Then suddenly they snapped. I think they were the first family that I actually knew, which divorced. The dad became an alcoholic and had violent fits. The mom was like Joan Crawford, the public knew her one way, the kids another.

For the most part, my mom preferred us out of her way. She just didn't know how to relax and didn't have the patience to teach us basic things. I didn't get to know her, as you probably didn't get to know your dad as much as you'd like. Probably one of the main reasons why I don't mind so much being a stay at home mom for my kids, even though it wasn't a choice I would have made for myself.

[CrispyQ]

4. I didn't have an Easy Bake Oven. I had Aunt Helen.

She was a very loving, nurturing woman. I was just a kid, but we baked & cooked & she was a great cook & being around her, I fell in love with cooking. One year, a cousin got an Easy Bake Oven & I smiled politely, like I was taught to do, but I looked at Helen & we smiled.

I think the Easy Bake Oven used a light bulb -- I don't know what watt.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. I didn't have one either.

I asked my mother for one; but she expressed concern that it would be easier to be burned using the toy than it would using the real oven. So she taught me to bake.

[donco6]

34. Ha! How sensible.

And amusing to read. Way to go, mom!

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. My daughter didn't have an Aunt Helen

Poor thing was stuck with me for her culinary experiences. She got an Easy Bake Oven very early in life. One day, when she was in the fourth grade, I was about to crash for a nap and she asked if it was okay if she baked a cake? I said no problem. She never had a problem with the Easy Bake Oven before. I woke up a couple of hours later to the smell of chocolate cake. She had actually pulled a mix box out of the pantry and followed the directions, cooking it in the real oven. The only previous experience she had, was the Easy Bake Oven.

But I know what you mean about Aunt Helen. My best friend's mother was an Aunt Helen. She did everything magical with her hands. Crocheting, knitting, needlepoint and cooking. Poor thing was the wife of a Naval Officer who wasn't around much and she didn't fare very well through the Middle Age crisis thing. I remember I would be allowed in the living room to wait for my friend so we could walk to school and my eyes would just dart through the room looking for Mrs. S.'s latest creations. And then I was promptly asked not to return anymore. You talk about polite? Polite is pretending you don't hear something derrogatory directed at you, when you're in the room when it's said. I discovered later that Mrs. S. was having a nervous breakdown and she mistakenly thought I was mocking her lifestyle because I stared too much. So sad. My friend and I parted friends soon after.

[CrispyQ]

15. I was blessed with many wonderful aunts.

O8)

Sounds like you & your daughter had a wonderful chocolate treat!

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. My love for chocolate is so great...

...that I overlooked the minor fact that I couldn't remember the last time I bought cooking oil.

:shrug:

[KittyWampus]

14. Your post is wonderful prose. It's almost a beautiful short story. Save it!

print it out and save it for your kids someday.

[Irishonly]

11. I Never Had One

I made sure my daughter did and she never wanted to use it. Hers also had a light bulb. She is now 17 and I asked her why. She told me that she was always in the kitchen with me and an Easy Bake Oven seemed rather silly since she had been helping me bake and cook since she was a toddler.

[boobooday]

13. I had an Easy Bake

The cakes that came out of that thing (made with a mix) tasted like the over-preserved Hostess products of today. I can still remember that rubbery chocolatyness.

MMMMM

[salin]

24. guess that 50s tv show title is appropriate here... "Father (and Mother) knows best"

I *wanted* an Easy Bake oven - but never got one. Very practical and frugal folks - thought - why get a little oven - if you want to cook/bake - with supervision you can - and we already have an oven! (This is when I would guess the Easy Bake was not very expensive - but it was the point.) I remember cooking a few easy bake cakes at other friends - and it was cool - prolly cause i didn't have my own. But while my mother wasn't (isn't) much of a cook or chef - it was always fun to get to bake - rather than a kid thing, it was a mother daughter thing. Hence the call back to the old tv show - when i was young I sometimes thought my folks were so practical (I can't even count how many times I heard... "if x was going to jump off a cliff, would you feel you had to jump off a cliff also?) - and now I relish those memories. I gained so much from their pragmatism. An aside - back when it was first popular to wear t-shirts that had a brand on them (Adidas and Pumas - the trend - as it hit the midwest - seemed to be for tennis shoes) - my Dad's response was - If you are going to advertise for a company, you ought to get paid for it rather than paying for it. (He was an economist - and now, I laugh when I see the ridiculous amount of $$ folks pay to advertise corporate brand names, and give a nod to his words and memory.)

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. Pragmatism is a good thing.

For the most part, I'm pragmatic enough to resist the "Keeping Up With The Jones's Syndrome." Though I admit to having moments in my life when I resorted to conspicuous consumption, the most conspicuous was in the Disco era, so the memory of my purchases is punishment enough.

[salin]

31. bwahahaha

just thinking back to what one might be consuming conspicuously in the disco era... made me crack up. :-D :hi:

[boobooday]

30. That's funny

I think I got the Easy Bake because it seemed . . . relevant to my future. haha And yet I pined for the Barbie Winnebago, but never got it.

I have always felt like your dad about the giant logos. I ask my students that same question all the time! They are like walking billboards.

[salin]

33. I did get a malibu barbie

but none of the fun toys - my sister (seven years older) had a few things - and those were 'good enough for me' (not my decision, of course, but the determiniation.) So my best friend got the Barbie Jeep, the modern Ken and some other cool things - and we played with them... a couple of times. Again the folks were right. I was a pill and thought they were umreasonable - but they were right.

I am *so* lucky - when I decided to try to graduate from highschool in three years instead of four - and had to decide which classes NOT to take so that I got the full four-year classes that colleges expected - it was my mother who suggested I NOT take the typing class - while it could be helpful in college (and I later got a book to teach myself from) - it could also make you the one in an office (because you could type) who always got stuck with secretarial work, said she. So I skipped typing. Okay that one cost me some in college (I used to type with about four fingers, and very slowly - and on really big papers I paid people to type them.) - and I picked up the skill later - but the sentiment was correct. :-) (that was triggered from your statement per 'relevant to my future').

[boobooday]

36. The fun for me was always in the improvisation, anyway

Turning household objects into the Barbie world. My barbie had homemade clothes from my mom, and her furniture was made out of fabric scraps and toilet paper rolls and stuff.

She was an early proponent of recycling . . .

[salin]

37. very cool

and big lessons (per the homemade clothes and furniture per you Mom). Very creative. Very cool.

[CrispyQ]

42. My mom made clothes for my Barbie, too,

& I still have them! I view them with wonder. How the hell did she get those tiny, tiny sleeves set in so well? I could probably sell them for a small fortune on Ebay as they are nothing like the cheapo looking Barbie outfits you buy in the stores today!

[boobooday]

49. Sometimes my Barbies wore socks for dresses

with holes poked through. I thought they looked okay at the time. :-)

You are smart to save all that stuff. I had Barbies from the 50's that my older cousins passed on to me that would be worth a fortune if I still had them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

54. Barbies are a sensitive topic.

I got a new barbie for Christmas and my older sister decided she was going to talk me into giving it up. So, using the concept behind the Velveteen Rabbit, she said that her old barbie, with the cut up hair and crazy troll hairdo was more alive than the new one I got out of the box.

Yep, you guessed it. I gave up my brand new Barbie.

And so, if you ever wonder why I don't trust anybody, and I mean nobody, think about years and years of a childhood of being outsmarted by someone three years older than me. Of course, it all stopped at age 13 when I finally had enough and threw a Campbell's soup can at her.

[boobooday]

61. Aaaah, the ruthlessness of older siblings!

I had one of those too. Three years older. His GI Joe was always busting up my Barbie parties!

He also tricked me into saying the "F" word in front of the parents, thinking I HAD INVENTED IT.

Got my mouth washed out with soap.

We don't forget, not even 40 years later!

:rofl:

[The Backlash Cometh]

62. LOL!

I have some clever stories too. But I shall wait for a time when I'm destitute and need of money to write them. I'll begin next week.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

18. They Should Probably Recall The Parents, But What Can Ya Do.

[Cobalt Violet]

20. True, the ovens are for children over 8.

All the burnt kids were at least 3 years younger than that.

[AspenRose]

29. I was five when I had mine.

:hide:

No burns, though.


Great, now I want cake....

[Cobalt Violet]

32. It may have been different for earlier models.

I'm no easy bake oven expert. I don't know. I just heard on the news today what the company claims. 8 years old with supervision is the recommended age.

I was using a grown-up oven at 8 (with supervision).

[piedmont]

22. No Dodgeball-- you might get your feelings hurt. nt

[madeline_con]

25. Some idiot will put an eye out with a nerf ball...

somehow...

Then it will all be over. :eyes:

[ScreamingMeemie]

35. I had an Easy Bake Oven and I played with it...

Once. It was fun. We all had a little piece of cake on Christmas night. The next day I went to get it out, my mother looked at it and said,"Not this shit again." and put it away. And that was that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

40. LOL!

And on that day, MsGrumpy was born...

[Gloria]

38. I had one but I really spent time with "The Invisible Man" skeleton in

the clear body. I mean, I constantly took it apart and put it together and painted certain bones and organs, etc. etc. Boy, did I love that...

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. They were cool.

Do you think it's out of line to buy one for a seventeen year old who wants to go to medical school?

[Gloria]

60. NO! !!! Heck, I was about 10 years old when I had mine!!!!!!

I vividly remember the internal organs....LOVED the liver.......

[The Straight Story]

39. Well, there go my dinner plans for valentines day! (nt)

[KharmaTrain]

43. Phew...At Least My Thingmaker Is Safe...

I haven't had a good Creepy Crawler in years...

[The Backlash Cometh]

44. That's the one toy I really wanted, but never got.

Does that one heat up like the new Easy Bake Oven that's being recalled?

[KharmaTrain]

51. Some Of Those Used 60 Watt Bulbs...

I remember those suckers used to get real hot. But then it's amazing we made it alive with all the "safe" toys we played with. LOL.

I nearly blew up the house with the chemistry set. :rofl:

[The Backlash Cometh]

52. Do you remember the battle toys?

My brother got an entire combat set which included a six inch missile launcher. The damn thing could stab you if you were in a ten feet radius of where he was playing.

[KharmaTrain]

55. We Had The Water-Powered Rocket Launchers

The rockets filled with water...then you pumped it up with air and let it loose. Those suckers would soar 100 feet in the air. But dare be the poor sucker who got stuck at the launch pad when someone else pulled the string. IRC, there were several kids who lost eyes from that toy.

[Princess Turandot]

56. THE BEST TOY EVER!!

I had legions, armies & family units of assorted lizards and bugs!

Someone came out with a new version of it about 15 years ago or so. I was very disappointed when I saw it in the store. No hot plate,burning hot molds dumped in a sizzling water bath. And the bugs were all rather stylized.

[dogday]

45. They were not too bad when I was a kid you

could actually bake a cake that tasted like chemicals...

My little girl received one a few years ago. First time she tried to bake a cake, she use the removal tool put it in the oven as instructed, and the pan turned over spilling all of the batter all throughout the oven.. It was a mess and it was the last time she tried to use it.... RIP Easy bake oven...

[Rosemary2205]

47. Easy bake oven - soon to be illegal in California

or at best a waste of good money since you won't be able to buy a 60 watt incandescent lightbulb.

hang onto those easybakes people - they'll be collector's items on ebay in no time.

[mondo joe]

48. But why is Elizabeth Edwards' daughter waiting to change out the bulb in her Easy Bake Oven

for a more eco-friendly fluorescent?

[dogday]

50. bwa-hahahahahahaha

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

[bleedingheart]

53. I just looked at my daugher's Easy Bake...

the oven chamber (a metal box that is heated with a light bulb) has doors. Now my daughter's oven is constructed so that you must use this big stick to push the cakes into the oven and then out of the oven when the baking is finished.

Now if some kid got anxious or perhaps lost the stick...then it is very likely that the kid got a burn from pushing their hand into the device.

My daugher's is less likely to be a problem because of the way it is constructed, even small hands would have a hard time getting to the metal oven piece.

I have no clue who bought the thing...but it is a giant pain in the ass and she lost interest in it. I bake and she helps me in the kitchen so I am sure who ever bought it thought it was great or perhaps had joyous memories of their ez bake oven...
To continue to use it, you must buy packets to make stuff and that to be honest can get more expensive than making far better sweets the old fashioned way.

[npincus]

57. what about parental or caretaker supervision?

any toy can cause harm to a child if misused-- a kid could poke out his eye with a Cabbage Patch doll. A kid could chew off the knob on an Etch-A-Sketch and swallow it. A Lego up the anus would cause an emergency room visit. If a toy's operation involves heat, a parent or caretaker needs to supervise it's operation. Kids who cannot understand that their hands don't belong inside the oven, are too young to be using it unsupervised.

I bake with my daughter all the time- she stays far away from the oven when it's opened and closed.

[ChickMagic]

58. I had an easy bake oven as a kid

Mom was always trying to turn me into a girlie girl,
but Barbies got filled with black cats and blown up.
They blowed up real good!

The easy bake I used to dry gunpowder. My parents
were soooo disappointed!

[The Backlash Cometh]

59. A bad ass even by my neighborhood's standards.

Congratulations!