After all of my kvetching about the comic-book-ad toys my parents never bought me, here's one that I'm fairly glad I never received:
Now granted, like most comic ads, this one uses the teensiest bit of hyperbole to give us the hard-sell...
...and used the tiniest bit of lies/exaggeration/Golden Age science to bolster its point...
Still, the ad's description of the breakdown of the radium atom, and how the "radiumscope" actually works, is pretty accurate for 1942:
Still, I shudder at the pre-atom-bomb idea of giving radioactive toys to children. Here, kid, hold this up to your eye for hours at a time!
Learn first hand what happened to Madame Curie!! Marvel as your eyes and brain are bombarded by radioactive particles!! Discover if Stan Lee right about radiation granting super-powers!!
The best part?
You might get lucky and still find one of these at a garage sale somewhere, awaiting to delight "future generations."
Yes, I know the amount of actual radium in one of the babies was probably (maybe) not enough to actually, you know, slaughter millions of kids. But the thought of comic book novelty peddlers pushing radioactive material on to kids...shudder.
Perfectly safe radioactive isotopes peddled in Blue Ribbon Comics #22 (1942).
Now granted, like most comic ads, this one uses the teensiest bit of hyperbole to give us the hard-sell...
...and used the tiniest bit of lies/exaggeration/Golden Age science to bolster its point...
Still, the ad's description of the breakdown of the radium atom, and how the "radiumscope" actually works, is pretty accurate for 1942:
Still, I shudder at the pre-atom-bomb idea of giving radioactive toys to children. Here, kid, hold this up to your eye for hours at a time!
Learn first hand what happened to Madame Curie!! Marvel as your eyes and brain are bombarded by radioactive particles!! Discover if Stan Lee right about radiation granting super-powers!!The best part?
You might get lucky and still find one of these at a garage sale somewhere, awaiting to delight "future generations."Yes, I know the amount of actual radium in one of the babies was probably (maybe) not enough to actually, you know, slaughter millions of kids. But the thought of comic book novelty peddlers pushing radioactive material on to kids...shudder.
Perfectly safe radioactive isotopes peddled in Blue Ribbon Comics #22 (1942).
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