Mental Floss

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Iron filings don’t seem like obvious playthings. They’re extremely unpleasant if swallowed, can cause great harm to the eyes, and are best not inhaled. Yet they are at the core of one of the world’s best-loved toys: Wooly Willy.

Mike Rampton


















"Once you get your hands on Bop It!, you're not gonna want to stop it!"

Bop It, the popular kid's toy, started out as something called Remote Out-of-Control that required players to pull, twist, or bop it. The last one stuck.

Jake Rossen






Cornellier, Wikimedia// CC BY-SA 4.0

In the first edition of "Throwback," our all-new YouTube series, we take a deep dive into the bizarre history of Sea-Monkeys and Harold von Braunhut, the man who created them—then funneled the millions he made into illegal activities.

Alvin Ward