Toy stove

In the last fifty years, standards for toy safety have undergone considerable changes. These days, for example, toys with small parts have clear warning labels, Crayola makes all of their products nontoxic, and in 1988 the United States banned the infamous Lawn Darts from sale. Early 20th-century toys could not possibly meet today's stringent standards. The miniature stove well illustrates the evolution of toy safety. Made of heavy cast iron, early toy stoves had open, heated burners and used red-hot coal, burning firewood, and later the same gas and electric technology as the full-sized stoves of their times. Essentially, the toy stoves functioned as working replicas of the stoves found in American kitchens. Over time, however, toy stoves underwent drastic changes. Manufacturers began to use tin and plastic rather than cast iron, and in 1963, toy maker Kenner introduced the Easy-Bake Oven, originally called the Safety-Bake Oven. The Easy-Bake Oven used a 100-watt light bulb as its power source and a contained cooking chamber in place of open burners. Ever since, toy stoves have maintained these safety standards, sacrificing the realism of early cast-iron toy stoves for a child's safety.