Subject:
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Re: Cannons
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 20 Jan 2000 17:32:29 GMT
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Viewed:
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720 times
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In lugnet.general, Jeff Johnston writes:
> Pete Ryan wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
>
> Hi, Pete!
>
> > I am a returning Lego user. I have just started to learn the fun of
> > lego after childhood (just turned 21)... But I have a question, I just
> > bought set 3053 and in some pictures it shows a cannon that is able to shoot
> > (has the peg in the center)...But the cannon I got does not. Did Lego start
> > doing this with all new cannons or is it just this set? and why did they do
> > this...too many kids loose an eye? Thanks!
>
> The US sets do not have a shooting cannon included. This has been true
> for a long time - I'm not sure if the shooting cannons *were* ever available
> in the US.
>
> As I understand it, the cannons were not used over here, not because of
> anything that happened because of LEGO, but because of another 'shooting'
> toy - I forget which one, Micronauts maybe? - which hurt a kid.
>
> I *may* have the following details wrong, because they are completely from
> memory, but as I recall it, the kid stuck the whatever in his mouth,
> accidentally fired off the missile, and choked to death on it. The parents,
> desperate to blame anybody but themselves, decided on a lawsuit because it
> was obviously the toy company's fault that they were too stupid to watch
> their kid.
>
> Memory places this at about the time The Empire Strikes Back came out,
> because the Boba Fett figure was originally planned to have a firing
> backpack missile, but it was fixed in place at the last minute because of
> the potential lawsuits.
>
> J
It wasn't a micronaut toy that caused the choking death, although
those toys had plenty of shooting rubber-tipped missiles
and the like, but a BattleStar Galactica spaceship (colonial viper)
toy.
The kid stuck the nose of the spacecraft down into his throat,
which discharged the missile that fires from the nose of the
ship, and he choked to death.
What confuses me about that event is that the missiles that those
spaceships fired were quite small - an inch long, and less
than a quarter of an inch wide. I never understood how the
missile obstructed the kid's airway. But it did, which is
sad.
In my opinion, it wasn't the fact that the toy shot a missile
that made it dangerous, but where it shot the missile from. If
the missile had come from somewhere on the wings rather than
the long vaguely-phallic-shaped nose of the ship, then there's
no way a kid could have managed to fire a missile deep enough
into his throat to get it deeply lodged.
Apparently manufacturers have relaxed - I see toys with firing
missiles all the time, now.
--
jthompson@esker.com "Float on a river, forever and ever, Emily"
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Cannons
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| Nephilim <jthompson@esker.com> wrote in message news:FonA25.6ty@lugnet.com... [snipped] (...) When I had my Transformers toys, I was annoyed that the missiles were so weak, probably for this reason. I opened them up and put pen springs in them. I (...) (24 years ago, 20-Jan-00, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Cannons
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| Nephilim wrote in message ... (...) I think this is correct, but I seem to remember that the Micronauts toys changed the shape of the missiles that they fired right after this happened. My younger brother and I had some of the toys with the larger (...) (24 years ago, 20-Jan-00, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Cannons
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| (...) Hi, Pete! (...) The US sets do not have a shooting cannon included. This has been true for a long time - I'm not sure if the shooting cannons *were* ever available in the US. As I understand it, the cannons were not used over here, not because (...) (24 years ago, 20-Jan-00, to lugnet.general)
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