The Easy Bake Oven Recall We'll Never Forget

If you were a child at any point between the 1960s and the early 2000s, you were either lucky enough to have an Easy-Bake Oven or you desperately wanted one. Introduced to the market in 1963, this toy was the stuff of dreams, allowing kids to make their own food in a tiny and (supposedly) safe oven. Most of the models used light bulbs to heat food, and had a slot or a door that opened sideways. This made burn accidents relatively rare. For almost half a century, the product ruled supreme in the world of play kitchens. And then, 2006 happened.

This fateful year saw the Easy-Bake Oven get inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. It was also the year that Hasbro released the Easy-Bake Classic Oven, which replaced the light bulbs with a true heating element, and changed to a front-facing design. Although some praised this version for imitating a real oven, it proved hazardous. Besides severe burns from the heating source, some children got their hands or fingers stuck in the oven door. In the most severe case, a five-year-old had a finger partially amputated because doctors failed to release her hand with other methods. Because of the incident, Hasbro was sued for $1.2 million dollars (the equivalent of $1.8 million today) in 2007. The toy wasn't totally recalled until August of that year, after an additional 77 children had gotten burned, and 249 had gotten hands or fingers caught in the oven.

You could argue that the 2007 recall — which saw almost a million ovens returned — was the beginning of the end of Easy-Bake Oven's decades-long reign. Although the recall only affected the models sold between 2006 and 2007, people's perceptions of the toy changed, with many questioning whether it was actually safe. Newer models did away with the front-facing design, but the damage was done. Sure, we may be used to food-related recalls now that they've become more frequent, but people in the early 2000s were horrified that this once-trusted toy could be dangerous. And trust is a difficult thing to regain.

Hasbro tried hard to rebrand. The 50th anniversary edition featured gender-neutral colors that would become a toy trend later in the decade. In 2017, a dedicated group of people even got November 4th to officially be declared National Easy-Bake Oven Day. (Yes, we're being serious). But none of it was enough to save the toy's falling popularity. Many people don't even know the newest model was released in 2021; the Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven Deluxe Gift Set can be found on Amazon. In fact, some even think that the toy is obsolete. There will always be nostalgia for the Easy-Bake Oven and the magic it brought to our childhoods, but we will likely never see it in every child's playroom or wishlist again.

Speaking of notorious toys; remember when Jell-O released its gross Jell-O play?