WEBVTT - SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:04.880 Well, friends, we've reached the end of our playlist. The 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:09.520 Stuff You Should Know Twelve Days of Christmas Toys. This 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:12.639 one's one of my all time favorite episodes, not just 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.439 toy episodes, but favorite episodes. The Easy Bake Oven which 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.760 had this huge cultural impact. It still does today. If 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.360 you want to make somebody nostalgic, just say easy Bake 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.520 Oven and watch their eyes well up with tears. It's 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.040 really fun. At any rate, we want to thank you 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:32.040 for joining us on this journey through our Christmas toy episodes, 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.680 and we want to wish all of you happy holidays 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.280 and Merry Christmas. From Stuff you Should Know. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:47.880 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:53.920 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.760 there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Ramsey over there. The 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.280 Huge which means it's I'm for Stuff you Should Know. 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.840 Nostalgia Edition Colon ts Hodgman. 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:16.520 Yeah, we've done a few toys. Playto slinkies, right, what else? 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.000 What does a boomerang count as a toy? Uh? 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.280 That's away alive, mate. 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:27.279 We've done tons, we did silly putty, Silly putty. 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:28.720 Sure, we did. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:35.360 You know a bunch that the balls, Yeah, the balls, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:37.559 the Ball's episode How balls work? 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:39.200 They round and they bounce. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.840 We said balls like a million times in that episode. 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.240 Uh yeah, this one's kind of cool though. The easy 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:46.880 bake oven, which I never had one. Did you ever 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:47.640 have one in your home? 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:49.280 I don't think so. No. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:51.440 I don't think my sister had one either. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.200 I was a pretty tubby kid, So it's possible that 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.440 my mom was like, make sure your brother doesn't know 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:58.840 you have one of those, Do not feed your brother 0:01:58.880 --> 0:01:59.720 or anything from there. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.720 But it's interesting that this is one where sort of 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:08.359 a very simple idea and you never can tell what's 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.679 gonna hit. Toy wise, nothing super complex about this other 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:17.200 than you could literally bake food and sort of pretend 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:18.720 to be an adult in the kitchen. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.160 That was the basis of it. Being an adult. That 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:26.320 was kind of Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.519 made Star Wars toys, were the ones behind this, and 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:35.160 they were very much into toys that like let kids 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:36.520 pretend they were grown ups. 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.320 Yeah, that was their bag. Yeah, I have a new neighbor. 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:43.880 Actually shout out to Rick Kathy. Hey, guys, well. 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.000 They really got under your skin. Huh what. Rick and 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:49.280 Kathy got a shout out on the podcast and their 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.040 new neighbors geez. 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.240 Yeah, because he worked for I was talking to him 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.079 and I was like, he seems like a good guy. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:56.359 And he's like, what you know, what do you do? Rick? 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:58.480 He's retired, now what did you do? And he's like, 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:02.079 I was away an action figure designer for Kenner And I. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.720 Was like, wow, whoa what? 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.480 Years he came on after his first The first thing 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.080 he worked on was the Tim Burton Batman movies. Nice 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:12.760 and he stayed on for a long time, like his 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.600 whole career, like after they were sold and everything. Wow, 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:16.239 pretty neat. 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.600 That is very cool. Yeah, good for him. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.040 Yeah, so he still does wonderful sculpture. So oh, I'll 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.680 bet just go after Rick Watkins's art online and check 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:28.000 it out. 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.320 I'm going to check it out. 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:32.080 But I mean Kenner, it is such a big deal 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.360 to like to people our age and of many ages. 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.160 But I didn't realize that they I didn't realize their 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:40.240 origin as a company. 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.920 Remember in the We Talked, we did a whole action 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.320 figures episode. Remember, oh yeah, and we talked a lot 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.800 about Kenner. Was that a two part episode? Or was 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:50.080 it just like an hour and a half long. 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:51.640 I feel like it was just long. 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:56.160 It was very long. But Kenner almost didn't do the 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:58.920 Star Wars ones if I remember. But for us at 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.160 least that Kenner on the map. What I didn't realize 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.200 is that Kenner was already on the map as far 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.320 as toys go. Yeah, And one of the ways that 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.200 they got there was from the Easy Bake Oven, which 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.760 debuted November of nineteen sixty three, right around the time 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.000 that John Kennedy was shot. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.839 Yeah, but Kenner had been around since the nineteen forties. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.680 Albert Philip and Joseph Steiner formed the company after, as 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:28.600 legend goes, one of them saw a bubble you know, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:30.960 maker bubble wand or whatever you call them, yeah, and 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.680 was like, hey, if I could do a gun that 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.000 shoots bubbles, we might be onto something. And that was 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:39.360 their very first product, is the bubble Matic gun. Yeah, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.719 and then whatever less than twenty years later, the Easy 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.120 Bake Oven. Even though as we learned today and yesterday, 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.600 there had been toy ovens since like the Victorian days. 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:54.559 Yes, like really really dangerous I know, like real real 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:59.159 little ovens, yeah, like wood burning, pellet solid fuel stoves 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.159 made of cast iron that were sized down for little 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:02.920 kids to use. 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.679 Yeah, basically like, here's the oven that can kill your parents, 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:08.880 We'll just make a smaller one that can kill. 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:16.080 You, right yeah. Yeah, So the children's play oven functioning 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:21.280 play oven history very kind of closely tracks the real 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:22.240 oven history, right. 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:22.920 Yeah. 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.480 Like when there were cast iron wood burning ovens, there 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.359 were kids versions of them. As they as real ovens 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:33.719 moved into electric ovens, there were kids versions of them. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:38.200 Apparently Lionel the Train the model train makers, they made 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.840 some in the thirties. Also, we want to give a 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.360 shout out to Lisa Hicks and the people at Collectors 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:47.000 Weekly for a great article we also used for this 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:52.120 episode two. But in the thirties there were electric ovens. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:57.120 By the forties or fifties, I think there were fiberglass 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.480 insulated ovens, electric ovens. It was just like a small 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:05.960 oven for kids, but they were ovens. They were extremely dangerous. 0:06:06.839 --> 0:06:11.279 And Kenner had this really great idea and the reason 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.800 that this idea came about it Kenner to begin with. 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.839 So apparently Kenner was really big on having like ideas 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:21.680 could come from anywhere anybody in the company. Float An 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.520 idea and people would listen and they had like regular 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.240 meetings where you know, there were bull sessions. Maybe they 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.479 ordered some like Chowmaine or something like that. Everyone rolled 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:35.200 up their sleeves and relaxed and spat out ideas. And 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.479 one of the salesmen from Kenner came back in from 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.599 the field and said, you know what, I saw something. 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.440 I saw some pretzel vendors keeping their pretzels warm on 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:48.160 the street using a light bulb. What if we used 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.240 a light bulb to heat up an oven for the 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:56.680 little kiddies? And somebody, I think Charles Howse, Ralph. 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.800 Howse Well Norman Shapiro was that gentleman ken Ronald Howse. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.880 Ronald House was the big time inventor for Kenner who 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.520 had a couple of like really big products under his belt, 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.800 and he was like that that's an ace's idea. 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:14.760 That's exactly how he talked. 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:15.239 Yeah. 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.280 Probably, so everyone hated him for it, but he was 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.200 really good at inventing toys, so they had to put 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:20.600 up with it. 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.239 Yeah. But Kenner's deal, like you were saying, was find 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.720 things that mimic adult things. And that's like kinda I 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:28.320 bet like kids are going to dig that stuff and 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.280 they did from like, and kids still do little toy 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:36.600 lawnmowers and toy bulldozers. And I mean Ruby's got a 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.520 little cleaning set with like a duster and a dustpan 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:40.440 and a mop. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.600 And she is she OCD no. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.400 But I mean all the time she will say, you know, 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:48.560 come on, daddy, let's clean, and she'll hand me a mop. 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:49.560 That's a little OCD. 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:52.120 Well, no, that's good then. Yeah, I like where she 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:52.520 said it. 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.880 Did you have one of those plastic safety razors so 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:57.720 you could shave next to your dad? No? 0:07:58.080 --> 0:07:59.960 I did, but I was I think a lot of 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:04.080 boys are pretty obsessed with shaving before they have whiskers. Yeah, 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:06.960 and I think I heard that they would actually stimulate 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:07.920 hair growth on my face. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.280 I was about to say, I remember being worried about that. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.640 Yeah, because I didn't have I had a pretty I mean, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.080 looking at me now, you would never know, but I 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.200 didn't have a lot of facial hair going on until 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:19.480 well into college. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.880 Was it like lacking or did it come in patchy. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:24.640 Just a little bit, sort of like my brother is 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.320 now he just stayed in that phase where. 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.280 Your brother's got a perfect chiseled face. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:32.160 Well, I know that's because he doesn't have a beard. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.960 Oh okay, but Scott can grow a pretty decent goateea now, 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:38.640 but I don't think he could grow the full beard. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.800 But his was. We were both spotty, like a little 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.920 bit above the lip, a little bit on the chin. 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.760 One part, just kind of trace the line up to 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:50.520 your eye from around from under your nose. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.400 Yeah, but I mean it was sort of a family thing. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.920 We're not hairy dudes. We don't have very hairy legs or. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.199 It is odd that you have such a full beard, Like. 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.679 I don't have hairy arms or anything like that. 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.199 Your beast, I don't know if beasts is the right word, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:04.480 but yes, I'm a little hairy. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:05.360 You're a hairy guy. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:09.280 My chest hair definitely plucks out from under my shirt. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.200 Have you ever done any like laser or anything like that? No, No, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:13.880 good for you. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:15.360 I'm just I'm Harry. 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.319 No, I mean you're normal. It's not like you're Robin Williams. No, 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:19.480 he was hairy. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.640 Yes he was, God rest his soul. Yes, indeed, So 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.719 back to the Ovens. So the idea has been put 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.240 out there now by Norman Shapiro. Yes, yeah, okay, So 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.000 and it was taken up by Ronald House and this 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.160 was this was huge and groundbreaking because again they were safe. 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.720 There were unsafe ovens for kids that have been around 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.760 since the nineteenth century. What these guys had just happened 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:48.120 upon was the way to make another unsafe oven seem 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.120 safe to parents. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:50.720 Yeah. 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.000 That was that was it. That was the genius of 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.760 this idea. That is what made easy bake ovens take off. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.719 What they'd figured out was that if they used a 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.280 lot light bulb as the heating element, and believe me, 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.239 a light bulb can can heat up an oven. 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:09.160 Sure three fifty Yeah, up to three fifty, which is 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:10.679 a common baking stemp. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.920 Yes from a light bulb. And actually, at first is 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.800 we'll see a pair of light bulbs, but the fact 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.000 is they're light bulbs and parents are familiar with light bulbs. 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:21.679 They don't seem weird or scary. 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:22.800 Yeah, it's not a wood pellet. 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:24.920 And the fact that it's not like a heating element 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.000 like in an actual oven, it's just a light bulb. 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:29.760 That is what they used to convince parents that this 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.439 was a safe product that they could buy for their kids. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.160 It was a genius idea. 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.800 It really was. And like you teased a second ago, 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.679 the very first model in nineteen sixty three, and if 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:42.520 you look at that very first one, it doesn't really 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:43.480 even look like an oven. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.280 Well certainly the new one doesn't either. 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.559 Now I did go online. I was like, maybe I 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.840 should get one of those. But they're ugly now. 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.280 They I'm sorry to the person who designed them. Yes, 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.120 I'm glad you said it. They are ugly little ovens. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.520 Yeah, they should kind of go back to looking more classic. 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.720 I think that'd be my advice. But they used two 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.880 one hundred watt incandescent bulbs at first, one over the 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.320 top and another under the bottom. Obviously they were trying 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.080 to get an even heat because you're baking things, right. 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:19.720 And they very wisely designed this thing so that the 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:24.440 actual oven part was basically inaccessible to the kit on 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:30.120 either side. So just imagine a box. Okay. Oh man, 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:30.600 here's the way. 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.280 Okay, it's my favorite thing when you try to describe 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:35.000 something official. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:36.640 Let me see if I if I close my eyes, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.959 it works. Imagine a box, okay, and then coming out 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.040 from either side of the box or a couple of 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.880 little little arms. But the arms are half arms, and 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:54.720 they're rectangular and hollow, and they're actually openings. One opening, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.800 you slide in the uncooked thing that you want to 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.640 bake into the heating area the oven, let it bake, 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.520 and you push it through the other the other side, 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.760 the cooling chamber, and then it comes out the other arm. 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.480 Everyone Josh has had his eyes closed that entire. 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.680 Time, and it worked. I really painted a great picture. 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.840 In your mind's eye. Yes, uh, yeah, so that's what's 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.480 going on. You had the two bulbs and in fact, 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:23.720 let's go ahead and take a break there. Oh oh, okay, 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:24.679 a Nicett cliffhanger. 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.320 When we come back, I'll redescribe the easy bake oven again. 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:50.200 It sounds good, all right. We were at one bulb, right, yeah, 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.680 I'm sorry, No, we were at two bulbs right so 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.000 long ago I couldn't remember. 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.319 I know it was a full hour ago. 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.520 But then what they did was they figured if they 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:02.920 just engineered this thing to distribute heat and hold heat 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.199 a little better, almost like a convection oven. Yeah, exactly, 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.240 like a convection of him, that they could go down 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:08.839 to one bulb. 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:15.080 Yeah. There was a dude named Charles hold On I 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.280 really wanted. Yeah, Charles Cummings, Charles one bulb Cummings. Yeah, 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.920 that's what he was known as. Charles Cummings was a 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.120 designer at Kenner, and I think in the late seventies 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.920 he designed the interior of the oven so that the 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.480 bulb one bulb created a convection current, so it cooked 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.760 just as well as two bold but you just needed one. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.160 And he owns the patent to that. Oh really, which 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:44.080 that's the way it should be. Yeah, he was the designer. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:44.800 He came up with this. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:45.560 It's pretty rare too. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.720 I think Kenner, of course, I'm sure had an exclusive 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.040 license to it, but I'm sure he got like a 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.200 decent amount of money from that license agreement. That is 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.120 the way it should be. He also created the patent, 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.600 or he held the patent for the add on popcorn 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.640 maker that you could put onto the easy bake oven. 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:05.760 Too good for him, Good for you, Charles Cummings. 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.960 Charles one bulb Commings. He probably lives on top of 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:12.839 the mountain somewhere. It's on a mountain of money. So 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.640 all right, you're down to one bulb thanks to Charlie Cummings. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:19.880 They initially wanted to call this in nineteen sixty three. 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.440 When it was two bulbs, when it debuted. 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:23.760 Yeah, right out of the gate, they wanted to call 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:26.680 it November of sixty three the Safety bake Oven, because 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.160 they really wanted to drive this home was that it 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.200 was super safe, right, and the regulatory bodies were like, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:35.720 you can't. You haven't even sold one yet, Like, we don't. 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:37.720 We're not sure if this is going to kill kids. 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.560 It burned a dozen monkeys during the product testing tries. 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.760 Oh that's awful, but you can't call it that yet 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:46.920 because we don't know yet whether it's truly safe. Go 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.480 ahead and sell them, sure, but just don't still call 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:50.480 it safe. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.520 The Safety Bakeup. And so they're like, well, what about 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.120 easy And they're like, are we still talking about this. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.160 We're done with you, go away, and they said they 0:14:58.160 --> 0:14:59.960 were like, okay, fine, we'll call it the Easy Bakeup. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.600 And then and they sold it as the Easy Makeoven 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.760 and it sold out immediately. They sold it. So November 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.680 nineteen sixty three is right before the Christmas season. Actually 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.359 it's in the Christmas season even back then. Yes, And 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.760 they made a little more than half a million units 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.479 and sold them all like before. 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.800 Christmas, Yeah, for fifteen ninety five, which is expensive. That 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.360 would be about one hundred and thirty dollars today. No, yeah, 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:25.440 that's an expensive toy. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.280 Wow. And if you look at the thing. I saw 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.520 a picture of one that's for sale on eBay for 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.040 really cheap. I think it was like thirty bucks or something. 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:33.880 Really, it was. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.160 Unused in the box, still needed to be assembled. But 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:38.760 if you look at it, you're like, that thing looks 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:40.600 like a death trap. Huh. It looks like the four 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:44.000 pinto of children's toys from the sixties, you know, like 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.120 the sharp metal edges. Yes, you're like, like, that's what 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.560 it looks like, like like the baby strollers we were 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:50.480 pushed around then. 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.800 Yeah. Remember that dan Aykroyd SNL skeet from years ago 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.560 with the dangerous Christmas toys, And that was one called 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:02.080 the Bag of Glass. That's so great, And that's all 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.840 it was. It was just a bag of shards of glass. Yeah. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.480 So yeah, they sold a half a million and then 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.600 they're like, we got to make a lot more of 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:10.440 these for next year. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.320 Yeah, because this is back at a time when toys 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:15.320 didn't do that very often. You know, it seems like 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.920 every Christmas now people are like, well, what's the toy 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.400 we should go fight other parents for tell us. 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:22.840 Yeah, because I'm training in the ring. 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.400 This is when this is when it happened to organically. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.040 When you put out a toy and if it became 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.600 like the fight worthy toy, that was a few and 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.000 far between. Thinks the easy Bake oven was the fight 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:34.360 worthy toy right out of the gate. 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.160 Yeah. So in year two, I think they they made 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:41.400 about one point five million sold all those. And here 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.720 was here's the little bit of genius from Kenner is 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.720 anytime you can sell a supplementary product to the the 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.320 big thing, then you're really cooking with gas. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.920 That's like the ironically the Gellette razor model. I think 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:56.960 it was King Gillette who came up with that. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:01.040 Yeah. So what they did was they sold mixes, you know, 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.200 these little instant mixes that you would pour and it 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.639 would make a little credit cake. And they had twenty 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.760 five of these at first. And we're selling those like 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.480 crazy because if you're a kid, if you're a kid, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.080 you want all those. You're like, well, I haven't tried 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:17.320 the strawberry cake yet. 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:20.919 Plus also, it's not like you're putting this in like 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.239 a book like some baseball cards, and you're like, well, 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.800 I've got this one. I don't need you eat that 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:27.480 thing and you need another. 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.040 Thing and to replace it and you poop it out. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.879 Yeah, and you're not gonna eat the poop again. No, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.840 you're going to go buy another one. And that was 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.160 the genius of the other genius idea of this whole thing. 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:40.840 There was a third genius idea to Kenner did this 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:41.440 so right? 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:42.359 The license? 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.160 Awe? Not just no? The advertising? 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:45.919 Oh sure? 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.159 So remember this is kids emulating grown ups. That was 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:55.440 their thing. It They advertised not just to kids through 0:17:55.480 --> 0:18:00.880 like Archie's comics, but they advertised directly to their parents too. Yeah, 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.199 there were ads for the easy Bake Oven on I 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:06.320 Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes. According to This Collector's 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.240 Weekly article, and in these ads, if you look at 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.000 a lot of old ads and even some of the 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.080 newer ads too for easy Bake Oven, it's a mom 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.600 and a daughter, right, and the parent is like, oh, 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.120 this is something we can do together. I love baking. 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.879 It's basically my whole life. I live in nineteen sixty 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.000 three and I'm a woman, so I would love to 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.439 share that with my daughter. Maybe she's old enough to 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.640 have an easy bake oven herself and that definitely helped 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.400 propel sales for sure, because it's not just kids going 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.359 on an easy bake oven, it's the parent's going that'd 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:40.880 be a great thing to do with my kid. 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.600 Yeah. And of course, as people evolved and people became 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:48.960 more woke over time, even though that word wasn't used enlightened, 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.679 maybe it became a bit of a problem with gender 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.119 roles and like this is for moms and daughters. They're pink, 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:57.879 and that's what you're supposed to do is be in 0:18:57.920 --> 0:18:59.840 the kitchen baking for the men. 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.240 Yeah, I mean very famously, the easy bake ovens always 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:05.919 ended with the disclaimer like this toy is not for boys. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.480 Yeah, it didn't really, but essentially. 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.560 It was like that was this that was what was 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.080 coming through. And the weird thing is as far as 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:18.480 as like legendary and iconic a toy as the easy 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:24.240 bake oven was, as gender roles. And yeah, as gender 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.080 roles evolved, I mean this was we're talking like the 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.760 early seventies when this really started to become like a thing. 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.600 The easy bake oven did not evolve with it, as 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.960 we will see. It wasn't until the early two thousands 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:39.600 that they started to like respond to that kind of thing. 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.720 And I saw an ad for twenty fourteen, not a 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:48.680 boy in sight, all girls and just dancing around like 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:52.720 the girliest easy bake oven you could possibly imagine. It 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.919 actually got more girly as time went on, girl focused, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.439 as gender roles went on, which is really weird to 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.359 me to be that is not just non responsive, but 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:07.640 almost like, no, we're going the opposite way. 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:11.040