WEBVTT - How Easy Bake Ovens Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from How Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.680 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:17.400 and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Ramsey over there 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.000 the husu, which means it's time for Stuff you Should 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:28.320 Know Nostalgia Edition Colon t s hodgment. Yeah, we've done 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:36.400 a few toys. Um plato, Uh, slinkys right, what else? 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.479 Well does a boomerang count as a toy? Uh, it's 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:46.440 away alive, mate. Um, we've done tons. We did silly putty, 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:51.040 silly putty, we did um uh, you know a bunch 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:56.640 that The balls, Yeah, the balls the balls episode How 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.800 Balls Work. They round and they bounced. We said balls 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.800 like a million times in that episode. Uh. Yeah, this 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.440 one's kind of cool though. The easy bake oven, which 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:07.120 I never had one. Did you ever have one in 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.840 your home? I don't think so. No. I don't think 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:12.320 my sister had one either, although I was a pretty 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:14.880 tubby kid, so it's possible that my mom was like, 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.119 make sure your brother doesn't know you have one of those, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.720 Do not feed your brother or anything from there. But 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.560 it's interesting that this is one where uh sort of 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.240 a very simple idea and you never can tell what's 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.520 gonna hit toy wise, nothing super complex about this other 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:37.080 than you could literally bake food and sort of pretend 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.280 to be an adult in the kitchen. That's that was 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.520 the basis of it. Being an adult. That was kind 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:46.920 of Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who made Star 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:51.000 Wars toys, were the ones behind this, and they were 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.440 very much into um toys that like let kids pretend 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.400 they were growing ups. Yeah, that was their bag. Yeah, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:03.240 I have a new neighbor. Actually, shout out to Rick Kathy. Hey, guys, 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.760 where they really got into your skin? Huh what? Rick 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:08.960 and Cathy got a shout out on the podcast and 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.440 their new neighbors. Jeez. Yeah, because he worked for I 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.440 was talking to him and I was like, he seems 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:15.639 like a good guy. He was like, what you know, 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:17.520 what do you do? Ricky's retired? Now, what did you do? 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.680 And He's like, I was a toy and action figure 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.040 designer for Kenner And I was like, whoa what? Years? 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.480 He came on after his first The first thing he 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.280 worked on was the Tim Burton Batman movies. And he 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.200 stayed on for a long time, like his whole career, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.280 Like after they were sold and everything pretty neat. That 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:40.040 is very cool. Yeah, good for him. Yeah, so he 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:45.399 still does wonderful uh sculpture. So just go after Rick 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.400 Watkins art online and then check it out. I'm going 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.440 to check it out. But I mean, Kenneda is such 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.320 a big deal to like two people, our age and 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.560 of many ages. But I didn't realize that they didn't 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.880 realize their origin as a company. Remember that we talked. 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.560 We did a whole Action Figures episode, remember, and we 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:07.720 talked a lot about Kenner. Was that a two part 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.440 episode or was it just like an hour and a 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.640 half long? I feel like it was just long. It 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.000 was very long. But um, Kenner almost didn't do the 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.200 Star Wars ones if I remember. But for us at least, 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.000 that put Kenna on the map. What I didn't realize 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.079 is that Kenner was already on the map as far 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.359 as toys go. And one of the ways that they 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.520 got there was from the Easy Bake Oven, which debuted 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.959 in November of nineteen, right around the time that John 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.760 Kennedy was shot. Yeah, but Kenner had been around since 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.800 the nineteen forties. Um Albert Philip and Joseph Steiner Um 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:45.480 formed the company after, as legend goes, one of them, 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.600 I saw a bubble you know maker bubble wand or 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.560 whatever you call him, and it was like, hey, if 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.920 I could do a gun that shoots bubbles, we might 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:56.880 be onto something. And that was our very first product, 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.040 is the bubble Mattic gun, and then whatever lesson twenty 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.280 years later, the easy Bake oven. Even though as we 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.360 learned today and yesterday, there had been toy ovens since 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.720 like the Victorian days, yes, like really really dangerous one 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:18.039 like real real little ovens like wood burning, pellet solid 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.440 fuel stoves made of cast iron that were sized down 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.560 for little kids to you. Yeah, basically like here's the 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.520 oven that can kill your parents. We'll just make a 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.560 smaller one they can kill you. Yeah. Um yeah. So 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:39.480 the children's play oven functioning play oven um history very 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.640 kind of closely treks the real oven history, right. Yeah, 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:46.360 Like when there were cast iron wood burning ovens, there 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.200 were kids versions of them. As they as real ovens 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:54.200 moved into electric ovens, there were kids versions of them apparently. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:58.200 Um Lionel the train the model trainmakers, they made some 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.960 in the thirties. Also, we want to give a shout 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.640 out to Lisa Hicks and the people at Collectors Weekly 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.800 for a great article we also used for this episode two. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:12.520 But um, in the thirties there were electric ovens. By 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:18.280 the forties or fifties, I think there were fiberglass insulated ovens. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.400 Electric ovens. It was just like a small oven for kids, 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:27.840 but they were ovens. They were extremely dangerous. And um, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.240 Kenner had this really great idea. And the reason that 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.080 this idea came about at Kenna to begin with. So 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:38.880 apparently Kenner was really big on having like ideas could 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.960 come from anywhere. Anybody in the company flowed an idea 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.839 and people would listen, and they had like regular meetings 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.599 where you know, there were bull sessions. Maybe they ordered 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.320 some like chowel Maine or something like that. Everyone rolled 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.520 up their sleeves and relaxed and and spat out ideas. 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.120 And one of the salesman from Kenner came back in 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.520 from the field and said, you know what, I saw something. 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.279 I saw some pretzel vendors keeping their pretzels warm on 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:08.080 the street using a lightbulb. What if we used a 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.880 lightbulb to heat up an oven for the little kiddies. 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:17.599 And somebody, I think Charles House Ralph House, well, Norman 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.960 Shapiro was that gentleman, and then Ronald House. Ronald was 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:26.920 the big time inventor for Kinner, who had a couple 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:30.240 of like really big products under his belt, and he 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.120 was like that that's an ace's idea. That's exactly how 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.000 he talked. Probably everyone hated him for it, but he 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:39.880 was really good at inventing toy so they had to 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.839 put up with that. Yeah, but Kinner's deal, like you 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:45.320 were saying, was find things that mimic adult things. And 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.520 that's like kind of I bet like kids are gonna 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.240 dig that stuff, and they did from like and kids 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:55.640 still do little toy lawnmowers and toy bulldozers. And I 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:57.960 mean Ruby's got a little cleaning set with like a 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.800 duster and a dust pan and a mop. Been shed 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:04.240 she o c D no, But I mean all the 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.400 time she will say, you know, come on, daddy, let's clean, 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.120 and she'll hand me him up. That's a little low 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.680 c D. Well, No, that's good. Then, Yeah, I like 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.520 where she said it. Did you have one of those 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.520 um plastic safety razors so you could shave next to 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.440 your dad? No? I did, but I was I think 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:21.960 a lot of boys are pretty obsessed with shaving before 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.840 they have whiskers, and I think I heard that they 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.520 would actually stimulate hair growth. And I was about to say, 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.960 I remember being worried about that, Yeah, because I didn't 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.480 have I had a pretty I mean, looking at me now, 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.640 you would never know, but I didn't have a lot 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.640 of facial hair going on until well into college. Was 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:42.720 it like lacking or did it come in patchy just 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:44.720 a little bit, sort of like my brother is now. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.960 He just stayed in that phase where your brother's got 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.280 a perfect chiseled face. Well, I know that's because he 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.480 doesn't have a beard, but um Scott can grow a 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.280 pretty decent gotee now, but I don't. I don't think 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.440 he could grow the full beard, but his his was. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.720 We were both spotty, like a little bit above the lip, 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.760 a little bit on the chin, the one part just 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:09.160 kind of traced to line up to your eye from 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.320 around from under your nose. Yeah, but I mean it 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.200 was sort of a family thing. We're not harry dudes. 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:15.520 We don't have very hairy legs or it is odd 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.240 that you have such a full beard, like I don't 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.560 have hairy arms or anything like that. Your your beast. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.560 I don't know if beasts is the right word, but yes, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.160 I'm a little Harry. You're a Harry guy. My chest 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.320 hair definitely plucks out from under my shirt. Have you 0:08:29.320 --> 0:08:31.320 ever done any like a laser or anything like that? 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:35.599 Good for you? No, I'm just I'm Harry. No, I 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.840 mean you're normal. It's not like you're Robin Williams. He 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:41.960 was hairy. Yes, he was, God rest his soul. Yes, indeed. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.240 So back to the ovens. So, um, the idea has 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.200 been put out there now by Norman Shapiro, Yes, yeah, okay, so, 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:53.959 and it was taken up by Ronald House and this 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.719 was this was huge and groundbreaking because again there were 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:00.199 safe there were um unsafe ovens for kids that have 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.120 been around since the nineteenth century. What these guys had 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.000 just happened upon was the way to make another unsafe 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:11.679 oven seems safe to parents. That was That was it. 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.160 That was the genius of this idea. That is what 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.800 made easy bake ovens take off. What they had figured 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.520 out was that if they used a light bulb as 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:23.520 the heating element, and believe me, a lightbulb can can 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:28.600 heat up an oven. Um, yeah, up to three fifty, 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:32.400 which is a common baking temp. Yes, from a light bulb, 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:34.600 and actually at first as we'll see a pair of 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.040 light bulbs, but the fact is they're light bulbs and 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.920 parents are familiar with light bulbs. They don't seem weird 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:43.400 or scary. It's not a wood pellet. And the fact 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.120 that it's not like a heating element like in an 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:48.040 actual oven, it's just a light bulb. That is what 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:50.320 they used to convince parents that this was a safe 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:52.520 product that they could buy for their kids. It was 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.719 a genius idea, it really was. And like you t 0:09:55.920 --> 0:10:00.520 s a second ago, the very first model, and if 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.360 you look at the very first one, it doesn't really 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.520 even look like an oven. Well certainly the new one 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.160 doesn't either. NOA, I did go online. I was like, 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.240 maybe I should get one of those. But they're ugly 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.120 now they I'm sorry to the person who designed them. Yes, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.240 I'm glad you said it. They're ugly little ovens. Yeah, 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.400 they should kind of go back to looking more classic. 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.920 I think it would be my advice. Um, But they 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:28.720 used to one incandescent bulbs at first, one over the 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:32.160 top and another under the bottom. Obviously they were trying 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.680 to get an even heat because you're baking things right, 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.480 And they very wisely designed this thing um so that 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:43.280 the actual oven part was basically inaccessible to the kid 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:49.280 on either side. So just imagine a box. Um okay. 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:53.319 Oh man, here's the very It's my favorite thing when 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.760 you try to describe something. Let me see if if 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.880 I close my eyes, it works. Uh. Imagine a box okay, 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.080 and then coming out from either side of the box 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:07.280 or a couple of little little arms. But the arms 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:11.880 are half arms, and they're rectangular and hollow, and they're 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:17.040 actually openings. One opening. You slide in the uncooked thing 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.880 that you want to bake into the heating area of 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.760 the oven, let it bake, and you push it through 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.240 the other the other side, the cooling chamber, and then 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.120 it comes out the other arm. Everyone Josh has had 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.600 his eyes close that entire time, and it worked. I 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.719 really painted a great picture in your mind's eye. M 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.080 hm yes, uh yeah, So that's what's what's going on. 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.600 You had the two bulbs, um. And in fact, let's 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.520 go ahead and take a break there, Okay, nice litl cliffhanger. 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.200 When we come back, I'll redescribe the easy bake oven again. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:12:10.040 It sounds good. Alright, we were at one bulb, right, yeah, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:13.040 I'm sorry, No, we were at two bulbs so long ago, 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.840 I couldn't remember. I know there was a full add 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.040 a go. But then what they did was they figured 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.319 if they just engineered this thing to distribute heat and 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:26.040 whole heat a little better, almost like a convection of him. Yeah, exactly, 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.080 like a convection of him, that they could go down 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:33.400 to one bulb. Yeah. There was a dude named Charles 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.120 hold On I really wanted, Yeah, Charles Cummings, Charles one 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.480 bulb Cummings. Yeah, that's what he was known as. Charles 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.040 Cummings was a designer at Kenner, and I think in 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.360 the late seventies he designed the interior of the oven 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.920 so that the bulb one bulb created confection current, so 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:54.719 it cooked just as well as two bold but you 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:59.800 just needed one um And he owns the patent to that. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.800 Oh really, which that's the way it should be. Yeah, 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.079 he was the desire. He came up with this pretty 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:06.920 rare too, I think kind of course, I'm sure had 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.440 an exclusive license to it, but I'm sure he got 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.280 like a decent amount of money from that license. Agreement 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.440 that is the way it should be. He also created 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.199 the patent um or he held the patent for the 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.599 add on popcorn maker that you could put onto the 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:24.360 easy bake oven. Too good for him, good for you, 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.400 Charles Cummings, Charles one bulb Cummings. He probably lives on 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.880 top of the mountain somewhere. It's on a mountain of money. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:34.640 Uh so, all right, you're down to one bulb thanks 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:38.560 to Charlie Cummings. They initially wanted to call this in 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.440 nine when it was two bulbs with a debut. Yeah, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:43.679 right out of the gate. They wanted to call it 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.559 in November of sixty three the Safety bake Oven, because 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:49.040 they really wanted to drive this home was that it 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.920 was super safe, and the regulatory bodies were like, you can't. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.040 You haven't even sold one yet, Like, we don't. We're 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.000 not sure if this is going to kill kids. You 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.800 burned a dozen monkeys during the product testing trial. Oh 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.320 that's so awful, um, but you can't call it that 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.679 yet because we don't know yet whether it's truly safe. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.360 Go ahead and sell them, but just don't still call 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:11.959 it safe the safety bake And so they're like, well, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.600 what about easy and they're like, are we still talking 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.439 about this? We're done with you, go away and um 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:19.160 they so they were like, okay, fine, we'll call it 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.600 the Easy Bake Oven. Then, and they sold it as 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:25.440 the Easy Bake Oven and it sold out immediately. They 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:28.960 sold it. So November is right before the Christmas season, 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.920 actually in the Christmas season, I think even back then, 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.200 and they made a little more than half a million 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.000 units and sold them all like before Christmas. Yeah, for 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.080 which is expensive. That would be about a d thirty 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.640 dollars today. No, yeah, that's a that's an expensive toy. Wow. 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:47.240 And if you look at the thing. I saw a 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.120 picture of one that's for sale on eBay for really cheap. 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.280 I think it was like thirty bucks or something. Really 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.400 it was unused in the box, still needed to be assembled. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:58.400 But if you look at it, you're like, that thing 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:00.440 looks like a death trap. It looks like the four 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.840 pinto of children's toys from the sixties, you know, like 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.960 the sharp metal edges. Yeah, you're like, like, that's what 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.440 it looks like, like like the baby strollers we were 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:13.120 pushed around. Yeah, remember that that Dana Kroyd snls get 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:15.800 from years ago. With the dangerous Christmas toys, and there 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:21.480 was one called the Bag of Glass, so great. Uh, 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:23.520 and that's all it was just a bag of shards 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.200 of glass. So yeah, they sold a half a million 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.360 and then they're like, we gotta make a lot more 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.400 of these for next year. Yeah, because this is back 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.320 at a time when toys didn't do that very often. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.120 You know, it's like every Christmas now people are like, well, 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.560 what's the toy we should go fight other parents for? 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:42.960 Tell us? Yeah, because I'm training in the ring. This 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.280 is when it right. This is when it happened organically, 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:47.920 when you put out a toy and if it became 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.480 like the fight worthy toy, that was a few and 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.880 far between. Think the easy Bake oven was the fight 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:55.040 worthy toy right out of the gate. Yeah. So in 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.120 year two, I think they made about one point five 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:02.320 million sold all those And here was here's the little 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:06.320 bit of genius from Kenner is Uh, anytime you can 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:10.000 sell a supplementary product to the big thing, then you're 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.920 really cooking with Gasically Gilette Razor model, I think it 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.440 was King Gilette who came up with that. Yeah. So 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.920 what they did was they sold uh mixes you know, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.080 these little instant mixes that you would pour and it 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:25.520 would make a little creddit cake. And they had twenty 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.640 five of these at first, and we're selling those like 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.360 crazy because if you're a kid, If if you're a kid, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.920 you want all those, you're like, well, I haven't tried 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.680 the strawberry cake yet. Plus also, it's not like you're 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.680 putting this in like a book like some baseball cars 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:43.920 and you're like, well, I've got this one out and 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.440 you eat that thing and you need another thing to 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.160 it and you poop it out. Yeah, and you're not 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.040 gonna eat the poop again. You're going to go buy 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.040 another one. And that was the genius of the other 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.000 genius idea of this whole thing. There was a third 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:03.400 genius idea to Kenneth did this so right? Not just 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.680 no the advertising so remember this is kids emulating grown ups. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:14.199 That was their thing, um it. They advertised not just 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:18.560 two kids through like Archies comics, but they advertised directly 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.000 to their parents too. There were ads for the Easy 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.119 Bake Oven, on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes. 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:29.360 According to This Collector's Weekly article, and in these ads, 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:31.200 if you look at a lot of old ads and 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.400 even some of the newer ads too. For easy bake 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.800 oven it's a mom and a daughter and the parent 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.879 is like, oh, this is something we can do together. 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.840 I love baking. It's basically my whole life I live in, 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.120 and I'm a woman, so I would love to share 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.399 that with my daughter. Maybe she's old enough to have 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.920 an easy bake oven herself. And that definitely helped propel 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.480 sales for sure, because it's not just kids going on 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.280 an easy bake oven, it's the parents going that'd be 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:01.600 a great thing to do with my kid. Yeah. And 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.000 of course, as people evolved and people became more woke 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.800 over time, even though that word wasn't used um enlightened, 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.520 maybe it became a bit of a problem with gender 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.680 roles and like this is for moms and daughters their 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.560 pink and that's what you're supposed to do is be 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.640 in the kitchen baking for the men. Yeah, I mean 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.679 very famously, the easy bake ovens always ended with the 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.240 disclaimer like this toy is not for boys. Yeah it 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.439 didn't really, but essentially it was like that was this 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.000 that was what was coming through. And the weird thing 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.760 is is far as as like legendary and iconic a 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.800 toy as the easy bake oven was as gender roles 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:46.040 and um, yeah, as gender roles evolved, I mean this 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.360 was we're talking like the early seventies when this really 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:50.720 started to become like a thing. Yeah, the easy bake 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.080 oven did not evolve with it right, as we will see. 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.479 It wasn't until the like early two thousand's that they 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.880 started to like respond to that kind of thing. And 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.560 I saw an ad for two thousand fourteen not a 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:08.200 boy in sight, all girls and um it just dancing 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.240 around like the girliest easy bake oven you could possibly imagine. 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:15.920 They actually got more girly as time went on and 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:20.480 more girl focused. Um as gender roles went on, which 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:24.280 is really weird to me. Not just non responsive but 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.040 almost like no, we're going the opposite way. Yeah. And 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.080 in early two thousands Hasbro who uh you know, they 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.440 bought out Kenner, eventually makers of the classic snoopy snow 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.840 comb machine. I never had one of those. You have 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:40.639 one of those? No neighbor did, okay, Um, but you 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.520 got to eat some of that sweet, sweet sugar ice. 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:47.159 There was nothing like the taste of I think the 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.840 cherry one. I can't remember, but it was just the 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:52.760 greatest snow cone you could possibly have. And that's until 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:54.400 you had a shave dice later and you're like, oh, 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.000 this is a lot better still. Number one reigning champ 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.960 really Number two is blue raspberry slush put. Yeah. See, 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.560 what I would always do was um slurp that sweet 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:05.879 liquid and that would be left with just some faintly 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.080 colored kind of just ice. Oh yeah, no, I know. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.960 It was the problem with it for sure, But if 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.240 you did it right and you just kind of let 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.679 it settle, you got, you know, through the nasty stuff first, 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:20.359 when you got to the bottom, then you got to 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.560 the true, like hyper hyper dense snow cone experience. Yeah. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:26.879 I could never do that. I'd still have problems regulating 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.120 my like hot fudged to ice cream ratio when eating 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:32.359 a Sunday. I just won't even do it anymore. So 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.199 you do all the hot fudge first, and then you're 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.840 left to some crutty ice cream. That's I mean, that's standard, 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:42.520 cretty delicious ice cream, right, This ice cream that some 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.359 people around the world would kill for his cy. It 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:48.679 doesn't have any more fudge. Dude, I've been on a 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.720 fifteen year campaign to convince Emily that vanilla ice cream 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.040 is like a legit flavor. I think she's she still 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.159 thinks that vanilla ice cream is just like unflavored ice mill. Yes, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.119 it's like it's the one without the flavor added. Right now, 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.600 vanilla is it really delicious? It is? It is. It's 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:09.200 subtle vanilla bean ice cream like a true flex so good. 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.160 So in early two thousand, they finally, like you said, 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.000 tried in a very ham fisted way to get boys 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.720 involved with the the que you easy bake queasy bake 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:23.399 Is that what it is? Took me a second to 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:28.040 because Q uses separate word. So okay, now, so the 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.560 queasy bake oven and the mixer rader for you boys 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:34.560 you can make mud and crud cakes and the lar 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:39.239 delicious cocoon cookies and you know, not like, hey, just 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:43.120 bake something good because anyone can bake. Yeah, anyone can bake. 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.920 And they didn't like the girls don't don't use that one. Yeah, 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.000 it was it was only boys that showed up in 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.719 these ads. They're like, we really need to get boys involved. 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.840 How can we do that? Oh, we'll make one specifically 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.600 four boys. That's like they're making cruddy cakes. I mean, 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.280 I know they're just trying to sell stuff, but when 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:03.480 in these meetings, in these marketing meetings that you just 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.840 can't help but think they're it's like a bunch of 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.400 like eight five year old men. It's our it's our Senate. Yeah, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.520 it's in there right there, like screaming and pounding and 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:15.880 yelling at each other about the idea of like selling 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.359 this to boys. Oh man, Well, after that, I feel 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.080