2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Ideas Day 9

As the Cold War became prominent after World War II, numerous toys and games became available to young children. The popularity of military toys helped children to express the events in the adult world by acting out what they saw in movies and on TV. Similarly, these Giant Atomic Bombs were shaped like rockets which held a cap on its tip that exploded when it struck a hard surface.

The display box reassured parents that it’s a safe, harmless cap shooting toy, and did not actually contain any radioactive materials. The “bombs” were futuristic with tiny robot figures on the sides and came in yellow, black, and green — similar in color to the fallout shelter signs.

The box showed a variety of jets and planes dropping bombs, including a Convair B-36 Peacemaker, in use by the United States Air Force from 1949-1959. Kids could buy one or a whole box load of bombs to throw at each other to role play the effects of atomic warfare.

Buy one! Buy one hundred! Just don’t think about the real ones in the missile silos.

2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Idea Day 8

With this toy plane, you can bomb the daylights out of targets including a railway gun, tank, field artillery, truck convoy, and supply dump. Score points by dropping the metal bomb from the United States Air Force plane’s all metal bomb release. Dive bomb for the glory of the Cold War. Circle ’round and give that tank its due! Better take care of that railway gun before it takes care of you!

The Atom Bomber was manufactured in the late 1940s by Thomas Toy (Thomas Manufacturing Corp.). Made of plastic parts, the bomb doors were metal, and the included atom bomb was made of lead – perfect for young kids and a substitute for licking the lead paint on the walls.

2019 Atomic Advent Calendar Gift Idea Day 7

This ring spinthariscope was available beginning 1946 by sending in a boxtop of Kix cereal plus 15¢ (only $1.73 in 2019 dollars) to receive a seething scientific sensation. With it, you could see atoms smashed to smithereens! Go to a dark room, take off the red plastic tail fin, wait until your eyes adjust to the darkness, then peer into the unknown of the warhead and see frenzied flashes of light caused by the released energy of atoms splitting like crazy.

This small spinthariscope had polonium alpha particles that struck a zinc sulfide screen. With a half-life of 138 days, polonium-210 is considered safe at very minute levels and is found in uranium ores. Although, polonium is considered one of the most biologically dangerous materials. A microgram of polonium-210, about the size of a speck of dust, can deliver a fatal dose of radiation.

The scintillations were exciting for a while, but eventually you would just have a fun ring with a secret compartment. And you would have avoided the fate of Irene Joliot-Curie and Alexander Litvinenko.