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Dr. Dreadful Labs



Earlier this week, Rick Strickert reported that Sunday's Toys'R'Us newspaper
advertisement indicated the availability of TYCO's Dr. Dreadful Radioactive
Drink Lab and Radioactive Food Lab. I casually mentioned this to my sister,
who said that she would be visiting a local Toys'R'Us to buy a birthday gift
for a friend of her son. She promised to investigate this Dr. Dreadful
matter, to see if such a ridiculous and ill-advised line of toys really exists.

Well, I am pleased as punch to announce that although the Dr. Dreadful labs
are right there on the shelf, the word "radioactive" has been deleted from
the packaging. For example, the liquid refreshment toy is now referred to as
simply the "Dr. Dreadful Drink Lab".

Apparently, someone at TYCO considered the fact (or was informed of the
fact) that teaching the youth of America that radioactive beverages are fun,
tasty and harmless may not be such a grand idea after all. Of course,
teaching them to drink colorful, bubbling solutions from Erlenmeyer flasks,
beakers and test tubes is presumably acceptable, since all of these items
are still present in the lab sets.

A Toys'R'Us employee told my sister that he believes that some time ago the
packaging did say "radioactive", and that he can't remember when that
inscription was deleted. Some of the old sets may still be available at some
stores.

By the way, for your dining and dancing pleasure, Dr. Dreadful Ice-Scream
Labs are now available for purchase. Enjoy!!


Rick Mannix
Univ. of Cal., Irvine
rcmannix@uci.edu