"Popular Science article about lead figures" Topic

See (at least some of) it at:

link

I was kind of surprised reading this in the hardcopy of the magazine. It seems focused on toy soldiers, and does not discuss that they are often expressly NOT for children.

If I have a lowered IQ – and some might argue that I have – it's perhaps a small price to pay. :)

Does this mean I should stop cleaning figures over the breakfast table?

There goes our family time…

I like how he says, "Children,….they often cast them in their own kitchens". I'm sorry, I can't see any parents letting their kids casting miniatures in the kitchen. I grew up in the 70's where we had lots of dangerous games that I couldn't see any parents letting the kids play now.

Oh hum

Burnt toast was proved to be cancerous at one point – asprin goes from good to bad depending on the wind – will any of these impact the hobby – nope been there done it.

To paraphrase a recent thread:

Life is 100% fatal

Everything is dangerous – take care you should know better. Me – I'm more bothered by toilet seats link

Bring back Lawn Darts!

Well, I do prefer lead-free pewter for the safe side of things. But I'm not overly worried about the effects of simply handling lead, which I suspect are minimal to non-existent. As one commenter noted, if our bodies hadn't evolved to handle trace amounts of heavy metals, we'd be extinct.

Egads…

The nonsense has reached epic levels…. I think about all of my friends who cast, filed, painted and played with lead soldiers. I think of all the broken lives, the brain damage, the disease.

I think of… well, no one. None of my friends ever ate any of their lead miniatures.

The comments following this article are sad. People have lost their minds. We have become sheep for the slaughter.

Joe Collins

I like how he says, "Children,….they often cast them in their own kitchens". I'm sorry, I can't see any parents letting their kids casting miniatures in the kitchen. I grew up in the 70's where we had lots of dangerous games that I couldn't see any parents letting the kids play now.

Dangerous you say?

link

What could possibly go wrong?

That is what they asked the last Christmas in Atlantis.

How silly. Children in the 1960s didn't cast their own with lead; they bought Airfix plastic. I know; I was one.

Now if you want to discuss interesting toys, I had one of the 6-panel Gilbert chemistry sets that came with its own as asbestos.

Rick

CS, geez, all Iran has to do is fill out that coupon:

Gentlemen! I need replacements for the following radioactive sources (check which

I'm sending that link to the unviersity's radiation safety officer for whom I wrote and maintain an application to track, purchase and register radioactive materials by approved labs.
--
Tim

I'm addicted to both oxygen, water and food, withdraw any of these and I probably won't survive the "cold turkey."

My chemistry set, back in the 70s came with a large range of chemicals which the current generation won't ever get to play with. Why back in the good old days….

I still have my Gilbert Meth Lab kit up in my attic.

I broke all the scalpels and drill bits in my Gilbert Brain Surgery kit, though. I lost my replacement coupons, though.

I miss A.C. Gilbert. All I have left are my American Flyer trains.

Imagine a toy with its own Gamma radiation source; ouch!

I fondly remember a chem lab in 1962 featuring sliver Mercury dimes and quicksilver (mercury, Hg). The lab showed the 'bond" between the mercury and the silver in the dime, the dime looked quite "wet" with Hg.

Happy to report I'm still sand with few ill effects.

Used to see those toy soldier casting kits in the back of the Monkey Wards and Sears Roebuck catalogs in the 60s. Would have given my eye teeth for them.

Ah well casting those tire lead fishing weights while I was in junior high probably explains my early demise. Wonderful thing having an aethernet connection.

That or the attempts at casting homemade ships prior to CinC getting into the business with really nice (and comparatively cheap) models.

I did cast some lead figures when I was 10ish. The lead was melted down old roofing nail heads that I thought were lead (but could have been anything).

Since my mold was so rough, I then had to file the figures endlessly to get to even a vague human shape. I think this mainly took place in an airless workshop.

So, that was not a good idea?

Hi

'How silly. Children in the 1960s didn't cast their own with lead; they bought Airfix plastic. I know; I was one.'

Well I used the Airfix figure as a master for my plaster of Paris mould as per Donald Featherstones instructions (and comments that it is fine to do such things for personal use …).

Me and my dad just used old scrap lead (it was pretty abundent in the late 60's) a saucepan, ladle and viola.

PPE (personal protective equipment) of any kind was unheard of.

FWIW the figures came out OK and got a nice coat of Humbrol gloss enamel paint.

flipper wrote:

Me and my dad just used old scrap lead (it was pretty abundent in the late 60's) a saucepan, ladle and viola.

I'm having trouble envisioning what part the viola plays in the process, but it's good to know that the things have some use part from making that awful noise.

Or perhaps there was some kind of mix-up between the scrap merchant's "lead fiddle" and the string quartet's "lead viola".

Anyhow, up to 1973 in the US and 2000 in the UK I would have thought that the exposure to lead from petrol fumes outweighed any likely risk from the Pb content of toy soldiers or stringed instruments.

All the best,

John.

Goes down like a lead viola.

I play lead guitar…

You must have biceps like Arnie Scwartz!

@The G Dog: I have one of those trains. It was my father's when he was a boy.