Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 1 Gift Idea

Porter Chemical Company produced the Chemcraft Master Laboratory with Atomic Energy throughout the 1950s. The kit included radioactive Uranium ore and was the most expensive and elaborate model available in 1951. At $27.50 (about $265 in today’s dollars), this was quite an investment for a family Christmas gift.

The popularity of chemistry sets peaked during the 1940s and 1950s, coinciding with the nuclear arms race. After the Atomic Energy Act was passed in 1947, the Atomic Energy kits were added to the Chemcraft chemistry sets. This model contains not only chemicals, but an educational manual on atomic energy, radiation test strips, and the sample of true uranium ore.

The set in the pictures, above, was found at the Great Basin Museum in Delta, UT. Other museums have tested these sets with Geiger counters and found the radiation from the Uranium core to be negligible and safe for handling.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 2 Gift Idea

Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer from 1919-1980, but ultimately lost out to foreign manufacturing competition. Their high-end toys were common staples for catalog and department store retailers such as Sears.

This callout is from page 384 of the 1962 Sears Christmas catalog advertising a Colonial Metal House with a fallout shelter for only $5.97 ($50.87 in current dollars) to be part of Blueberry Lane in your own housing development. On other models, the fallout shelter is the garage. But there’s no need for driving when you must shelter in place. The shelter comes equipped with first aid, bedding, water, and food supplies. In addition, there’s a covered patio for watching the flash and blast.

The dollhouses produced after the 1940s were metal lithographed with plastic furniture. This set came with over 35 pieces including chairs, sofas, tables, and beds. For the fallout shelter, the plastic furniture included a cabinet sink and folded cots. You could move the patio chairs and table in for added comfort. The fallout shelter version was only briefly produced during the early 1960s. This version is now a collector’s dream.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 3 Gift Idea

Ideal’s exact replica of the U.S. Army’s Atomic Cannon will give you the firepower you need to blast your friends. Over 4 feet long, it comes with six soft-tipped shells for loading into the cannon complete with adjustable firing ranges. This 1958 beauty is only $7.98 ($71.06 in today’s dollars, and much cheaper than the $7.6MM to purchase a real one!).

Ideal Toy Company produced toys and dolls from 1909 to 1997, including a wide variety of military toys.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 4 Gift Idea

The Polaris Nuclear Sub was a bargain at only $6.98. It’s guaranteed to provide hours of imaginative play in the sturdily constructed 200 lb. test material.

Like most of the things you could buy in the back of a comic book, the Polaris Nuclear Sub was long on description, mystery, and marketing. And once delivered, usually disappointing — comes with real working torpedoes and rockets! Real periscope! Electrically lit control panel!

It’s just that the ad never mentions that it’s a play set made of cardboard and plastic parts that you need to assemble. So nobody really got to submerge to 20,000 leagues, shoot Polaris missiles for the glory of the Cold War, destroy enemy battleships, or celebrate with the Sea Monkeys among the bubbles of the deep.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 5 Gift Ideas

Running a toy train set around the tree during the holidays brings an air of nostalgia to kids of all ages. Share the joy you experienced with the young ‘uns in your life by introducing them to these fabulous Atomic Energy Commission toy trains.

What kid hasn’t dreamed of tending to their own uranium ore cars? Can’t dig a bomb shelter in your backyard? You can be one of the travelers in your own Mobile Fallout Shelter. Know that you’re doing your part for the Cold War by transporting Spent Fuel Rods to safe storage among our nuclear stockpile. How do you get there? With a glow-in-the-dark, life-like AEC diesel engine chugging you through the nuclear winter.

Atomic Energy Commission toy trains have been part of many sets over the years, ever since its founding in 1947. Lionel, for example, has included atomic and nuclear cars in its line. For the N-gauge versions pictured above, Micro Trains is your source.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 6 Gift Idea

More fun than Slim Pickens had riding an H-Bomb to the netherworld, your kid can scoot down the street on this Little Boy while the neighbors run for cover, as the world has certainly come to an end!

At the end of World War II, the military had a surplus problem, including hundreds of 100-lb. practice bombs. What else can you do with a 35-1/2 inch practice bomb? Make it into a ride upon scooter, of course! With all steel construction, rubber tires, and a handle grip, these sold, at their peak for $7.95 in 1946 (about $104.92 in 2019 dollars).

By Christmas of 1946, they were selling for a reduced price of $5.95, and by spring of 1947, often reduced to $3.95. As such, they probably weren’t that popular. Unfortunately, 100-lb. practice bombs had flooded the surplus market, so just about anyone with some simple mechanical skills could easily replicate it for about $1.50.

So hurry and get yours so the little ones can become Destroyers of Worlds. And then maybe, just maybe, we’ll meet again some sunny day!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 7 Gift Idea

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.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 8 Gift Idea

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.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 9 Gift Ideas

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.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 10 Gift Idea

Safe! Exciting! Instructive! And you might even get a $10,000 reward from the government for finding uranium!

The A.C. Gilbert Company released a variety of instructive lab kits in the 1950s for kids to conduct radiation experiments for a reasonable price. The Geiger Counter was included with their Atomic Energy Lab, but could also be purchased separately.

In the 1950s, we were positively gaga over Geiger counters and finding uranium — the biggest gold rush since, well, the gold rush. For only $21 ($223.55 in 2019 dollars), you could get this working Geiger counter and possibly strike it rich. With a neon light indicator recessed in the top, the radioactivity was indicated by means of flashes as well as clicks in the earphones.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 11 Gift Idea

Uranium Rush was an “exciting new electric game for the family” produced by Gardner Games in the 1950s. In fact, this was an Educator Approved Prestige Toy and selected as one of 104 Outstanding Toys of 1955. For only $2.95 ($24.01 in 2019 dollars), you could join the prospecting hoards.

All the players begin with $15,000, then spin the arrow to determine where on the board the player can prospect. Stake a claim for only $1000! You can test the claim to make sure it’s belching with uranium using the Geiger Counter. Touch the base of the Geiger Counter to the player’s master plug and touch the tip of the wire to the small metal circle around the mine. If it buzzes, you’ve just received $50,000 from the gub’ment! Follow the directions, and pass to the next person. When all the claims have been staked, the most money wins — just like how it really happens! Yeeehaw!

Buzz your way to fun and fortune while decked out in your best uranium prospecting duds!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 12 Gift Idea

Let’s practice dropping atom bombs! Test your aim! A thrill a second! Cyclone action! It’s not for enormous destruction, just enormous pleasure!

Mutoscope’s 1946 arcade game, “Atomic Bomber,” allowed coin-droppers to line up a set of cross hairs to colored dots on the rotating drum. If a hit is achieved, a “bomb blast” is see on the backglass of the machine, or the Reflectograph.

With lots of atomic jargon in the sales brochure, the marketers practically guaranteed an outlet for “Atomic Thinking” and “chain-reaction” sales of the arcade game.

For an interesting video describing its history and to see the game in action, visit: The Story Behind 1946’s Arcade Game Atomic Bomber from GameInformer.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 13 Gift Idea

Atomic Robot Man is coming to take over your city. Look out, he’s walking down the center of the street. Run away before he runs amok!

The original Atomic Robot Man was released shortly after World War II in Japan, where there was a well-established tin toy business. Robot toys were indicative of the times, where we suddenly lived in a world with atomic bombs and rockets. The next frontier with all this technology was robots, doing the work of humans.

Modern versions of this tin toy can be found for about $15 in a multitude of colors. But if you really want to go retro and rule the world with your 1940s original Atomic Robot Man in stunning greenish-beige, expect to shell out over $1500.

Watch this original bad boy try to take over the world!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 14 Gift Ideas

Not only will Homer deliver your nuclear waste for free, just like Amazon, you can also zing along a Hot Wheels orange track in your living room! Don’t forget to look inside and check out the view through the lens on the back of the truck.

In the early ’90s soon after the Simpsons first aired, the world had gone nuts for all things Homer and Bart. Don’t have a cow, man, just pretend nuclear waste is fun and exciting, or you can eat my shorts. Cowa-nuclear-bunga, dude!

You could pick this up for only $2.99 at Toys-R-Us, which you can’t do anymore. (That’s $5.88 in 2019 dollars.)

And here’s someone really enjoying their new Homer Simpson Nuclear Waste Delivery Vans.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 15 Gift Ideas

G.I. Joe moved from the battlefield to the adventure field, fighting such adversaries as ecological disasters and wild animals instead of other humans. Joe was now part of the Adventure Team, ready for action and adventures in the jungles, desserts, mountains, oceans, and radioactive landscapes.

Need a clean up in Hanford? Spill some radiation at Oak Ridge? Drop some uranium ore in Los Alamos? Never fear, as Joe’s ready to detect some radiation with his green jump suit, handy belt with secure container, goggles, and pincer arm to get that pesky (simulated) uranium rock out of the way. All the safety equipment needed! His flocked hair and beard is sure to keep that pesky ionizing radiation from doing damage!

G.I. Joe Adventure Team Radiation Detection equipment and clothing sets retailed for $1.99 each ($12.25 in 2019 dollars) at all the major toy outlets beginning in 1972, and you could often buy two sets for only $3.00 (a bargain at $18.46 in 2019 dollars).

If your parents are generous, be sure to ask them for the Mike Power, Atomic Man, action figure to put that (simulated) uranium rock juice to good use.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 16 Gift Ideas

Doctor Dreadful is a series of edible food labs to make gross, disgusting, strange, weird, and wacky foods and drinks you can enjoy. Looks gross! Tastes great!

In 1996, Tyco developed a series of three Radioactive Experiments including the Nuclear Freeze, the Nuclear Explosion, and the Nuclear Blob — promising foaming drinks or bubbling blobs that taste delicious.

To conduct the experiments, you simply mix the Nuclear Explosion parts together (in pouches), and, ta-da — foaming, blobbing, goopy messes of tasty sugar.

For just $3.96 (or $6.49 in 2019 dollars), you can gross out your friends and family.

Everything’s gone radioactive! Get yours now!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 17 Gift Idea

You might recognize the “B-29” and lead bomb from the Atom Bomber. You’d be right! Let’s re-purpose these little buddies to drop bombs on ships! Hit the target, and the battleship explodes (harmlessly) into 8 parts!

Continuing with the tradition of harmlessly bombing things, this 1953 playset reminds parents that the atom bomb doesn’t actually explode things. Your kids are safe when playing with the lead atom bomb.

The battleship reassembles simply, for bombing over and over again. It promises hours of endless military fun. Pretend you’re dropping Gilda from Dave’s Dream with the 509th Bombardment Group as part of test Able of Operation Crossroads!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 18 Gift Ideas

Who doesn’t enjoy the radioactive antics of our modern anti-hero, Homer Simpson, and his pals at the nuclear power plant? Playmates created these play sets in 2000 including the glow-in-the-dark radioactive Homer, the interactive nuclear power plant environment, and the nuclear power plant lunch room with Frank Grimes.

Complete with all the controls for creating your own nuclear meltdown, Homer has his protective suit and necessary donuts. Frank Grimes has set out all the necessities for a Homer-ific lunch of pink icing donuts, sandwiches, and fruit. These interactive sets were so named because they said phrases from the TV show.

For only $19.99 (or $27.22 in 2019 dollars), you can have all the nuclear fun possible! Here’s the Krebsinator’s review of the Nuclear Power Plant Lunch Room:

And here’s a look at the Radioactive Homer and the Nuclear Power Plant by CoolStuff7895:

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 19 Gift Idea

Be the coolest kid on the block with your Buck Rogers U-235 Atomic Pistol! This absolutely harmless cap gun comes complete with a uranium concentrating magazine, atomic power release chamber, fission rate indicator, neutron blast initiator, and more!

After World War II, Daisy created the U-235 Atomic Pistol, reflecting the current fascination with atomic energy, and was available with a blue finish, unfinished steel or gold. When the trigger (neutron blast initiator) is pulled, the sparking chamber (caps) lights up and blasts your enemies with a loud pop!

Ready for Christmas in 1946, you could mail away your order for the Buck Rogers Atomic Pistol for only $2.00 (or $26.38 in 2019 dollars).

The Kansas City Public Library takes you on a tour of the difference between the Buck Rogers Atomic Pistol and the Atomic Disintegrator.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 20 Gift Idea

This 1958 Uranium Hauler from Nylint is a great value for any of your small hauling needs, whether in the sandbox, the basement, or the San Rafael Swell outside Green River, Utah. You’re ready with this all-steel rear dumper with powerful hydraulic cylinder, strong enough to lift and dump a heaping load of wet sand when the latch lever is released.

Built to last, the No. 2700 Uranium Hauler was only $7.98 in 1958 (only $71.02 in 2019 dollars). But it was built to last…forever! Just like the glow from the uranium you’ll haul away. Won’t your mom be proud!

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 21 Gift Idea

Traveling in 1956 was tons of fun as long as you didn’t do anything to make your dad turn the car around! What better way to prevent disappointed dads than staying occupied with 15 different games for kids from six to sixty. Among the games included Town and Country Bingo, Rainbow Bingo, and Guided Missiles.

Who wouldn’t have fun creating boxes with your sister and making “strike” claims for uranium? You can have up to 4 games on a graphically-rich sheet of paper complete with a geiger counter, headphones, and a shovel.

Keep it in the glove box so that it’s handy for the kids. Take it on the train. Ask your neighbor on the bus to play a game or two.

Really just a game of Dots and Boxes, the ’50s had Uranium Fever.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 22 Gift Idea

Watch Freedom and Commie lock horns and battle for the soul of humanity. Can Commie’s horn of classless social structure hold up against Freedom’s hooves of capitalist opportunity? Play and find out.

Remember when the bad guys wore red and the good guys wore red, white, and blue? Complete with a scythe and hammer tattooed on his thigh, Commie is ready for action against Freedom, with mother-loving stars and bars waving proudly. Teach your kids all about the cold war by re-enacting some of the greatest moments: Berlin blockade and airlift, Francis Gary Powers, Sputnik, Cuban Missile Crisis, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and more!

Now only available through collector’s sites and eBay, these toys are but a distant memory, like the cold war.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 23 Gift Idea

The A.C. Gilbert Company was known for creating the Erector Set and American Flyer trains, but quickly jumped on the atomic bandwagon with such classics as the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory and an entry in their classic Gilbert Problem Puzzles called “Atomic Bomb.”

Created in 1945, this dexterity puzzle game is one of the earliest toys and games with an atomic theme. The boxed problem puzzle set includes printed litho cards with such games as Ring a Tail, Radio Tube Trick, Hungry Pup, Trap a Sap, Topsy Turvy Rivets, and Atomic Bomb.

A later version licensed under the Fred-Alan Novelty Company explains the game:

The puzzle game made its debut shortly after the use of the atomic bombs after World War II. It’s hard to imagine a toy such as this being produced today and is an interesting snapshot of history.

Atomic Advent Calendar: Day 24 Gift Idea

In the 1950s, Louis Marx and Company produced the Linemar Atomic Reactor through its Linemar line of tin toys manufactured in Japan. This operating steam engine is complete with water tank and boiler (the reactor dome with safety valve), fuel to heat the water (Esbit tablets), and battery (for the lighted cooling tower). The cylinder oscillates with an oiler on the steam chest. To keep things safe, a guard rail surrounds the engine.

Selling for approximately $19.95 in the mid 1950s (about $193 in 2019 dollars), this was an investment for lots of continuing fun. You can find this in collector’s markets today from between $300 to $700. Or you can just have as much fun watching modern collectors display their wares online:

In the 1960s, Wilesco (Wilhelm Schröder GmbH & Co KG), from Germany, manufactured the Wilesco R200 Nuclear Power Plant Steam Engine which added the convenience of using an electric heater for the reactor dome rather than Esbit tablets. This version changed the look to a more modern cooling tower along with a more reliable engine.

Unfortunately, the R200 Nuclear Power Plant was not their biggest seller among their several lines of steam engines because most people were wary of the safety of anything labeled “atomic” or “nuclear” — even in a small toy. (Remember all the warnings of “completely safe” with all the other atomic toys?) The R200 had a 16mm stroke, 9mm diameter, and 70mm flywheel. Because of the quality of the German design and the limited number of production, the collector’s market price for the Wilesco R200 is around $1200.

Watch the Wilesco R200 in operation:

In 2019, in the before-times of the pandemic, we put together a daily listing that we called the Atomic Advent. It featured toys, games, and activity sets created as a result of the new atomic bomb and Cold War. These range from uranium mining games, to GI Joe uranium set, to the atomic chemistry sets, to Homer Simpson’s atomic van, and more.

We’ve turned these posts into a fun, interactive Advent Calendar to help with your countdown for the holiday season. Check back each day from December 1 to 24, for a different door to open to your wildest atomic childhood toys.