Remember that toy that you just had to have because it was based on something wildly popular? And then it turned out to really, really suck? (We're looking at you, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Pizza Power Game.) It turns out that's been happening as long as companies have been mass-producing toys.

10 Swing Wing

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The Era:

Once called "The Decade of Bad Ideas," by this website, just now, the period between 1960 and 1969 is one of the only periods in American history that can be successfully used as an excuse for seemingly inexcusable behavior. Someone can talk about all of the drugs they abused, all of the dangerous, anonymous sex they had, all of the crimes they committed, all of the time they wasted protesting about how they'd rather be higher, and just as you're about to condemn them, they say, "Well, ya know ... it was the '60s," and suddenly the situation is defused. Being alive during the '60s is your "Get Out of Dumb Shit Free" card.

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"Don't blame us. We didn't even know we were there."

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Unless you design toys.

The Ridiculous Toy:

In 1965, a toy designer at Transogram Games looked at the success of Hula Hoops, with their elegantly simple design and relative safety, and thought, "Hey, yeah, that. But for your head!"

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"Or your tits! We aren't judging."

The Swing Wing was a blue plastic beanie with red, white and blue plastic streamers coming out of the top, and a chinstrap. The idea was that the wearer moved his head and neck in rapid circles to make the streamers fly around, and ... well, that was pretty much it.

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All the fun of propeller hats with 10 times the effort!

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Even a TV commercial with a catchy jingle and a clapping chimpanzee couldn't make the Swing Wing look like fun. Check out the :14 mark, where a boy attempts to walk while Swing Winging, making him look like he's suffering from some kind of neurological disorder: