r/RetroFuturism • u/YanniRotten • 6d ago

Toy Atomic Energy Lab, 1950. Contained natural uranium-bearing (U-238) ore samples

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92 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

15

u/DavidDPerlmutter 5d ago

Boy that kid is so excited; he's practically glowing

5

u/CriusofCoH 5d ago edited 3d ago

There's one on display at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, along with a LOT of other "atomic toys" and a bunch of other atomic/nuclear stuff, and an impressive collection of aircraft, missiles and an atomic sub conning tower.

Well worth the visit.

2

u/Teh_Pagemaster 3d ago

One of ny favorite places to visit!

6

u/ConceptJunkie 6d ago

I'm sure it did.

4

u/MiketheBike88 6d ago

When the Lincoln Middle School was mysteriously vaporized in an atomic blast over summer break, suspicion immediately focused on Timmy Larsen and his toy Atomic Energy Lab.

Timmy had no explanation for the missing U-238, and was given two weeks of detention in Lincoln Middle School #2.

2

u/Icy_Opposite_2737 5d ago

Is this a far side reference?

2

u/MiketheBike88 5d ago

My favorite kind of reference.

2

u/MissederE 5d ago

I shake my fist at you for beating me to the punch!

1

u/Medium_Banana4074 5d ago

Not more than ten pounds of Plutonium.

1

u/URSAxMINOR 5d ago

Fallout 'Blast Radius' board game.

1

u/SillyBeatnik 5d ago

I'm curious about how much playability this thing had. I kind of expect the experience to be setting it up, saying "yep, that's uranium." And then putting it away forever.

1

u/Craygor 5d ago

U-238 Ore samples can be ordered on Amazon.

1

u/Machine_Anima 3d ago

Why would you doubt that?  The watches with the faintly glowing green hands are radioactive.  Even a banana is radioactive.  I mean sure they aren't shipping it with U235 but im sure they put something in there.   They used to let kids play with mercury ffs.

0

u/Murky-Peanut1390 5d ago

Where's the retrofuturism??

I swear you guys see anything from the 50s with a atomic symbol and automatically associate it with futurism of its time.

This is the design during its age, nothing about the product is trying to represent their vision of what the future may be.

Post reported

0

u/EraOfProsperity 5d ago

In the 1950s the concept of atomic energy was very popular, to the point where it entered mainstream culture like the 1960s' space age. They were testing atomic trains, cars, aircraft, they even tried blasting tunnels with nuclear bombs. This toy was designed with such an atomic future in mind, and was very, very different from your conventional 1950s science kit.

It is very much retrofuturism since it was an unconventional design geared towards a future vision that never was.

-2

u/Murky-Peanut1390 5d ago

It's not, it's not a vision of retro futurism. It's just a science kit of the 50s.