"Easy Bake Oven" news and stories

Most of us are familiar with the Easy Bake Oven. I was never one of the lucky kids to have one in my personal toy arsenal, but millions of others were. However, did you know that there was another children's toy that used similar light bulb technology to bake pretzels?

Until this weekend, I had no idea that there was such a thing as a Pretzel Jetzel. However, during a late afternoon meander through the basement of a junk store in Wrightsville, PA, I stumbled across one. I was sorely tempted to buy it, but I am already bursting at the storage seams and so am trying to keep unnecessary (no matter how cool) purchases down to a minimum.

It looked pretty neat, though. It came with packets of pretzel mix that you combined with water and then formed on the conveyor belt. They cooked (via light bulb heat) as they moved through the little house and at the end, bingo, freshly baked pretzels. I haven't been able to find out much other information about the Pretzel Jetzel, it appears it was only produced for a short time during the mid-sixties (and that most people stopped using theirs when they ran out of the pretzel mix that came with the toy).

Did any of you have this toy? We'd love for you to share your memories of it in the comments section!

When I was between the ages of six and twelve, I begged my parents for an Easy Bake Oven every time a gift-giving holiday rolled around. I'd watch the ads that aired with the Saturday morning cartoons and long to be one of those girls, pulling my own, light-bulb baked cake out of the pink-flowered oven with the special removing tool. Alas, my parents always refused to buy me one, insisting that they were dangerous. I always thought that they were making excuses because they were just terrified of what would happen if I was allowed to have an oven in my bedroom.

Today my parents were proven correct, as Hasbro has recalled over one million Easy Bake Ovens because of a ruling by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which determined that "children could get their hands caught in the front opening and suffer burns." According to the CPSC, a voluntary recall for the ovens has been in effect since February. However, since then, 249 children have gotten their hands caught, 77 report burn injuries and one girl had a finger partially amputated.

The recall applies to ovens sold between May 2006 and July 2007. Hasbro has asked people to stop using the oven and to contact them at 1-800-601-8418 for details on how to return it and receive a voucher for a different toy.