Transcript

SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

From Stuff You Should Know · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

December 14, 2025 · 37 min · 7,276 words · 209 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW", an episode of Stuff You Should Know published December 14, 2025 (37 min, about 7,276 words). It mentions 80 people, works and ideas, including Easy Bake Oven, Kenner, Light bulb, Stuff You Should Know, iHeart Radio.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the cultural significance and mechanics of the Easy Bake Oven, a toy that allows children to simulate baking in a miniature kitchen setup. The speakers reminisce about its nostalgic impact and the simplicity of its design, highlighting how it enabled young users to feel like they were engaging in adult activities.

Key takeaways

The Easy Bake Oven: Kenner's recipe for nostalgia, baking childhood memories since 1963.
Kenner, the toy giant behind Star Wars, began their reign baking bubbles—not space battles.
Toy history echoes reality: Lil' ovens evolved alongside adult ovens, but with more childhood peril.
Early toy ovens: a culinary adventure in physics; cast iron sets hot enough for a mini cookout disaster.
Ideas at Kenner came from anywhere, proving inspiration could strike over shared chow mein sessions.

What is discussed, and when

0:00 – 5:00: Easy Bake Oven, Kenner, Stuff You Should Know, Admiral Bertram Ramsay
5:00 – 10:00: Kenner, Collectors Weekly, goatee, Light bulb
10:00 – 15:00: Easy Bake Oven, Charles Cummings, Light bulb, Safety Bake Oven
15:00 – 20:00: Easy Bake Oven, Archie's comics, Ford Pinto, Gillette razor model
20:00 – 25:00: Easy Bake Oven, Kenner, Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker branded mixes
25:00 – 30:00: Easy Bake Oven, Light bulb, Recall, ceramic heating element
30:00 – 35:00: Easy Bake Oven, avocado green, Carpenters, ceramic heating element
35:00 – 36:49: John Hanks Alexander, iHeart Radio, iHeart Radio app, Maria Christina Leon

Notable quotes from "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"

Not just toy episodes, but favorite episodes. The Easy Bake Oven, which had this huge cultural impact and still does today. If you want to make somebody nostalgic, just say Easy Bake Oven and watch their eyes well up with tears.
about Easy Bake Oven · at 0:12
To be an adult in the kitchen. That's that was the basis of it, being an adult. That was kind of Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who made Star Wars toys, were the ones…
about Kenner · at 2:17
Something. I saw some pretzel vendors keeping their pretzels warm on the street using a light bulb. What if we used a light bulb to heat up an oven for the little kitties? And somebody I think Charles House, Ralph House.
about Light bulb · at 6:40
Yeah. There was a dude named Charles Hold on I really want Yeah. Charles Cummings.
about Charles Cummings · at 13:09
Yeah. Right out of the gate. They wanted to call it in November of 63 the safety bake oven cuz they really wanted to drive this home was that it was super safe.
about Safety Bake Oven · at 14:22
Because again so long 100 watt light bulb because of the energy act with an actual heating element, a ceramic heating element like an oven.
about ceramic heating element · at 27:53
So, Hasbro was Well, we'll do a recall. And they recalled like 985,000.
about Recall · at 28:43
Then they came out in 2011 with that really ugly designed what's called the Easy Bake Ultimate Oven.
about Easy Bake Ultimate Oven · at 29:38

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Charles Cummings — Person · 2 mentions · first at 13:14
John Hanks Alexander — Person · 2 mentions · first at 35:30
If you do read this on the air, please give a shout out to Mark Alexander okay?
Josh Malcolm Clark — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:53
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's Ramsay over there. The Yuge. which means it's time for stuff you should know. Nostalgia edition. Colon TS Hodgeman.
Admiral Bertram Ramsay — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:55
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's Ramsay over there. The Yuge. which means it's time for stuff you should know. Nostalgia edition. Colon TS Hodgeman.
TS Hodgeman — Person · 1 mention · first at 1:03
Yuge. which means it's time for stuff you should know. Nostalgia edition. Colon TS Hodgeman.
Tim Burton — Person · 1 mention · first at 3:07
He came on after his first the first thing he worked on was the Tim Burton Batman movies.
Rick Watkins — Person · 1 mention · first at 3:24
Just go after Rick Watkins art online and check it out.
Joan Kennedy — Person · 1 mention · first at 4:12
Easy Bake Oven, which debuted in November of 1963, right around the time that John Kennedy was shot.
Albert Phillip — Person · 1 mention · first at 4:16
Yeah. But, Kenner had been around since the 1940s. Albert Phillip and Joseph Steiner formed the company after, as legend goes, one of them saw a bubble, maker, bubble wand or whatever you call them.
Joseph Steiner — Person · 1 mention · first at 4:19
Yeah. But, Kenner had been around since the 1940s. Albert Phillip and Joseph Steiner formed the company after, as legend goes, one of them saw a bubble, maker, bubble wand or whatever you call them.
Lisa Hicks — Person · 1 mention · first at 5:40
Lionel, the train the model train makers, they made some in the 30s. Also, we want to give a shout out to Lisa Hicks and the people at Collectors Weekly for a great article we…
Kyle Gillette — Person · 1 mention · first at 16:54
That's like the Gillette razor model. I think it was King Gillette who came up with that.
Chris McKenna — Person · 1 mention · first at 30:20
This. So, in 200, I think 2013, there was a girl named McKenna Pope.
Maria Christina Leon — Person · 1 mention · first at 35:55
Into tears and I would too. So thank you Mark Alexander for turning on your friend Maria Christina Leon.
Dan Akaroy — Person · 1 mention
Jack Ruby — Person · 1 mention
Pickle Rick — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

Archie's comics — Book · 1 mention · first at 17:54
It they advertised not just to kids through like Archie's comics, but they advertised directly to their parents, too. Like on there were ads for the Easy Bake Oven, on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes, according to.

Companies & orgs

Kenner — Company · 12 mentions · first at 2:21
Stuff You Should Know — Company · 4 mentions · first at 0:03
Well, friends, we've reached the end of our playlist, The Stuff You Should Know, 12 Days of Christmas Toys. this one is one of my all-time favorite episodes.
iHeart Radio — Company · 2 mentions · first at 0:43
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.
Lionel — Company · 1 mention · first at 5:35
Moved into electric ovens, there were kids versions of them. Apparently, Lionel, the train the model train makers, they made some in the 30s. Also, we want to give a shout out…
Collectors Weekly — Company · 1 mention · first at 5:42
Makers, they made some in the 30s. Also, we want to give a shout out to Lisa Hicks and the people at Collectors Weekly for a great article we also used for this episode, too.…
I Love Lucy — Company · 1 mention · first at 18:01
But they advertised directly to their parents, too. Like on there were ads for the Easy Bake Oven, on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes, according to this Collector's Weekly…
Hogan's Heroes — Company · 1 mention · first at 18:03
Their parents, too. Like on there were ads for the Easy Bake Oven, on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes, according to this Collector's Weekly article. And in these ads, if you…
General Mills — Company · 1 mention · first at 23:28
All right. So, in 1967, the Easy Bake Oven is selling like hot cakes, literally. General Mills buys Kenner and they did a couple of genius things.
Betty Crocker — Company · 1 mention · first at 23:38
They partnered because they were General Mills, they had no problem because they owned Betty Crocker as well, I assume.
Pizza Hut — Company · 1 mention · first at 23:48
And then later on, they got into licensing deals with McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Because here's the thing, you can bake anything in an EasyWeek oven cuz it's just a little oven.
National Toy Hall of Fame — Company · 1 mention · first at 31:32
2006, they go into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Sky Mall — Company · 1 mention · first at 32:35
Sky Mall or something and it'll say 420, right? Cuz the publishers paying attention, doesn't know or they don't care.
Carpenters — Company · 1 mention · first at 33:51
Well, if you want to know more about Easy Bake Ovens or the Carpenters or the Snoopy Snow comb machine, just go on to the internet. It's a vast repository of stuff like that. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.
Internet company — Company · 1 mention · first at 34:04
Easy Bake Ovens or the Carpenters or the Snoopy Snow comb machine, just go on to the internet. It's a vast repository of stuff like that. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.
HowStuffWorks — Company · 1 mention
stuffpodcast@howstuffworks.com — Company · 1 mention
stuffyoushouldknow.com — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

Easy Bake Oven — Product · 19 mentions · first at 0:14
Light bulb — Product · 6 mentions · first at 6:44
Safety Bake Oven — Product · 2 mentions · first at 14:23
ceramic heating element — Product · 2 mentions · first at 27:59
Easy Bake Ultimate Oven — Product · 2 mentions · first at 29:43
Play-Doh — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:10
Slinkies — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:13
boomerang — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:17
Well, does a boomerang count as a toy?
Silly Putty — Product · 1 mention · first at 1:24
We've done tons. We did Silly Putty.
Star Wars toys — Product · 1 mention · first at 2:26
Adult. That was kind of Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who made Star Wars toys, were the ones behind this. And they were very much into toys that like let kids pretend they were grown-ups.
bubblematic gun — Product · 1 mention · first at 4:36
Gun that shoots bubbles, we might be on to something. And that was their very first product is the bubblematic gun.
plastic safety razors — Product · 1 mention · first at 7:52
Did you have one of those plastic safety razors so you could shave next to your dad? No, I did.
100 W incandescent bulbs — Product · 1 mention · first at 11:03
Looking more classic, I think. Yeah, that'd be my advice. but they used two 100 W incandescent bulbs at first, one over the top and another under the bottom. Obviously, they were trying to get an even heat because you're baking things,.
popcorn maker — Product · 1 mention · first at 13:57
That is the way it should be. He also created the patent or he held the patent for the add-on popcorn maker that you could put onto the Easy Bake Oven, too.
Ford Pinto — Product · 1 mention · first at 15:40
But if you look at it, you're That thing looks like a death trap. It looks like the Ford Pinto of children's toys from the 60s. like the sharp metal edges and like that's what it looks like. Like the baby strollers we were pushed around in.
Snoopy snow cone machine — Product · 1 mention · first at 20:12
They bought out Kenner eventually, makers of the classic Snoopy snow cone machine.
slush puppy — Product · 1 mention · first at 20:37
Number two is blue raspberry slush puppy.
hot fudge — Product · 1 mention · first at 21:06
Yeah. I could never do that. I still have problems regulating my like hot fudge to ice cream ratio when eating a Sunday.
vanilla bean ice cream — Product · 1 mention · first at 21:45
This is really delicious. Actually, it is. It is. It's subtle vanilla bean ice cream or like a true the flex.
Queasy Bake Oven — Product · 1 mention · first at 22:05
So okay, now hyphenated. So the queasy bake oven and the mixer raator for you boys, you can make mud and crud cakes and larvalicious cocoon cookies and you know not like hey just bake something.
Betty Crocker branded mixes — Product · 1 mention · first at 23:41
Launching Betty Crocker branded mixes, right?
cotton candy machine — Product · 1 mention · first at 24:37
We had a cotton candy machine now that I remember.
microwave — Product · 1 mention · first at 27:16
The weird its own thing to the late 70s and early 80s it started to resemble a microwave and then in response to this change in light bulb requirements Easy Bake did a redesign in 2006 and for the first time ever the Easy.
potato chip maker — Product · 1 mention · first at 32:06
Oh, they had a potato chip maker.
digital clock — Product · 1 mention · first at 32:18
And, then in 78, they finally started putting a fake digital clock on it that always read 12:30.
mac and cheese — Product · 1 mention · first at 33:19
Mac and cheese you can bake. Oh, in 2003 they introduced the real meal oven and you could that's when you could do like French fries and pizza and mac and cheese and stuff.
Egg McMuffin — Product · 1 mention · first at 34:42
Way. People sometimes laugh when I'm telling that I'm writing something like the history of the Egg McMuffin or the best month to buy a mattress. Mhm.
iHeart Radio app — Product · 1 mention · first at 36:33
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Concepts & topics

Recall — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 28:46
goatee — Concept · 1 mention · first at 8:35
But, Scott can grow a pretty decent goatee now, but I don't I don't think he could grow the full beard, but his was we were both spotty. Like a little bit above the lip.
convection oven — Concept · 1 mention · first at 13:03
If they just engineered this thing to distribute heat and hold heat a little better, almost like a convection oven.
Gillette razor model — Concept · 1 mention · first at 16:52
That's like the Gillette razor model. I think it was King Gillette who came up with that.
shaved ice — Concept · 1 mention · first at 20:32
And that's until you had a shaved ice later and you're Oh, wait. This is a lot better.
Energy Independence and Security Act — Concept · 1 mention · first at 26:31
The Energy Independence and Security Act when the government said by 2012 light bulbs have to increase their efficiency by 25%. So, bye-bye 100 watt incandescent bulb.
avocado green — Concept · 1 mention · first at 31:56
Emulated the styles of the time unless they were just doing pink. Like in ' 69 they premiered the avocado green.
Harvest Gold — Concept · 1 mention · first at 31:59
The very next year was Harvest Gold.
marijuana leaf — Concept · 1 mention · first at 32:56
And remember one of them drew a like a park scene for me and the tree clearly had a marijuana leaf like embedded in it, right? And I was Hey man, you can't do that. And he was Oh, that was completely an accident. I was.
Easy Bake Oven commercials — Concept · 1 mention · first at 33:42
Good stuff. If you want a nice blast from the past, just type in like Easy Bake Oven commercials. There's one from 1980 that was just perfect.
digital nomading — Concept · 1 mention · first at 34:56
Yeah, I agree. Have you guys ever considered doing a show on digital nomading?
remote working — Concept · 1 mention · first at 35:03
I know it's becoming increasingly popular as more companies embrace remote working. I'm in a cafe in Medelin Medí, Colombia right now and there are five digital nomads tapping…
laser — Concept · 1 mention
McDonald's and Pizza Hut licensing deals — Concept · 1 mention
Victorian age — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Bali — Place · 1 mention
Medellín — Place · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 Well, friends, we've reached the end of our playlist, The Stuff You Should Know, 12 Days of Christmas Toys. Uh, this one is one of my all-time favorite episodes. Not just toy episodes, but favorite episodes. The Easy Bake Oven, which had this huge cultural impact and still does today. If you want to make somebody nostalgic, just say Easy Bake Oven and watch their eyes well up with tears. It's really fun. At any rate, we want to thank you for joining us on this journey through our Christmas toy episodes, and we want to wish all of you happy holidays and merry Christmas from Stuff You Should Know.

0:41 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There's Ramsay over there. The Yuge. Uh, which means it's time for stuff you should know. Nostalgia edition. Colon TS Hodgeman.

1:07 Yeah, we've done a few toys. Um Play-Doh. Uh Slinkies right? What else? Well, does a boomerang count as a toy?

1:20 Uh, it's way alive, mate. Um, we've done tons. We did Silly Putty. Silly Putty. Sure.

1:27 Uh, we did, um, uh, you know, a bunch. That, uh, the the balls. Yeah, the balls. The balls episode. How balls work.

1:38 They round and they bounce. We said balls like a million times in that episode.

1:42 Uh, yeah. This one's kind of cool, though. The Easy Bake Oven, which I never had one. Did you ever have one in your home?

1:48 I don't think so. No, I don't think my sister had one either. Although I was a pretty tubby kid, so it's possible that my mom was like, "Make sure your brother doesn't know you have one of those. Do not feed your brother anything from there."

2:00 Uh, but it's interesting that this is one where uh sort of a very simple idea and you never can tell what's going to hit toy-wise. Nothing super complex about this other than you could literally bake food and sort of pretend to be an adult in the kitchen. That's that was the basis of it, being an adult. That was kind of uh Kenner's thing. And Kenner, the people who made Star Wars toys, were the ones behind this. And they were very much into um toys that like let kids pretend they were grown-ups.

2:36 Yeah, that was their bag. Yeah. I have a new neighbor actually. Shout out to Rick. Kathy. Hey guys.

2:43 Boy, they really got under your skin, huh? What? Rick and Kathy got a shout out on the podcast and they're new neighbors. Geez.

2:50 Yeah. Because he worked for I was talking to him and I was like, he seems like a good guy. I was like, what? You know, what do you do? Ricky's retired now. What did you do? And he's like, I was a uh toy and action figure designer for Kenner. And I was like,

3:02 wow. Whoa. What years? He came on after his first the first thing he worked on was the Tim Burton Batman movies.

3:10 Nice. And he stayed on for a long time, like his whole career, like after they were sold and everything.

3:15 Wow. Pretty neat. That is very cool. Yeah. Good for him. Yeah. So, uh he still does wonderful uh sculpture so

3:23 Oh, I'll bet. Just go after Rick Watkins art online and and check it out. I'm going I'm going to check it out.

3:30 But I mean, Ker is such a big deal to like to people our age and of many ages, but I didn't realize that they I didn't realize their origin as a company.

3:40 Remember in the we talked we did a whole action figures episode, remember? Oh, yeah.

3:45 And we talked a lot about Kenner. Was that a two-part episode or was it just like an hour and a half long?

3:50 I feel like it was just long. It was very long. But, um, Kenner almost didn't do the Star Wars ones if I remember. But, for us at least, that put Kenner on the map. What I didn't realize is that Kenner was already on the map as far as toys go. Yeah. And one of the ways that they got there was from the Easy Bake Oven, which debuted in November of 1963, right around the time that John Kennedy was shot.

4:14 Yeah. But, uh, Kenner had been around since the 1940s. Um, Albert Phillip and Joseph Steiner um formed the company after, as legend goes, uh, one of them saw a bubble, you know, maker, bubble wand or whatever you call them.

4:30 Yeah. Yeah. And it was like, "Hey, if I could do a gun that shoots bubbles, we might be on to something." And that was their very first product is the bubblematic gun.

4:38 Yeah. And then whatever lesson 20 years later, the Easy Bake Oven, even though, as we learned today and yesterday, there had been toy ovens since like the Victorian days.

4:50 Yes. Like really, really dangerous ones. I know. Like real real little ovens. Yeah. like wood burning pellet solid fuel stoves made of cast iron

5:00 that were sized down for little kids to use. Yeah. Basically like here's the oven that can kill your parents. We'll just make a smaller one that can kill you.

5:09 Right. Yeah. Um Yeah. So the the children's play oven functioning play oven um history very kind of closely tracks the real oven history. Right.

5:22 Yeah. Like when there were cast iron wood burning ovens, there were kids versions of them. As they as real ovens moved into electric ovens, there were kids versions of them. Apparently, um Lionel, the train the model train makers, they made some in the 30s. Also, we want to give a shout out to Lisa Hicks and the people at Collectors Weekly for a great article we also used for um this episode, too. But um in the 30s there were electric ovens. By the 40s or 50s I think there were fiberglass insulated ovens, electric ovens. It was just like a small oven for kids.

6:02 But they were ovens. They were extremely dangerous. And um Kenner had this really great idea. And the reason that this idea came about at Ker to begin with is apparently Ker was really big on having like ideas could come from anywhere. Anybody in the company float an idea and people would listen. They had like regular meetings where you know there were bull sessions. Maybe they ordered some like chowine or something like that. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and relaxed and and spat out ideas. And one of the salesmen from uh Kenner came back in from the field and said, "You know what? I saw something. I saw some pretzel vendors keeping their pretzels warm on the street using a light bulb. What if we used a light bulb to heat up an oven for the little kitties? And somebody I think Charles House, Ralph House.

6:57 Well, Norman Shapiro was that gentleman. And then Ronald House, Ronald House was the big time inventor for Kenner who uh had a couple of like really big uh products under his belt

7:10 and he was like that that's an AC's idea. That's exactly how he talked. Yeah, probably. So

7:16 everyone hated him for it, but he was really good at inventing toys, so they had to put up with it.

7:20 Yeah. But Ker's deal, like you were saying, was uh find things that mimic adult things. And that's like kind of I bet like kids are going to dig that stuff. And they did from like and kids still do little toy lawnmowers and

7:32 toy bulldozers and uh I mean Ruby's got a little cleaning set with like a duster and a dustpan and a mop. And

7:41 is she is she OCD? No, but I mean all the time she will say, you know, "Come on, daddy. Let's clean." And she'll hand me a mop.

7:48 That's a little OCD. Uh well, no, that's good then. Yeah. I like where she's headed.

7:52 Did you have one of those um plastic safety razors so you could shave next to your dad? No,

7:58 I did. But I was I think a lot of boys are pretty obsessed with shaving before they

8:03 have whiskers. Yeah. And I think I heard that they would actually stimulate hair growth on your face.

8:08 I was about to say I remember being worried about that. Yeah, because I didn't have I had a pretty I mean looking at me now, you would never know, but I didn't have a lot of facial hair going on until uh well into college.

8:19 Was it like lacking or did it come in patchy? Just a little bit. Sort of like my brother is now. He just stayed in that phase where

8:27 your brother's got a perfect chiseled face. Well, I know that's cuz he doesn't have a beard.

8:32 Oh, okay. But, um, Scott can grow a pretty decent goatee now, but I don't I don't think he could grow the full beard, but his his was we were both spotty. Like a little bit above the lip.

8:43 Mhm. Little bit on the chin. The one part just kind of traced a line up to your eye from around from under your nose.

8:50 Yeah. But ne I mean, it was sort of a family thing. We're not hairy dudes. We don't have very hairy legs or

8:55 It is odd that you have such a full beard. Like I don't have hairy arms or anything like that. You're you're a beast.

9:01 I don't know if beast is the right word, but yes, I'm a little hairy. You're a hairy guy.

9:05 My uh chest hair definitely plucks out from under my shirt. You ever done any like laser or anything like that?

9:11 No. No. Good for you. No, I'm just I'm hairy. No, I mean you're normal. It's not like you're Robin Williams.

9:18 No, he was hairy. Yes, he was. God rest his soul. Yes, indeed. So, back to the ovens.

9:23 So, um there the the idea has been put out there now by Norman Shapiro. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So, and it was taken up by Ronald House. And this was this was huge and groundbreaking because again there were safe there were um unsafe ovens for kids that have been around since the 19th century.

9:42 What these guys had just happened upon was the way to make another unsafe oven seem safe

9:49 to parents. Yeah. That was that was it. That was the genius of this idea. That is what made Easy Bake ovens take off. What they had figured out was that if they used a light bulb as the heating element. And believe me, a light bulb can heat up an oven.

10:05 Sure. Um 350. Yeah. Up to 350, which is a common baking temp. Yes. From a light bulb. And actually, at first is we'll see a pair of light bulbs. But the fact is they're light bulbs. And parents are familiar with light bulbs. They don't seem weird or scary.

10:21 Yeah. It's not a wood pellet. And the fact that it's not like a heating element like in an actual oven. It's just a light bulb. That is what they used to convince parents that this was a safe product that they could buy for their kids. It was a genius idea.

10:34 It really was. And like you teased a second ago, the very first model uh 1963. And if you look at that very first one, it doesn't really even look like an oven.

10:43 Well, certainly the new one doesn't either. No. I did go online. And I was like, maybe I should get one of those. But they're ugly now.

10:51 They I'm sorry to the person who designed them. Yes, I'm glad you said it. They are ugly little ovens.

10:57 Yeah, they should kind of go back to looking more classic, I think. Yeah, that'd be my advice. Um, but they used two 100 W incandescent bulbs

11:07 at first, one over the top and another under the bottom. Obviously, they were trying to get an even heat because you're baking things,

11:14 right? And and they very wisely designed this thing. Um, so that the actual oven part was basically inaccessible to the kid,

11:23 right? On either side. So just imagine a box. Um, okay. Oh man, here's where it is. I love it. Okay.

11:32 It's my favorite thing when you try to describe something visual. Let me let me see if I if I close my eyes, it works. Uh, imagine a box.

11:39 Okay. And then coming out from either side of the box are a couple of um little little arms.

11:45 Okay. But the arms are half arms and they're rectangular and hollow. Okay? And they're actually openings.

11:54 One opening you slide in the uncooked thing that you want to bake into the heating area, the oven,

12:01 let it bake, and you push it through the other the other side, the cooling chamber, and then it comes out the other arm.

12:08 Everyone, Josh has had his eyes closed that entire time, and it worked. I really painted a great picture

12:13 in your mind's eye. Mhm. Yes. Uh yeah. So that's what what's going on. You had the two bulbs. Um and in fact, let's go ahead and take a break there.

12:23 Oh. Oh, okay. It's a nice little cliffhanger. When we come back, I'll redescribe the Easy Bake Oven again.

12:28 Sounds good. All right. We were at one bulb, right? Oh, yes. Oh, I'm sorry. No, we were at two bulbs,

12:51 right? It was so long ago, I couldn't remember. I know. It was a full ad ago. But then what they did was they figured if they just engineered this thing to distribute heat and hold heat a little better, almost like a convection oven. Yeah.

13:05 Exactly like a convection oven, that they could go down to one bulb. Yeah. There was a dude named uh Charles Hold on I really want Yeah. Charles Cummings.

13:16 Charles one Bulb Cummings. Yeah, that's what he was known as. Charles Cummings was an a designer at Kenner and I think in the late '7s he designed the interior of the oven so that the bulb one bulb created convection current so it cooked just as well as two bulbs but you just needed one. Um, and he owns the patent to that.

13:40 Oh, really? Which is the way it should be. Yeah. He was the designer. He came up with it.

13:44 That's pretty rare, too. I think Ker, of course, I'm sure had an exclusive license to it, but I'm sure he got like a decent amount of money from that license agreement.

13:52 That is the way it should be. He also created the patent um or he held the patent for the add-on popcorn maker that you could put onto the Easy Bake Oven, too.

14:03 Good for him. Good for you, Charles Cummings. Charles one bulb Cummings. He probably lives on top of a mountain somewhere.

14:09 He does. On a on a mountain of money. Uh so all right, you're down to one bulb thanks to Charlie Cummings.

14:15 Yeah. They initially wanted to call this in 1963 when it was two bulbs when it debuted.

14:22 Yeah. Right out of the gate. They wanted to call it in November of 63 the safety bake oven cuz they really wanted to drive this home was that it was super safe.

14:30 Right. And the regulatory bodies were like, "You can't you haven't even sold one yet. Like, we don't we're not sure if this is going to kill kids,

14:37 right? It it burned a dozen monkeys during the product testing trials." Oh, that's so awful. Um, but you can't call it that yet because we don't know yet whether it's truly safe. Go ahead and sell them.

14:47 Sure, but just don't call it safe. The safety bake oven. So, they're like, "Well, what about easy?" And they're like, "Are we still talking about this? We're done with you. Go away." And um they So, they were like, "Okay, fine. We'll call it the Easy Bake Oven then.

15:00 And they sold it as the Easy Bake Oven and it sold out immediately. They sold it. So, November 1963 is right before the Christmas season. Actually, it's in the Christmas season, I think. Even back then.

15:12 Yes. And they they made a little more than half a million units and sold them all at before Christmas.

15:17 Yeah. For $15.95, which is expensive. That would be about $130 today. No. Yeah. That's a That's an expensive toy.

15:25 Wow. And if you look at the thing, I saw a picture of one that's for sale on eBay

15:30 for really cheap. I think it was like 30 bucks or something. Really, it was unused in the box. Still needed to be assembled.

15:37 But if you look at it, you're like, "That thing looks like a death trap. It looks like the Ford Pinto of of children's toys from the 60s." You know, like the sharp metal edges and like like that's what it looks like. Like like the baby strollers we were pushed around in.

15:50 Yeah. remember that that Dan Akroyd SNL skit from years ago with the dangerous Christmas toys

15:55 and there was one called the bag of glass was so great. Uh and that's all it was was just a bag of shards of glass.

16:04 Uh so yeah, they sold a half a million and then they're like we got to make a lot more of these for next year.

16:10 Yeah, because this is back at a time when toys didn't do that very often. You know, it seems like every Christmas now people are like, "Well, what's the toy we should go fight other parents for in the aisles?" Tell us.

16:21 Yeah, cuz I'm training in the ring. This is when it, right? This is when it happened organically when you put out a toy and if it became like the fight worthy toy, that was a few and far between thing. The Easy Bake Oven was the fight worthy toy right out of the gate.

16:34 Yeah. So, in year two, I think they they made about 1.5 million. Sold all those. And here was the here's the little bit of genius from Kenner is uh anytime you can sell a supplementary product to the the big thing. Yeah.

16:49 Then you're really uh cooking with gas. That's like the Gillette razor model. I think it was King Gillette who came up with that.

16:57 Yeah. So what they did was they sold uh mixes, you know, these little instant mixes that you would pour and it would make a little cruddy cake.

17:04 And they had 25 of these at first. And we're selling those like crazy because hot cakes.

17:10 If you're a kid, if if you're a kid, you want all those. You're like, "Well, I haven't tried the the strawberry cake yet."

17:17 Well, plus also, it's not taste better, mommy. It's not like you're putting this in like a a book, like some baseball cards, and you're like, "Well, I've got this one. I don't need it anymore."

17:25 You eat that thing and you need another thing to replace it. Then you poop it out.

17:29 Yeah. And you're not going to eat the poop again. No. You're going to go buy another one. And that was the genius of the other genius idea of this whole thing. There was a third genius idea, too. Kender did this so right. I'm in awe. Not just No, the advertising.

17:45 Oh, sure. So, remember this is kids emulating grown-ups. That was their thing. Um, it it they they advertised not just to kids through like Archie's comics,

17:57 but they they advertised directly to their parents, too. Like on there were ads for the Easy Bake Oven, on I Love Lucy and on Hogan's Heroes, according to this Collector's Weekly um article. And in these ads, if you look at a lot of old ads and even some of the newer ads too for Easy Bake Oven, it's a mom and a daughter,

18:16 right? And the the parent is like, "Oh, this is something we can do together. I love baking. It's basically my whole life. I'm a I'm I live in 1963 and I'm a woman, so I would love to share that with my daughter. Maybe she's old enough to have an Easy Bake oven herself." And that definitely helped propel uh sales for sure because it's not just kids going, "I want an Easy Bake oven." It's the parents going, "That'd be a great thing to do with my kid."

18:41 Yeah. And of course, as uh people evolved and people became more woke over time, even though that word wasn't used,

18:48 um enlightened, maybe it became a bit of a problem with gender roles and like this is for moms and daughters. They're pink and that's what you're supposed to do is be in the kitchen baking for the men.

19:00 Yeah. I mean, very famously, the Easy Bake Ovens always ended with the disclaimer like this toy is not for boys.

19:06 Yeah, it didn't really, but essentially, yeah, it like that was this that was what was coming through. And the weird thing is as far as as as like legendary and iconic a toy as the Easy Bake Oven was as gender roles and um Yeah. as gender roles evolved.

19:25 I mean, this was we're talking like the early 70s when this really started to become like a thing. Yeah,

19:30 the Easy Bake Oven did not evolve with it, right? As we will see, it wasn't until the like early 2000s that they started to like respond to that kind of thing. And I saw an ad for 2014, not a boy in sight.

19:43 Yeah. All girls. And um it just dancing around like the giriest Easy Bake oven you could possibly imagine. They actually got more girly as time went on, more girl focused um as gender roles went on, which is really weird to me

20:02 to be that not just non-responsive, but almost like no, we're going the opposite way.

20:07 Yeah. And in early 2000s, Hasbro, who uh you know, they bought out Kenner eventually,

20:12 makers of the classic Snoopy snow cone machine. I never had one of those. Did you have one of those?

20:17 No, neighbor did. Okay. Um, but you got to eat some of that sweet sweet sugar ice.

20:24 There was nothing like the taste of I think the cherry one. I can't remember, but it was just the greatest snow cone you could possibly have.

20:32 And that's until you had a shaved ice later and you're like, "Oh, wait. This is a lot better."

20:35 Still number one reigning champ. Really? Number two is blue raspberry slush puppy.

20:40 Yeah. See, what I would always do was um slurp that sweet liquid and then I'd be left with just some faintly colored kind of just ice.

20:48 Oh, yeah. No, I know that was the problem with it for sure. Yeah. But if you did it right and you just kind of let it settle, you got, you know, through the nasty stuff first,

20:58 when you got to the bottom, then you got to the true like hyper hyperdense snow cone experience.

21:04 Yeah. I could never do that. I still have problems regulating my like hot fudge to ice cream ratio when eating a Sunday.

21:10 Oh yeah. I just won't even do it anymore. You say you do all the hot fudge first and then you're left with some cruddy ice cream.

21:15 Yep. That's I mean that's standard cruddy delicious ice cream, right? This ice cream that some people around the world would kill for is cruddy. It doesn't have any more fudge.

21:27 Dude, I've been on a a 15-year campaign to convince Emily that vanilla ice cream is like a legit flavor.

21:33 Sure. I think she's she still thinks that vanilla ice cream is just like unflavored ice milk.

21:38 Yeah. It's like it's the one without the flavor added, right? I'm like, "No, vanilla."

21:42 Yeah. This is really delicious. Actually, it is. It is. It's subtle vanilla bean ice cream or like a true uh

21:47 the flex. So good. I'm with you. Uh so in early 2000 they finally, like you said, tried in a very hamfisted way to get boys involved with the the quas easy bake.

22:00 Queezy bake. Is that what it is? Took me a second, too, cuz u is a separate word.

22:05 So okay, now hyphenated. So the queasy bake oven and the mixer raator for you boys, you can make mud and crud cakes and larvalicious cocoon cookies and you know not like hey just bake something good because anyone can bake.

22:22 Yeah, anyone can bake. And they didn't like the girls don't use that one. Yeah, it was it was only boys that showed up in these ads. They're like we really need to get boys involved. How can we do that? Oh, we'll make one specifically for boys. That's like they're making cruddy cakes.

22:38 I mean, I know they're just trying to sell stuff, but when in these meetings, in these marketing meetings that you just can't help but think they're it's like a bunch of like 85year-old men. It's our It's our Senate.

22:49 Yeah. That's in there, right? They're like screaming and pounding and yelling at each other about the idea of like selling this to boys.

22:57 Oh, man. Well, after that, I feel like we should probably take a break. Yeah. We'll go to our Senate chambers and uh

23:03 regroup right after this. All right. So, in 1967, the Easy Bake Oven is selling like uh hot cakes, literally. General Mills buys Kenner uh and they did a couple of genius things. They they partnered because they were General Mills, they had no problem because they owned Betty Crocker as well, I assume.

23:41 Um, launching Betty Crocker branded mixes, right? And then later on, they got into licensing deals with McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Because here's the thing, you can bake anything in an EasyWeek oven cuz it's just a little oven.

23:53 Yeah, I saw you can make pizza and you can make You don't have to buy these mixes. You can just bake cookies that you made from scratch.

24:01 Yeah. And there's like a lot of um recipes online, easy bake oven recipes. Yeah. That actually don't taste like garbage,

24:08 right? So um yeah, they did have a huge line of mixes though and they sold more than a 100red million of them over the over the years.

24:16 Man, that's how they get you. But I mean they there there were recipes for or mixes for candy bars, pecan brittle popcorn

24:26 bubble gum. You could bake your own bubble gum. Interesting. It is interesting. I would have tried that for sure. I want to see bubble gum come out in like a brownie pan.

24:34 Yeah. I'd be like, I want some of that bubble gum. That looks amazing. We had a cotton candy machine now that I remember.

24:40 What? It would just spin sugar and you would Oh, I know what they do. Yeah, I wanted one.

24:45 Yep. That thing was probably dangerous. It was probably like a nuclear centuge. What what what was interesting about those or fascinating to me was it like the the cotton candy um the oh it's not called

24:58 it's like a not the web sponge sugar or something like that. Um yeah I want to say web but that's not it either. You it's not really visible in the machine.

25:06 Yeah, but when you stick in the little cone it just builds up on it like it like it's just coming out of another dimension into this one

25:15 like coming out of a spider's butt. It's awesome to see. Yeah. a pink and and pink and blue spider's butt.

25:21 Man, I had to go out yesterday to uh I still have my pickup truck and because I just kept it because it was paid for and I still move and haul stuff occasionally. I had to move something to

25:32 justify it to me. I had to move something yesterday and uh I went out and there was the most beautiful huge spiderweb from a tree down attached to the rear tailgate of my truck.

25:42 Me like Chuck smash with this big spider right in the middle. And I was like, "Oh man, I just felt so bad. I didn't know what to do."

25:50 So you just put it in reverse and pretended nothing. You didn't see anything? No. I actually plucked it off little by little cuz I wanted to ensure his safety.

25:57 Oh, nice of you. The web just goes crumbling down into a long, you know, skinny string and he he climbs right up to the tree. And I was just like, "I'm really sorry."

26:06 He's like, "Oh, I'm sure you are. I see you. I know." He tried to spit venom into my eyeball.

26:12 He's like, "What do you what do you need your truck for?" and you're like, "I got to go get peanut butter." He's like, "Oh, good. Thank you for ruining 30 hours of my work."

26:20 A giant vat of peanut butter that would only fit in my truck. Um, all right. So, let's let's flash forward here to uh the modern times in 2007.

26:31 Okay. The uh Energy Independence and Security Act when the government said by 2012 uh light bulbs have to increase their efficiency by 25%. So, bye-bye 100 watt incandescent bulb.

26:44 Yeah. So, let me just say something. Let me set that up, too. Over the years, the Easy Bake Oven had just remained a steady seller for Kenner and then Hasbro. And the design had been basically the same. It went from two bulbs to one bulb, but it was this closed box where the heating element was where there was a slot on the side. Remember, I went through the whole thing, pushed it in, and it came out the cooling chamber on the other side. Um, but really the design was the same. outward look changed like it went from the weird its own thing to the late 70s and early 80s it started to resemble a microwave

27:17 and then in in response to this change in light bulb requirements Easy Bake did a redesign in 2006

27:26 and for the first time ever the Easy Bake oven actually looked like an oven like a stove. It had little like fake burners on the top. It looked like a stove and it was actually a front loader to where there was a like a a slot in the front of the Easy Bake oven and that's where you put the thing in and that's what you actually pulled it out from too and it went right into the heating element. Um,

27:51 and they replaced the the light bulb because again so long 100 watt light bulb because of the energy act um with an actual heating element, a ceramic heating element like an oven.

28:03 Yeah, it was an oven. So they made an oven, but then when they made the oven, they redesigned this thing so that you could put your fingers right into the oven while it was baking at its hottest temperature. And of course, kids immediately started doing that.

28:18 How did they how did that one slip past? No idea. I mean, that just doesn't make any sense at all. So in the end, I think what what close to 250 kids ended up with like second and third degree burns.

28:29 Yeah. One partial amputation of a finger. Yeah. Because kids would get their fingers stuck in it, right?

28:36 And it's just scary. And then some kids got their fingers stuck in it while it was heating hot.

28:41 Yeah. And yes, they were getting huge burns. So, um Hasbro was like, "Well, we'll do a recall." And they recalled like 985,000. I think ultimately a million of these things they recalled. First they tried to say, "Here's a little fix.

28:56 Yeah, here's a retrofitted piece. It's really easy. Just snap it on and it'll solve everything." And apparently it did solve everything. They're like, "Why didn't you make it that way to begin with?"

29:04 Right? But most parents were not like they didn't have their ears out that there was a recall of their Easy Bake oven. And so their kids the kids kept getting burned and and finally Hasbro was like, "Just bring them back." So there was a recall of a million Easy Bake ovens from that 2006 redesign.

29:22 It was a huge toy for them like to if that would have ruined the Easy Bake oven, that would have been a big big deal. So what they did was they temporarily went back to an old design featuring a light bulb too while they redesigned it to the new version. So uh then they came out in 2011 with that that really ugly designed what's called the Easy Bake Ultimate Oven.

29:45 Oh, I'm looking at it now. That thing looks Yeah, it does. It looks terrible. It's horrible. It's super It looks like it's on the go or something like that. I don't like it. It looks like a weird toaster oven. Yeah, but it's sort of it looks like it's trying to look futuristic and modern, which never ends up looking like that.

30:01 No, it doesn't. But they also made it pink and purple. Yep. Super girly. The ads were super girl targeted. Yep. There's flowers on it. And again, they were like, "Nope, this is for girls. Boys don't play with this." So, in 200, I think 2013, there was a girl named um McKenna Pope. Yes.

30:26 Who is just a hero of heroes. She's amazing. I saw an interview with her on CNN.

30:33 Pretty great. She's just so like self-possessed and intelligent and like wellspoken, but also like a kid and aware she's a kid. She's just amazing. One of those clearly reincarnated.

30:43 Yeah. Um this and she went on she started a petition to get Hasbro to make a genderneutral version of its Easy Bake Oven because her little brother um liked to bake but realized that the Easy Bake Oven was for girls.

31:00 Mhm. She wanted him to be able to bake. So she said, "Hasbro, why don't you make one that's gender neutral?" And got something like 50,000 signatures for her petition. And Hasbro came out with a new version of the Easy Bake Ultimate Oven, which was just a black version of it. Black and I think silver.

31:16 I'm surprised it wasn't like our brush stainless model. Sure. Like to emulate, you know, kitchens,

31:21 right? Yeah. She's Gez, she's probably almost 20 years old now. Yeah. Wonder what she's doing. McKinna Pope, are you out there?

31:26 She's some sort of like consumer protection lawyer, I'll bet. Probably. So, I hope so.

31:31 Me, too. Uh 2006, they go into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Mhm. the same year of that disastrous redesign.

31:39 Yeah, they got in just under the wire. They did. Yeah. Can't take it back. I'm trying to look here and they're from their very own website. Some of the landmark years.

31:49 Mhm. Uh and it is kind of funny that it emulated the styles of the time unless they were just doing pink. Like in ' 69 they premiered the avocado green.

31:58 Yeah. The very next year was Harvest Gold. Yeah. It's very good metallic pee. We say that a lot in our house. Um, oh, they had a potato chip maker. Did we mention that?

32:10 No. 1973, the Easy Baked potato chip maker. That's awesome. And, um, then in 78, they finally started putting a fake digital clock on it that always read 12:30.

32:24 Okay. Not 420. You see that a lot in as a joke. Sure. And like the Pothead joke.

32:31 Yeah. But like you'll see an an alarm clock ad in like uh Mhm. Sky Mall or something and it'll say 420,

32:38 right? Cuz the publishers paying attention, doesn't know or they don't care. Sure.

32:44 I remember years ago when we used to have a lot of illustrations on how stuff works and had two in-house illustrators that I won't name.

32:52 And remember one of them drew a like a park scene for me and the tree clearly had a marijuana leaf like embedded in it,

32:59 right? And I was like, "Hey man, you can't do that." And he was like, "Oh, that was completely an accident." I was like, "Man, I wasn't born yesterday."

33:07 Yeah. I've seen a pot leaf before. I mean, I thought it was funny, but like, you know.

33:12 Yeah. Couldn't do that. You got anything else? I don't think so. Easy bake ovens.

33:19 Mac and cheese you can bake. Oh, in 2003 they uh they introduced the real meal oven and you could that's when you could do like French fries and pizza and mac and cheese and stuff.

33:30 I think that was the predecessor to the ceramic heating element that they eventually redid the the Easy Bake in in 2006.

33:38 Good stuff. Good stuff. If you want a nice blast from the past, just type in like Easy Bake Oven commercials. There's one from 1980 that was just perfect.

33:48 Yeah. Was it rad? No, it was pretty rad. Oh, okay. It was like carpenters era. Gotcha.

33:53 Which is not rad, but still lovely. Yes. Love the carpenters. Me, too. Um, well, if you want to know more about Easy Bake Ovens or the Carpenters or the Snoopy Snow comb machine, just go on to the internet. It's a vast repository of stuff like that. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail.

34:12 Hey guys, I'm a freelance writer who works remotely. So, I've been writing and traveling the world for the past year and a half. It's been wild. Since I've been traveling alone, it can get lonely. But from Mexico City to Bali to Tokyo, you guys have been with me, keeping me company, making me laugh, teach me all kinds of cool facts. As a content writer, I also feel a connection to y'all. We both uh have to research seemingly mundane topics uh sometimes, and discover the cool interesting things about them, present them in a palatable way. People sometimes laugh when I'm telling that I'm writing something like the history of the Egg McMuffin or the best month to buy a mattress. Mhm.

34:46 Uh but I just point to your podcast as a sterling example of how gems and surprises lie within even the most unassuming topics.

34:54 Thank you. Yeah, I agree. Have you guys ever considered doing a show on digital nomading?

34:58 Never. I know it's becoming increasingly popular as more companies embrace uh remote working. Uh I'm in a cafe in Medelin Medí, Colombia right now and there are five digital nomads tapping away in their laptops as we speak. They would beat me up if they knew I just referred to them as digital nomads, though.

35:18 The future is location independent, I say. Thanks again for being so awesome. It's a short-term dream of mine to digital nomad over to a country where you're doing a live show. Buy you guys a drink.

35:27 Awesome. Uh if you do read this on the air, please give a shout out to Mark Alexander okay?

35:32 Who insisted that I keep listening to you guys even even after I was initially slightly turned off by all of your aides and offtracking.

35:39 Happens to a lot of people. And that's funny cuz we had a lot of those today. You know, that reminds me of totally unrelated story.

35:47 Uh he she says, "Now I very much learned to appreciate those." Uh he would burst into tears and I would too. So thank you Mark Alexander for turning on your friend uh Maria Christina Leon.

35:59 Thanks a lot. Beautiful name. Yeah. I'm sorry. Lol. Leande. Maria Christina London.

36:07 Beautiful. Um and I hope that uh your buddy did just burst out into tears. That'd be amazing.

36:12 It's pretty neat. Thanks for that email. Uh, if you want to get in touch with us, you can find us on the web at stuffyow.com. Check out our social links there. And if you like, send an email to stuffodcast@ousstuffworks.com. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Questions about this episode

What is "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW" about?

The discussion centers on the cultural significance and mechanics of the Easy Bake Oven, a toy that allows children to simulate baking in a miniature kitchen setup. The speakers reminisce about its nostalgic impact and the simplicity of its design, highlighting how it enabled young users to feel like they were engaging in adult activities.

What is mentioned in this Stuff You Should Know episode?

80 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Easy Bake Oven, Kenner, Light bulb, Stuff You Should Know, iHeart Radio, Charles Cummings. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "SYSK's 12 Days of Christmas… Toys: How Easy Bake Ovens Work | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"?

The episode runs 37 min; the transcript is about 7,276 words in 209 timestamped sections.

More from Stuff You Should Know

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.