The first three versions of the famous Easy-Bake oven

The Easy-Bake Oven is a working toy

oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been use ...

that

Kenner Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

introduced in 1963 and currently manufactured by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

. The original toy used a pair of ordinary

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxi ...

s as a heat source; current versions use a true

heating element A heating element converts electrical energy into heat through the process of Joule heating. Electric current through the element encounters resistance, resulting in heating of the element. Unlike the Peltier effect, this process is indepen ...

. Kenner sold 500,000 Easy-Bake Ovens in the first year of production. By 1997, more than 16 million Easy-Bake Ovens (in 11 models) had been sold."The Easy-Bake Oven, Gourmet Style"
(with audio link),

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...

,'' December 8, 2003. Retrieved Nov. 11, 2006. The oven comes with packets of cake mix and small round pans. Additional mixes can be purchased separately. After water is added to the mix in the pan, it is pushed into the oven through a slot. After cooking, the

cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate ...

is pushed out through a slot in the other end.

Kenner versions

The Easy-Bake Oven was introduced in 1963 by

Kenner Products Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ...

, a

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

-based toy company. The original Kenner Easy-Bake Oven was heated by two 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, came in a pale yellow or turquoise, and was designed to resemble a conventional oven. The design changed many times over the years. An updated "Premier" model, available in avocado green or red, was released in 1969, followed by a "Mod" model in yellow or light green in 1971. A more recent model resembled a

microwave oven A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce ...

. A one-of-a-kind model was presented to the winner of the 5,000,000th Easy-Bake Oven Sweepstakes in 1972. Kenner licensed the Easy-Bake Oven to international markets. Japan represented a significant opportunity for Kenner. The toy oven was licensed to Nakajima Corporation, which sold its version as Margaret's Cooking Oven.

Marketing

In 1962, Kenner created the Gooney Bird as part of its marketing efforts. The new corporate mascot was primarily used as part of the company logo, appearing on most product packaging along with the company slogan, “It’s Kenner, It’s Fun!” The bird was also used in trade publications and advertisements with the tagline, “This bird means business!” In 1968, Kenner approached

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses ...

creator

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

to create a Muppet version of the Gooney Bird. The bird appeared in Easy-Bake Oven commercials with child actress Barbara Price. The Gooney Bird became so popular that Henson refurbished the character as Little Bird,

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

's smaller counterpart, in early seasons of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...

.'' Easy bake ovens are marketed to young girls. In 2012 an eighth grader petitioned Hasbro to market the toys for boys.

Hasbro versions

After Kenner became a division of Hasbro, which then closed it down, Hasbro continued to produce the oven.USA Today
"Easy-Bake loses its bulb, gets a makeover"
Associated Press, 14 September 2011 The Easy-Bake Oven and Snack Center was introduced in 1993. A decade after the Easy-Bake Oven and Snack Center was introduced, the Real Meal Oven was released. This oven was different from the others in being able to cook larger portions, and two of them at once, using two pans at the same time. It won the 2003 Best Toy ''

Parenting Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a ...

'' magazine Toy of the Year Award. The neutral colors were more accepted across

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...

lines, and were favored by parents, particularly in the midst of queries and complaints over versions not being offered for male children. The Real Meal pans were larger than the Easy Bake ones, and it could bake both desserts and main courses. Also, this model featured a heating element and did not require a light bulb. In 2002, Hasbro released the Queasy Bake Cookerator, a variant on the Easy-Bake targeted at young boys. In 2006, a different version of the Easy-Bake was released, featuring a stove-top warmer and a heating element. But like Hasbro's first version, it had smaller pans, and it could only bake one pan at a time. But the new front-loading Hasbro design, a substantial departure from the traditional push-through arrangement, was ill-conceived, as all (approx. 985,000) such units were recalled over safety concerns and reported injuries. The oven was inducted into the

National Toy Hall of Fame The National Toy Hall of Fame is a U.S. hall of fame that recognizes the contributions of toys and games that have sustained their popularity for many years. Criteria for induction include: icon status (the toy is widely recognized, respected, and ...

in 2006. In 2011, the last version to use a 100-watt incandescent light bulb was replaced by a new version with a dedicated heating element, titled Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven''.'' The replacement was due to the availability of better alternatives to the incandescent light bulbs that heated previous versions of the Easy-Bake Oven.ABC News
"Easy-Bake Oven Loses Light Bulb, Gets $20 Makeover"
Susanna Kim, 14 September 2011 It was feared that newer lamp requirements would render all models that used light bulbs as their heating elements obsolete because lamps would no longer be available. (The company never provided initial or replacement bulbs.)The Post-Star

4 September 2011Cleveland Liv

John Funk, 10 September 2011 In 2012, Hasbro announced the premiere of a version of the Easy-Bake Oven in black and silver after executives met with McKenna Pope, a girl from

Garfield, New Jersey Garfield is a city in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 30,487,Change.org petition asking the toy maker to offer the product in gender-neutral packaging. The prototype Easy-Bake Oven was also made available in blue. The redesigned product was slated to be unveiled in February 2013, at the New York Toy Fair.

Recall

After a release of a new model in May 2006,

received reports of 29 children getting their hands or fingers caught in the front-loading door, including 5 reports of burns. In February 2007,

and the

Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing “unreasonable risks” of inj ...

issued a voluntary recall of the oven and advised parents to stop using the oven with children under the age of 8 and contact the company for a free retrofit kit. The kit was approved by the CPSC and consisted of a plastic grate that fit over the existing oven door. The grate allowed the oven to function as designed, but it now provided an additional barrier to keep small fingers out. Despite the retrofit program, the problems persisted. According to data from the CPSC, an additional 249 reported incidents included 77 burns, 16 of which were second- or third-degree in nature. On July 19, 2007, Hasbro re-issued its voluntary recall of the Easy-Bake after learning that part of a five-year-old girl's finger had to be amputated because of a severe burn. The recall affected 985,000 ovens that had been sold between May 2006 and July 2007. Ovens sold prior to May 2006 were not part of the recall, leaving more than 25 million side-entry/light bulb models in circulation unaffected.

Origins of the Easy Bake Oven

The Easy Bake Oven was invented by Norman Shapiro, a salesman at Kenner Products Company. He got the idea for the oven from the pretzel machines in the NYC Subway which used lightbulbs to heat the pretzels. Upon his retirement he was presented with the prototype of the Easy Bake Oven.

National Easy-Bake Oven Day

National Easy-Bake Oven Day is observed annually on November 4, the day in which the toy oven was originally released in 1963. The National Day was established in 2017 by author and toy historian Todd Coopee as a way for individuals to reflect on their affection for the iconic toy oven and its role in popular culture.

References

External links

QUEASY BAKE - AWFUL WAFFLE Instructions - HasbroCPSC Easy-Bake Ovens Recalled for Repair Due to Entrapment and Burn Hazards
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