Buckyballs are the little desk toy that could, selling millions of packages of – um – balls, in the relatively short amount of time they’ve been on the market. After being created in 1985, the collection of high-powered magnetized balls have been a popular desk toy since the early 2000s. But no longer, after the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) decided to suspend sales of the toy due to a relatively high number of cases of children eating them.

Magnets: how do they work, you might ask. Well, if you swallow 37 small ones like this girl in Oregon did in 2011, you’d be surprised to find out that the magnets still work when passing through your intestine and one high powered magnetized ball will try and find the other 36 that you’ve swallowed along with it.

Buckyball insists that its product isn’t made or sold to children and makes it quite clear on its website that it isn’t for children under 14. Yet the statement also goes on to say “We find it unfair, unjust and un-American. We will vigorously fight this action taken by President Obama’s hand picked agency” which just makes you sound like a loony because I’m pretty sure Obama didn’t make a bunch of kids swallow magnets. Maybe he did! Maybe that’s the real story here.