About this episode

This episode explores the history and cultural impact of the Big Wheel toy, highlighting its controversial nature and the fun and danger it represented for children.

Before helmets, hoverboards, and helicopter parenting… there was the Big Wheel. Louis Marx and Company turned a low-slung plastic tricycle into one of the most iconic - and unexpectedly controversial - toys in American history. From glorious downhill drifts and neighborhood wipeouts to lawsuits, broken bones, and adult underground Big Wheel racing leagues, this is the wild story of the toy that taught generations of kids that danger and fun were sometimes the exact same thing.

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