March 17, 1979. (Lyn Atwels/The Denver Post)
The photo caption reads:
Tom Rosinski holds in his left hand the toy part that went down his windpipe. Surgeons removed the Battlestar Galactica space toy from his lung during a 30-minute operation.
The toy part is a missile from the Colonial Stellar Probe. The missiles were spring-loaded into the nose of the ship and released by pressing that little white button on top of the nose.
A few days after Christmas, 1978, another boy, 4-year-old Robert Jeffrey Warren, died from complications after choking on a missile from the Cylon Raider. I found a pretty comprehensive story about the incident and the resulting fallout in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (story begins mid-page).
Mattel initiated a recall of the missiles shortly after Warren’s death and offered a free Hot Wheels car to everyone who returned them. Read about the recall and Mattel’s mail-in offer at the Palm Beach Post.
In March of 1979, Jeffrey’s parents sued Mattel. An excerpt from what appears to be a different legal suit is below, courtesy of the Star Wars Collectors Archive.
It’s certainly true that the firing mechanism should not have been so close to the loading area, but I don’t understand how the toy being “shaped… very similar to a penis… almost beckons small children to put the toy in their mouth.” Were penises that readily available when we were kids, just dangling from crotches like bananas on a tree? And, if so, were we encouraged to put them in our mouths?
The bottom line: Even though I had many hours of fun shooting these missiles around, they were a terrible idea and should never have been allowed.
(First image source: Big Ole Photos)
2 Warps to Neptune 
I had a Viper and a Raider and a brain, I never shot one down my throat and if I did my mom or dad would have smacked my ass. Also my family refused this recall, my mom said: “You should be smart enough not to hurt yourself with a stupid toy and you already have enough Hot Wheels”.
Hey Ed – my sentiments exactly. Besides, were parents that stupid in the 70’s to give their 4-year old kids tiny parts to play with like that?
The parents of these kids need to take some, if not most, of the responsibility here.
What pedo wrote that typed section re:penis?
Wow, I had to look around on the internet to find some corroborating accounts of this documented claim. Un-fucking-believable. It’s hard to believe some exec or spokesmouth somewhere actually went on record with this pedo crap. I’m stunned.