Mattel Recall

[Beechy]

Aug 14th, 2007-

Mattel recalled over 9 million toys this moring due to lead paint and tiny magnets.


http://www.cnn.com/video/?pks=ijsioc080607yabr

www.cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com)

www.mattel.com/safety (http://www.mattel.com/safety)





Now, I know a lot of you have Polly Pocket toys. Stop eating them. You might ingest a cuople magnets. They'll attract and cause intestine blockage. So stop.

[Super_Megatron]

And apparently the owner of the company responsible for the lead killed himself.

[Nightscrabbler]

And apparently the owner of the company responsible for the lead killed himself.

? Killed himself accidentally with lead poisoning or suicide?

Mattel has been in trouble the last few years, ownership has changed and although they have a few big properties they're having a hard time competing.

[CobraCommander]

And apparently the owner of the company responsible for the lead killed himself.

Is this someone in China?

[Aernaroth]

Yes. The guy responsible for the pet food recall was executed, if Im not mistaken.

This is a real shame, and should be a wakeup call to safety and trade organizations.

[Super_Megatron]

? Killed himself accidentally with lead poisoning or suicide?

Mattel has been in trouble the last few years, ownership has changed and although they have a few big properties they're having a hard time competing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20240769/

Mattel is still the #1 toy company with Hasbro #2.

[Dark Rage]

I'm kinda worried about Hasbro/Takara products...I keep my TFs in my room, and it's a small room with a small window...poor ventilation...

Maybe I'm worrying too much.

[Robimus]

I'm not trying to down play this problem but all the toys my parents played with had lead paint and they are going strong at almost seventy. Many antique toys made with metal use lead paint as well.Use caution for sure but I think the biggest concern here is that small children are going to lick the paint off and eat it. I wouldn't be to worried about Transformers that are basiclly for display. These companies should be responsible for providing safe toys, and to this point I don't think a single child has been harmed. This is a voluntary recall by Mattel which is the right thing to do, but to my knowledge no one is sick and no one is hurt(except maybe this dude that offed himself). I think a mountain is being made out of a mole hill.

[Nyghtwynd]

I heard one of my managers talk about this at my store today. Good thing it wasn't Hasbro

[Autovolt 127]

The CEO Deserved it!

[Super_Megatron]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/business/15lead.html?ei=5065&en=f309598d7e544a06&ex=1187841600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[Nightscrabbler]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20240769/

Mattel is still the #1 toy company with Hasbro #2.
Yes, but they have internal problems according to what I have heard.

[Beechy]

Point is....Keep your toys out of your mouth. If parents are giving toys ment for 9 yr olds to a 3 year old, then they somewhat deserve the wait in the emergency room.

[Aernaroth]

I'm not trying to down play this problem but all the toys my parents played with had lead paint and they are going strong at almost seventy. Many antique toys made with metal use lead paint as well.Use caution for sure but I think the biggest concern here is that small children are going to lick the paint off and eat it.

You're right, the vast majority of kids aren't going to die from this, even if they ingest some lead, but the odds are a small portion will suffer adverse health effects, and that's why they're worried. Even then, I believe the bigger problem is that these toys aren't supposed to be using lead paints at all, are they?

[Robimus]

If my entire post was quoted that very fact is there. I'm just saying that I don't think grown up Transformer collectors have anything to worry about. Companies are absolutely responsible to make safe toys and when they find toys are not safe to recall them. As Mattel has done on more than one occasion now. Somebody in china either made a bad decision or a mistake and now Mattel is going to spend millions of dollars fixing that mistake and they should. I think Mattel is doing the right thing here, imagine if a dollar store toy was found to have lead in the paint? You think the company that made it would offer a recall? I doubt it.
Mattel discovered a mistake themselves and came clean about it, they can't go back in time and undo the mistake so they are taking all the steps they can to make sure the problem doesn't happen again. This is probably a good thing for the toy industry in the long run.

[Aernaroth]

I have nothing against Mattel's act of recalling these toys. That was a good idea. What I'm trying to say is the fact that we're seeing toys that do not meet our safety codes, whether or not I use my alternator mirage as a toothbrush, means that something has gone terribly terribly wrong with the safeguards, both public and private, that are meant to prevent these products from reaching shelves in the first place. Now, I'm not certain if the recall was made as a cautionary action or if a certain amount of these toys actually did have unacceptable lead, but I find it sad that we should even have to worry about something like this.

So yeah, I see what you're saying there about it not really being much to really get in a fuss over, but I am. Oh well. And to answer your question about dollar store items and companies, I would hope that if their products were unsafe and they failed to remove them by themselves, that another, legitimate authority would force them to or do it themselves.

[PG13]

I could make a terrible joke about a Barbie doll and my mouth, but I think I'll leave it be..

[Robimus]

Yeah they should have better safeguards in place, totally agreed.

I had this thought while at work. What is the difference between lead in paint and lead in a pencil? Is pencil lead not really lead? Just a thought. Maybe somebody with some scientific type knowledge about this could offer up an answer. Thanks.

[Aernaroth]

There is no lead in a pencil (unless its has a metal body, in which case its conceivable, but highly unlikely). The "lead" in a pencil is actually a mixture of wax and graphite. Graphite is an allotrope of carbon, forming hexagonally-arranged atomic groups on a two-dimensional plane. It is this arrangement that makes it hard and brittle, but not as hard as diamond, another allotrope of carbon that forms in three-dimensional networks.

So if you eat pencil lead, its essentially the same as biting a burnt candle. It won't cause any health problems unless you eat tons of it.

Hopefully this answers your question.

Now you know!

[Robimus]

I figured it wasn't really lead, thanks for clearing that up.

[RedOktobre]

I agree with Aernaroth. There shouldn't be lead (or any other poisonous substance) in toys - period.

Let's face reality. All of us, from young children to adults, have a natural tendency to put "foreign objects" in our mouths. We all seem to like nibbling on things to relieve stress, occupy our thoughts, keep our senses busy, etc.

For example, how many of you people out there have the unhealthy, but common habit of biting or nibbling their ball-point pens?

On the other hand, Robimus, also made a strong point. Most adult TF collectors probably do not bite or nibble on their TF figures! I strongly suspect that most TF collectors prefer to keep their figures in mint condition!

That's my 2 cents worth...

[jourdo]

Don't eat the toys and you are fine.

Actually I'm amazed at the amount of recalls happening right now. Luckily nothing that has been recalled is in my house... so far.

[Aernaroth]

Nothing that you can recall, at least.

[Beechy]

It's cuz Hasbro is clearly better then Mattel.










Hasbro, if you're reading this, gimmie a job.

[Robimus]

So a few more recalls came up today, saw it on CBC news. Also some reports that chinese factories used by Hasbro that are using child labor(Jr. High students were specified) to keep costs down. This is all really sad, these companies should look at moving operations out of China if they can't trust the companies there.

Also Mattel's president has a message on www.mattel.com (http://www.mattel.com) apologizing and promising improved efforts to make toys safe in the future.