Dollar Store Toy Box

Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to hazard a guess as to why a set of magnets is being recalled in a similar way it wouldn’t be too hard to guess why lead water bottles might be recalled.

The magnetic toy set is called Buckyballs. It’s a set of 216 high powered spherical magnets that can be put together in many different ways, shapes and patterns. So basically, it’s 216 magnets a child can swallow. However, this “toy” isn’t meant for children younger than 13, at least it used to be that way.

While someone 13 or older should be careful with children around, the recall is actually due to a slight change in the toy standards rules.

The toys were being sold between March 2009 and March 2010. They are now being recalled because on August 17th 2009, the toy standard rule for selling high powered magnets went from 13+ to not under 14. This caused a problem because the package lists the Buckyballs for ages 13+, below the minimum age for the new toy standard age minimum.

Complete sets of the Buckyballs listing ages 13+ can be returned to Maxfield and Oberton in New York for a refund. You don’t have to return it if you don’t want to, just don’t get caught selling it at a garage sale years down the road.

It’s illegal to sell or resell toys that have been recalled.

Posted on May 31st, 2010 by Mike
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North Carolina Firefighters are pleased with a recent statewide ban on novelty lighters. These novelty lighters are modeled after a wide variety of items, including toys, that catches a child’s interest to play with them.

This has lead to the start of many accidental fires since parents can’t always tell the difference and they don’t notice it in time to stop their kids from playing with them. North Carolina thought it best to just ban lighters made to look like things other than lighters, which is probably the best solution to that problem. As they say, an ounce of prevention.

Firefighting is one of many jobs where its better when they are doing as little as possible, like a funeral home operator. They can then be ready for real emergencies rather than accidental fires started through something like a kid playing with a lighter they thought was a toy.

For more on this statewide lighter ban, go here.

I am just wondering if those so called novelty lighters were in fact lighters or if they were some of those toys that were recalled for starting on fire when played with.

It would be quite the twist if they were just toys that started on fire when you played with them, or is that a fair description of a lighter?

Posted on October 10th, 2009 by Mike
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued another penalty with the offending party being the Target retail store chain for selling toys with high levels of lead paint. Again, this violates a lead paint standard started over 30 years ago to keep toys safe for kids.

They have to pay $600,000 which sounds like a lot, but to some people it should be more. For many companies such as this, $600,000 is a drop in the bucket so it seems more like a slap on the wrist than a big hit to the companies wallet. Perhaps a larger fine would get companies to buckle down on meeting the toy safety standards.

The toys were sold back in 2006 and 2007 so they were already recalled, voluntarily by Target and CPSC. There’s nothing really new to worry about at the moment, but that was near the start of the long line of recalls so they are just now getting to the fines to ensure companies comply with toy safety standards or else face further penalties.

View the entire story at Walletpop.com.

Do you think the fines should be higher or have the penalty amounts already issued been enough to send a clear message?

Posted on October 5th, 2009 by Mike
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One has many options at their disposal when it comes to dealing with an owned toy that is being recalled for any of the several reasons toys have been recalled for lately. Some people simply throw the toy out, other people exchange it for a different item and the rest get a refund where available, if the refund is worth the time and money to get.

One thing you shouldn’t do with a recalled toy is try to sell it.

Garage sales are great to clear out some old junk and make some money on the side, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission have the power to monitor garage and other sales of that type to ensure any toys that have been recalled aren’t being sold. Anyone caught selling any toys that were recalled in the past could go to jail reports Bob Barr from the Barr Code.

I guess it would depend on the situation on what could happen, but saying you didn’t know you couldn’t do that isn’t going to get you off the hook. In fact, it would probably get you in more trouble since that would be a common excuse. It’s as they say, ignorance of the law doesn’t make it ok. Toys being sold on the internet are also being watched so that’s not a safe option either if you’re trying to sell.

Even donating toys is getting tougher because of the recalled toys. It’s just slightly a slap in the face to the kids “Here you go, a cheap toy that might put your eye out or stunt your mental development, enjoy”.

Since it’s the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulating this sort of this, you should probably check their website for all recalled toys if you plan on donating or selling toys. It’s not that big of a list although the first recall was back in the 1970s.

That sort of thing is probably just going to deter people from donating toys. I know I wouldn’t want to try and do something good like donate toys only to find out something I donated was recalled and I look bad for donating a bad toy.

I don’t think you can get into trouble for donating a recalled toy, but it would most certainly be frowned upon, defeating the purpose of the donation in the first place. Any toys known or are suspected of being bad would just be kept out of circulation.

Would this keep you from donating or selling old toys?

Posted on September 17th, 2009 by Mike
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Hey, something Lego is being recalled and it isn’t for a choking hazard. With its tiny blocks, I long suspected a choking hazard warning would eventually come up since those blocks could fit down a child’s throat.

The recall doesn’t have to do with a block choking hazard though. It’s about a burn hazard for remote controls used with a train kit.

Lego Systems Inc is recalling about 1,600 Power Functions IF Remote Controls because it needs batteries and the batteries can overheat with almost a half a dozen reports of them overheating. Thankfully no one had the opportunity to yell out “BURN” a la Michael Kelso.

They were sold out of the Lego catalogs and on their website lego.com in April and May of this year, 2009, for 13 bucks and they went along with the Emerald Night Train and the Power Functions kit.

People who purchased the remote control should contact Lego Systems Inc to find out if their unit was part of the recall, usually determined through a serial number or something, and they can get it replaced if they got a bad one.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has the full report here.

Posted on July 23rd, 2009 by Mike
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Unfortunately, I got a couple months behind in my toy recall updates. I tried to write-ups for all the posts I missed to catch up, but that was about a month ago and I haven’t done any since.

At this point, I can only catch up if I just do a quick listing of all toys recalled each month for the first few months of the year until I am caught up.

So here are the toys that I hadn’t posted yet recalled in January 2009 for those who didn’t know about them.

Lion and Lamb Grabby Rattles
Approximately 131,000 rattle units were recalled on January 15th and 20,000 were previously recalled in March of 2008. They presented a choking hazard to children because the tail on the rattles could come off.

They were manufactured in China and they were sold at Wal-Mart and Babies R Us between May 2007 and September 2008 for 3 or 4 dollars.

Spa Factory and Aromatherapy Kits
Here’s one of the more rare recall reasons, explosion and projectile hazard. Several different spa and aromatherapy kits, around 516,000 units total, have an issue with with containers for bath balls and bath fizzies. The lids on the containers don’t have holes in the top so carbon dioxide pressure can build up and pop the tops off. The lids can become projectiles when enough pressure builds up and chemicals used can irritate eyes with splashing with some reports of injuries.

These kits were sold at Wal-Mart, Target and Sam’s Club among other toy stores between August 2008 and January 2009 with the cost of the various kits ranging from 13 to 50 dollars and they were made in China.

People who purchased the kits can trade their caps without vent holes for new caps with vent holes. This prevents the pressure build up. If that’s all you can do, I would just drill vent holes on the caps that don’t have them already.

Construction Play Set
It’s back to the original problem with this toy construction site, excessive lead hazard with 3,000 units being recalled. They were sold during the last few months of 2008 for about 20 dollars.

These sets were made in China and sold at hardware and farm stores all over the nation. No injuries were reported and customers should take the sets away from their kids and return it for a refund.

Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Mike
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This recall from today comes from your good neighbor, State Farm Insurance, in the form of a cute and cuddly, but not so kid-friendly advertisement toy.

The State Farm Good Neigh Bears®, another product manufactured in China, were given away for free by agents and during some sponsored events between September 2005 and March 2007. The stuffed animal bear’s eyes can fall off and pose a choking hazard to children, with one report of a child putting the eye in her mouth. Over 800,000 bears are included in the recall for the United States and Canadians have 27,000 to worry about.

Because these toys were given away, and were free, the only thing you can do with them is take them away from the child and dispose of them. Or, for those people who are daring, actually just sew the eye back on!

Is it just me or should the art of sewing be somewhat perfected by this point? Honestly, unless they are making a big deal out of everything these days, you’d think they’d have a way of securing eyes onto stuffed animals by now.

Wouldn’t be ironic if someone filed some form of insurance claim to some incident regarding one of these bears?

Read the CPSC report here.

Posted on March 17th, 2009 by Mike
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I’m a little behind on toy recall reporting so the next little while will be catching up on whats been going on in the recall sector this past little while. Looks like there’s been eight CPSC recalls since my last reported recall.

This time it’s a xylophone, one of those ones on wheels that you can pull along, and it’s being recalled for a choking hazard. The pegs can break and be swallowed by children.

At the time of recall, there were 22 broken peg reports, but no one filed an injury report. The recall affects about 500 units that were last sold in March of 2008 from the Land of Nod Catalogue, their website and various store, so it’s kind of late since it was almost a year ago they were even last sold.

As usual, it’s best to take them away from the kids. You can return it to the company and get a purchase price credit (it was about $45) and a gift certificate worth $10.

At a first glance, you’d think there would be a lead paint issue, I mean honestly, it looks like it’s made of candy. Look at the pinwheel sucker wheels, licorice lace pull string and the xylophone sticks look like Chupa Chups. Kids are probably sucking on the thing.

Watch the flash animation on the Chupa Chups website and see if you can count the number of possible copyright infringements. So far, I recognize the Rolling Stones(Lolling Stones?), Star Wars, Apple Computers(Pear?), Back to the Future, Pac-Man, Bill Clinton and possibly the Spice Girls.

Oh, and if you care, they were made in China.

View the full CPSC recall report here.

Posted on February 26th, 2009 by Mike
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It didn’t take long into the New Year to find another toy that needs to be recalled and it won’t be surprising to know the reason, a violation of the lead paint standard.

The maker of the toy car, TDI International, cooperated with the CPSC to recall about 150 High Speed Pull Back Toy Cars because the surface paint contained excessive amounts of lead paint. No injuries were reported, but any injuries wouldn’t be apparent for quite some time so it’s better to take them off shelves.

The toys were made in China and they were sold at small retail stores in Texas during the months of June and July 2008. The usual “what to do about it” is in effect. People who bought the toy cars can contact TDI International for a refund or a replacement toy, but the toy was only two dollars.

I don’t know why the importing companies don’t open up an imported toy and test them before they make them available to buy. Is it really that tough to test a toy before offering them?

Before 2006, it may not have been necessary, but this has been going on for quite some time. They should be testing the toys they get, especially ones from China, and they should be dealing with the companies they do business with personally when these issues arise.

Read the CPSC report here.

Posted on January 15th, 2009 by Mike
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A new threat has emerged in the constant struggle that is the toy recall saga. Toy recalls are up 40 percent this year and some of those toys were recalled because barium was found on the toys. Seven toys have been pulled from shelves this year after tests found barium used in the paint on those toys. Barium testing was not conducted last year, so this could open up another can of worms on toy recalls if toys are now tested for high barium levels.

Barium is used in paints to create pigments and it’s used rarely in kid’s toys made in Canada because of the hazardous product legislation, but the standards aren’t the same when trading with other countries.

The barium was found mainly in wooden toys that have brightly colored paint. This is another problem with the wooden toys since wooden toys were already being recalled for a choking hazard.

The product testing focus was on lead content, but this year testing has included other hazardous metals like mercury, antimony and arsenic. It seems the problem goes a little bit deeper than once thought and it’s becoming a serious concern.

The seven toys that have been recalled for the barium use are:

• Geometric Stacker
• Toy Dump Truck
• Stacking Train
• Wooden Alphabet/Number Blocks
• Zolo Zippy
• Pop Up Toy
• Big Top Flippity Flops

Importing is part of the problem with safety standards for toys. Not all countries have the same safety standards and it’s widely felt that when importing from other countries, the standards should be the same to avoid problems like this since many of the recalls were from toys made in other countries.

Many of the toys are made in other countries, like China, which is contributing to the size of the toy recall problem. Their standards are different.

For more details, read the Canadian Press article here.

Posted on December 27th, 2008 by Mike
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