UPDATE - Fisher Price /Mattel Recall

For HK call the Toys R Us hotline 2991 6222. My investigations thus far say nothing has been recalled here~~~!!!!!!
 
I went to the fisher price website and they have a specific tab for "recalled products", and if you click on it, they will be able to tell you which toys are affected and which batches (they say that the dora and elmo toys produced before may 2007 should be ok).
 
Which Fisher-price site did you visit? The Chinese country is only in Chinese. Closest I could find was what was recalled in Australia/NZ. I did speak to Mattel yesterday and he told me that the Dora range was ok if I purchased it here in HK.
 
Hotlines... Years of production... I dont care !
I have thrown away all the Dora & Sarge (Pixar-Cars) toys we had at home and now I'll never buy again some toys on markets & lanes so I will be sure of the country of origin and who to turn to in case of doubt !
Yes... I know, I may over-react but do you realize? Iron in toys ! parts which just fall appart and make holes in your kids intestins... It makes me crasy just to think about it !
 
The full range of Mattel toys is not distributed in Hong Kong. However, Toys R Us do import directly from the US and have a larger selection than HK Mattel. Hence if you've bought any toys from TRU check the US recall list as well.
 
i just heard abt it....so all these toys cars we buy have this stuff?My LO is gonna scream but its best to throw them all out.
What abt the toys the kindergartens have?They must be from China too...
God, this is crazy like Alex says.
engee
 
its easy to blame China for this but obviously it was Mattel who failed its customers! I've worked in exports for many years and there are TESTS you do all along the way. During production, before shipment and upon arrival at destination. Why weren't these lead tests done at all those stages? If the China factories (SET UP by Mattel) didnt catch the mistakes, surely Mattel USA would have been more vigilant and caught this before the toys went onto shop shelves?

I've worked with factories qualified to supply for Walmart, JCPenney and other big names and safety is very very high on the agenda. Something is NOT right about this Mattel recall. I would avoid ALL Mattel products for now...
 
Multiple answers :-)

A very complete list of the recalled toys.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/14/recall/index.html

Indeed Rani about the provenance of the toys sold in HK but as Engee said, it's not just about the toys at home but also in kindergarden, playrooms, etc.

Sasha my 2 years old is going next year to the Gaynanu kindergarden in Robinson Place and I sent them the list of toys and will make sure that they have thrown away all possible risky toys. I understand it may be a pain in the ass but it's child safety at risk here and I dont want to take my chance on that.

About what you say, somebodyfamous I totally desagree. It's not only Mattels faute and I thinks they can be rearded for communicating massively about it although there have not been thousands of accidents. There is a problem in China's factories. If it's not directly the officials products it's all the sur-production illegally done for the grey market and it's not surprising that the job's not so well done when you see how these poor fellows get paid to work 16 hours a day in factories where you would put a feet because of the work conditions.

I think that the WTO should work on that in the next years: Improving the quality of work in the countries where all the companies are settling their factories (China, India, Eastern Europe...)

And Carang, sorry for the iron/lead mistake, of course it's lead.

Take care,
Alex
 
Alex, have you ever been to a factory producing goods for Mattel or any other big corporation? Not all factories are 'slave' orientated. The factories used by Mattel and others are really clean and well run - I know as I've visited many many factories all over China.

I also know of many skilled Chinese workers who move factory from to factory if they are not getting good pay etc. and MANY workers choose to work long hours. Why? Because they are hours away from their hometown and choose to work in another state to make good money to send back home, so they dont want time off, they want to make as much money as possible. NO ONe is forcing them.

You are right that the Chinese factories are to blame for using the lead, what I'm saying is, what the hell happened with Mattel and it's quality control?? Why did the toys even make it to toyshops?
 
It is easy to blame china for everything that is wrong. I agree they are also at fault. But consider this Mattel can probably get the same toys made in USA or any other developped nation which will cost them alot more than they pay in China. Well I think most of us will not buy those toys because of the high prices . U cannot blame either one side there is a problem at both ends. I agree with somebodyfamous, my husband is export business of good smade in China and it is not true that all workers are exploited and made to work 7 days a week with no breaks, those are extreme cases and I am sure there are alot of them. China is world manufacturing base beause of cheap labour and massive production. Also I wonder all thes epeople who are extremely paranoid about all that is made in China is suddenly bad. Before all these revelations we were still buying products made in China and thankfully nothing happened to us so why stop now completely. I still have faith HK System that they do try adn inspect whatever comes into HK like food stuff etc. So I am not going to stop eating Chinese vegetables or buying all toys FOR MY SON just because they are made in China.
 
somebodyfamous, Neha,
What ever suits you is fine.
The good news is that we live in a democratie, free of what we think, free of what we buy, eat, not buy or not eat.

One last thing and I'll be out of this conversation way out of my hands: There is cases of salmonela, people dying because vegetables are grown with chimicals or infected waters. There is cases of toys which parts have been ingested by children and have caused them intestinal perforations. There is cases like this. It's not everybody, not every farmer, not every factory worker, not every toy but there is problems in China, probably more in China than in other countries right now and there is problems very probably because of the need to emerge as a competitive and leading country on the internationnal trading scene.
And sorry to tell you that I dont need to visit a chinese factory to know that there is good & bad in this trading country policy's. There is just maybe more good and more bad overthere than in other country because of the competition.

Good luck & see you in Toy'rus one of these days :-)
 
It's not that we don't want to buy products from China, we just want them to be safe.

Everyone loses in these situations, espescially the Chinese.
I saw some news footage of some very nervous factory workers, who are terrified that they will lose there jobs, and be unable to feed their families because of this debacle.

Of course I have products in my home that come from China, I'm just selective about what those products are.
 
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