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Marvel recalls toys due to lead

Found this article at Steve Murphy's blog:

Quote:

Marvel Entertainment announced today that it is voluntarily recalling four styles of a plush Curious George doll that showed total lead levels in surface coatings in excess of the federal limit.

“The safety of our consumers – especially children – is our top concern. We were deeply disturbed to learn of these results,” said Joann McLaughlin, COO of Marvel Toys.

Following concerns raised by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), Marvel immediately initiated a comprehensive re-testing of its entire Curious George line, consisting of more than 60 items. The results of this re-testing showed that all of the items complied with federal standards for total lead content, except for the Curious George Themed Plush with Book -- a plush doll with a plastic face sold in four styles: Birthday, Fireman, Sweet Dreams, and Tool Time. That item contained surface coatings with total lead levels in excess of the federal standard, prompting this voluntary recall. Parents and caregivers should remove the recalled toys and contact Marvel to learn how to receive a full refund. For details on where to return the item and receive a refund, call (800) 352-2064 or visit www.regcen.com/curiousgeorge.

Approximately 110,000 units sold to the public since the items were introduced in 2005 are affected by this recall. There have been no reports of illness or injury related to any of the recalled toys. Marvel has not produced any of these products since December 2005 and has been out of inventory since August 2007. Additional units held in retailers’ inventory are also being returned for destruction.

Marvel has always commissioned regular independent testing of its toy products. Samples of all toy items the company produces were tested by Bureau Veritas, a top independent testing laboratory, before being shipped to retail. The four Curious George items were tested four times between October 2005 and August 2007 and passed each time for both total and soluble lead levels. The four items were also tested in August 2007 by a second independent test lab and again passed for both total and soluble lead levels. As total lead levels in surface coatings on the four items were in excess of federal thresholds in the recent re-testing, Marvel has elected to recall them pursuant to practices approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Images of the items being recalled can be viewed at http://marveltoys.marvel.com/safetyrecall or with Spanish text at http://marveltoys.marvel.com/avisoimportante

Curious George was too curious and got into the lead paint...silly silly little monkey...

So what did curiosity do to the monkey?

Covered in lead.

That's what. :(

wonder if TMNT toys will be next....

As long as this doesn't effect the Legendary heroes series 2...

Or series one....I bought Savage Dragon, and I chew on him constantly.[/sarcasm]

I don't know why people buy hard plastic head plushes anyway. I had a Super Mario that practically could hammer nails into the wall with his nose. It seems unsafe by default.

I think those hard faces are kinda creepy. I think a child would
like a softer face on their toy.

my question is...why it is just NOW they're discovering and surprised at these findings? Shouldn't the toy company be testing the products often to make sure these cheap Chinese/Taiwan/whatever companies are building toys to USA spec? You can't trust then, duh! So let's not test these products before and during their shelf life in the stores. These products have been out for quite awhile...why just now they're finding them to be bad?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buslady (Post 571837)

Maybe you should read some of the articles....

The companies do test, specifically Marvel...:
"Marvel has always commissioned regular independent testing of its toy products. Samples of all toy items the company produces were tested by Bureau Veritas, a top independent testing laboratory, before being shipped to retail. The four Curious George items were tested four times between October 2005 and August 2007 and passed each time for both total and soluble lead levels. The four items were also tested in August 2007 by a second independent test lab and again passed for both total and soluble lead levels."

So, if you don't want to read that, which was presented in the first post of the thread....4( FOUR) times between 2005 and 2007....thats on top of the testing done before it was released. The reason why these have to be recall is because of very few items making their way to countries that don't meet US Specs...Because these companies wont test every single toy, and America figures that if they used the same specs and it worked, that a toy factory wouldn't change it after wards, getting lazy.

So, its not the toy companies fault, but more so the factory that produces them. They changed the way they were made, or something odd like that.

So, Marvel and Mattel are gonna catch guff...but it isn't their lack of testing (initially) that's the problem. It means they'll have to be strict about this ****, meaning slower production rates, and more expensive materials, meaning more expensive toys.

This is why companies like Neca and Sota cost more...its more controlled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brodie (Post 571845)

Say what you will, but the man knows his toys.

You mean, Mattel toys will cost even more? As it is, they could get away selling half their stuff for 99cents. They totally cheap out of good sculpts and playability, so why wouldn't they put little toxins in paint if it means they can save 0.00000001 cent per unit?

Or releasing the same sculpt and same painted figures series after series...How many times does Superman basic need to come out?

Interesting post script, you should check out Murph's blog...He has a post about California suing Mattel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester (Post 569427)

Or series one....I bought Savage Dragon, and I chew on him constantly.[/sarcasm]

:lol:

You got some weird reptile fetishes, man. Chewing on Dragon, frog wiping his butt in your sig, fascination with Kermit; maybe you should change your name to Frog Prince. :P :lol: