Who knows what problems lurk is those other $7.5 billion of toys. I for one, am not interested in finding out. Just don't buy chinese manufactured toys if you want to make sure your kids are safe from lead paint. There are toy companies that go the extra mile - Hasbro and FAO schwartz for instance. I think they are already moving to capitalize on the Mattel / China fiasco.
You'll still buy our cheap stuff and you know it. Americans like money more than anything else, and since stuff coming out of China is cheaper, they'll buy it up.
it doesn't really matter what you think. besides, i bet most of those companies use chinese manufactures already. i doubt anyone would spent $50-$100 per toy.
This is just silly. Hasbro gets toys from China too. In fact, shortly after Mattel announced that they were improving safety standards and inspections, Hasbro announced they would do the same and implement a system similar to Mattel's new system. http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSN1545819020070816 They were no better than Mattel at safety.
it's so great, the first thing i did was to buy hasbro stock right when the news hit. i've made a nice chunck thanks to mattel and their recalls!
90% is ridiculous high...it justifies a massive recall and labeling ALL toys designed by Mattel unsafe. The lead paint is/was a big probelm, but to label Chinese manufacturing unsafe when 90% of the problem was not due to Chinese manufacturing is the exact reason why Mattel tried to blame China in the first place. Now most Americans (like yourself) still blame China even though 9 out of 10 unsafe toys were due to design problems by an American toy company, not faulty Chinese manufacturing. Or you can stop buying Mattel toys if you want to make sure your kids are safe from magnets that can "tear through the intestines of a young child." Are you saying that Hasbro doesn't manufacture any of their toys in China?
Another example of the usual tactic used by NewYorker. Every time after he has said something dumb or when he knows that he cannot hold the ground in a debate, he just sidesteps and change the topic to other issues. Who cares the ways that you use to make your living? Just admit that you got owned by Major there.
Certainly Hasbro does, and they should be scrutinized for it. But FAO Schwarz does not, and I'd advocate using them. But would you really but toys when they have a 10% chance of having lead paint. I guess you have a right to place dice with your kids' health, but I wouldn't.
No, they don't have a 10% chance of having lead paint. They have a <1% chance of having lead paint. How many toys has China exported to the USA? I'd reckon over 200 million. Besides, everyone knows that with cheap stuff comes possible quality problems, but America seems to repeatedly buy up the cheap stuff.
we're talking about mattel.... I don't know if America realizes they are buying up cheap chinese toys which may contain lead paint. Asking parents to take a chance, wheter it's 10% or 1% with their children's safety seems a bit crazy to me.
So why did you say Hasbro "goes the extra mile?" First of all...not all the toys have a 10% chance of having lead paint, it's 10% of the problematic toys. Also, are you more worried about the 10% chance of lead paint than the 90% chance of disengaged magnets? Is Chinese manufacturing responsible for the use of lead paint? Yes. But there is a reason why Mattel has assumed full responsibility for it's faulty toys. When your company is responsible for 90% of a problem, you shouldn't be pointing fingers.
Sure, Mattel has a lot of problems...but that doesn't mean the lead paint issue isn't a major problem or the criticism unjustified. The reason the recalls started and the issue was raised was because of lead paint. Now more toys were recalled later due to design problems, and that certainly puts Mattel in a dark light. It's both Mattel and Chinese Manufacturing. I wouldn't use either.
You know what's ironic. Mattel has one of the best reputations among business ethics groups in the country. They're consistently lauded for their honesty and speed when it comes to dealing with problems. That's why its almost sad that their brutal honesty with the China issues has come to bite them in the ass because people are throwing out ridiculous assumptions about them. Their business practices have consistently gotten them award after award. So if there's a company I'll trust to actually respond and fix this, it's Mattel. And as for FAO Schwartz they have two god damn stores in the US and the prices there are ridiculous. In fact, they made a conscious effort to price themselves out of the average American's market to focus exclusively on upper-end toys that virtually none of us can actually afford. The average American really doesn't have much of a choice. If its Hasbro or Mattel I'm picking Mattel everytime if safety is my overriding criterion. At least they're honest.
FAO Schwartz sells the same toys at the same prices, except it doesn't sell toys that doesn't meet it's own standards for excellance (higher than both Mattel and Hasbro). What you are saying is simply untrue. The CEO of FAO Schwartz is actively trying to erase that perception that they are more expensive - they just put their more unique toys in their stores to attract people to the stores, but most of their toys are not more expensive, that's a misperception. Go to their website and you'll see that there's no premium for buying thier toys. I'm sure Mattel takes this very seriously, but the fact is they missed it and distributed toys with lead paint to children. Not only that, they distributed toys that hurt children with those magnets. That's a double hit. I'll go with Hasbro over Mattel for now.
Wait, so if 10% of recalled toys were recalled because of lead paint, therefore 10% of all of Mattel's toys have lead paint? That's like saying if a prison is 70% black, then 70% of black people are criminals. Cue the "Everyone in the room is now dumber because of what you just said..." I'm going to make this place better for intelligent discourse and flat out put you on ignore. You'll be happy for me following your signature and I'll be happy that you are out of my life. It really says something when Ahmadinejad makes more sense than someone else. And you know what? My company works WITH Hasbro and I can't even agree with you. I work in the toy industry, I know what ASTM and EN-71 standards are and I've written safety reports for toys and know what happened with Mattel. In fact, it could happen to any company, but Mattel just got caught in the sights and then people started investigating. May God have mercy on your soul.
Fact is, 2.2 million children around the world may have gotten toys with lead paint. How many of those toys have already done their damage by the way????
I am by now convinced that you are too dense to stay on one topic. We have already had many threads about the lead paint toys in the past month already. I think almost everyone agreed in those threads that China should improve their product safety and we would all keep our fingers crossed for it. Now, if you can read, this thread is about whether Mattel should have made that apology or not and you have been pwned by many different posters (nyquil82, Major, gucci888...etc) right here. But then you just switched the topic every time you got owned. It is obvious that you just want to hang on as long as possible in order to be the one who makes the last post. It is sad.
