The Master Toys and Novelties company have mastered putting lead paint on their Little Rider toys. Paint on certain parts of the toy exceed recommended lead levels, which as we all know by now can be hazardous to children if the paint flakes and is ingested even in small quantities.

About 6,000 of these toys were sold between April 2007 and January 2008 nationwide in dollar stores for $5-$7 (wait a minute…). Parents are being advised to rip those suckers right out of their kid’s hands and return it to where they bought it for a refund. More information about this recall can be found on the Master Toys website.

You’ll never guess where they were made.

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Out of all the ways warrior robots have to kill, poisoning you slowly with lead paint while you play with it doesn’t seem the most efficient. New from OKK Trading, it’s Passive Aggressive Robot!

These lead paint laden playthings were sold between October and November, 2007 under the “Interchange Robots” label at dollar stores nationwide for, yep, one dollar. Side note: next time you’re in a dollar store, constantly hold things up and ask the clerk how much it costs. They LOVE that gag!

And no big surprise, they were made in China. The robots can be returned to place of purchase for a full refund, or have them conquer the inside of your garbage can. You can visit the OKK Trading website for more information.

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Over at our sister news site, Minor Topics, they are reporting that toy manufacturer Ty, Inc. (most known for producing Beanie Babies) is refusing to pull the Jammin’ Jenna doll from shelves despite it being tested for high levels of lead. What the hell is wrong with them?

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As part of dealing with the great lead paint scare of aught seven, we fell into the warm, comforting cocoon of the basic lead tests purchased at any hardware store — if that little strip didn’t turn pink after dabbing on our children’s toys, we were home free. Well, according to a recent CPSC staff study, you shouldn’t relax just yet as the test kits are generally unreliable:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today announced the results of a special evaluation of consumer lead test kits. CPSC staff used commonly available test kits on a variety of paints and other products containing different levels of lead. Many of the tests performed using the kits did not detect lead when it was there (false negatives); some indicated lead was present when it was not (false positives). Of 104 total test results, more than half (56) were false negatives, and two were false positives. None of the kits consistently detected lead in products if the lead was covered with a non-leaded coating. Based on the study consumers should not use lead test kits to evaluate consumer products for potential lead hazards. These findings are consistent with previous CPSC staff test results.

Yikes. Seems like the best option is still to go for the safer alternative — “handcrafted, locally made, organic, fair trade” toys.

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Those of you who short sold Mattel stock are probably celebrating this morning — toy maker Mattel has announced yet another recall of toys due to the threat of lead paint making it the third such recall by the company in just a few weeks.

This recall involves 675,000 Barbie accessories (not the dolls) sold between October 2006 to August 2007. The others include 90,000 units of Fisher-Price GeoTrax trains and 8,900 Big Big World Bongo Band toys. Full details are on the Mattel website.

Guess whose kids are getting hand made wooden toys for Christmas this year?

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As I was resizing the image for this post my 4-year-old, who has a, shall we say, unique obsession with letters and numbers looked over my shoulder at this magnetic train and immediately inquired as to if that was going to be delivered, and if not, he thinks they have it at the “play store” and we should go get it right now, come on! How do you tell your little angel no BECAUSE THE TRAIN WILL KILL YOU.

Not to be left off the lead paint bandwagon (er, train), Hampton Direct is recalling over 27,000 of their Magnetic Alphabet and Number train sets because, as well all know the drill by now, they were manufactured in China and they have an excessive amount of lead paint on them. Thanks again, China!

Sold between December 2005(!) and July 2007 nationwide for about 30 bucks, Hampton is advising parents dispose of the trains immediately. They are offering to send out a replacement train set that they said has now been thoroughly tested — yeah, uh, think I’ll pass on that one. More information is available on the Hampton Direct website.

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The latest lead from China report seems to be hitting baby bibs at Toys ‘R Us:

Tests conducted this summer by a non-profit health agency show that some vinyl baby bibs sold at Toys “R” Us stores are contaminated with lead, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The inexpensive bibs, made in China and imported for Toys “R” Us by Hamco Baby Products, contained lead levels three times as high as the level allowed in paint, the Times reported.

The tests, funded by the Center for Environmental Health of Oakland, Calif., were conducted on bibs purchased from Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores in California. An independent test conducted by a laboratory hired by the New York Times of the same bibs purchased in Maryland found similar levels of lead, the Times reported.

However Toys ‘R Us is countering that they test their bibs continuously, with the latest being in May 2007. A representative from the Consumer Product Safety Commission said to the NY Times that CPSC tests of bibs did show lead levels on occasion, but they were so low that they were not harmful especially if they were not torn or cracked.

I don’t know about you, but since these bibs were less than five bucks, I might play it better safe than sorry and ditch these things — I’ve always been preferred the cloth ones, anyway…

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In what’s sure to be a massive blow to their bottom line, Mattel has expanded their previous Fisher-Price recall to include more than 9 million Mattel toys because they may contain high levels of lead paint or small, strong magnets that can cause severe intestinal problems if swallowed.

Some of the toys involved are die-cast cars from the Pixar movie Cars, Polly Pocket, Barbie, and Batman play sets, and many others. Mattel is on massive spin control this morning, taking out a full page ad in the New York Times that stated, in part, that Mattel “was “one of the most trusted names with parents” and was “working extremely hard to address your concerns and continue creating safe, entertaining toys for you and your children.”” A bit hard to believe in light of this recent news…

Visit the Mattel website for more information and a complete list of the toys involved.

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Toymaker Schylling Associates has announced that they are recalling approximately 24,000 Thomas & Friends spinning tops manufactured between June 2001 and July 2002 because the Chinese-made (shocking!) toys had wooden handles covered with lead paint. But here’s the interesting rub — it seems Schylling may have known about the lead paint for five years but failed to issue a recall:

In researching its records after inquiries from the Tribune, Jim Leonard, the company’s chief operating officer, said Schylling found a June 2002 test report showing that the Thomas & Friends top contained lead paint on its wooden knob. That led the company a month later to make the switch to plastic.

Asked why the company did not recall the toy at that time, Leonard said, “I can’t answer that. … I had just started here.”

Leonard wins the worst spin by a COO award! Somehow I don’t think his “golly, gee willakers, I don’t know!” excuse is going to fly with parents (or their attorneys).

As an extra precaution, Schylling is also recalling similar Curious George and Circus Top tops that were sold around the same time. If you think you have one of these toys, contact the company at 800-767-8697 or info@schylling.com.

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In their largest recall since 1998, Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel are issuing a recall of 83 different styles of toys — totaling up to almost one million units — due to excessive quantities of lead in the paint used on the toys.

The worldwide recall being announced Thursday involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States between May and August. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products.

This is yet another high profile case involving shoddy safety practices in Chinese toy factories which gained major exposure in June when RC2 recalled their line of Thomas & Friends toys. This latest Fisher-Price recall is even more alarming as their toys — which include incredibly popular items like Sesame Street and Dora characters — are even more ubiquitous than Thomas trains.

Mattel has put up a recall information page to help determine if any toys in your household may be affected by the recall.

In other news, Congress passed the Open Government Act, a circle jerk exercise focused on their own incestuous affairs. How about focusing on something a little more important there in Washington, like keeping our kids safe from dangerous imports, hmmm?

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Lead paint… blah, blah… China… blah, blah… toy recall… I think we all know the lead paint drill by now. I mean, seriously, when is somebody going to do something about this? U.S. importers need to complete better due diligence on the crap they are bringing into this country.

The latest toy to apparently fall prey to China’s shoddy manufacturing safety controls are the ever-popular Thomas & Friends wooden trains. RC2 Corp. of Oak Brook, Illinois, is recalling almost 1.5 million of the trains that they have made directly for them at a Chinese plant. The trains may contain lead-based paint, which of course is extremely toxic if ingested. And as any parent with a basket full of these things knows, the paint is not exactly chip resistant especially in the hands of a toddler with a strong pitching arm.

The Thomas & Friends recall is one of the first in our recent memory that wasn’t gum ball machine junk, so perhaps this situation will finally get the attention it deserves when parents are having to return or discard hundreds of dollars worth of toys. Visit the RC2 website for the alarmingly long list of train toys being recalled. It should be noted that if any of your kids any of your kids’ Thomas trains on the list have the codes “WJ” or “AZ”, you can breathe a little easier as they are not included in the recall.

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This is starting to get ridiculous — three more toys today were recalled due to their high levels of lead. Here are the details:

Children’s Religious Fish Necklace - Oriental Trading Company
Someone misread the part in the bible about “lead them to the promise land.” Damn those homographs! About 130,000 of these things were distributed between January 2005 and January 2007, so if your tots went to the fundie neighborhood kid’s birthday party between those dates, you might want to check those goodie bags. Manufactured in — where else — China, Oriental Trading recommends taking these away from children immediately and either discard or contact them through their website for information on a refund.

Anima Bamboo Collection Games - Target
Target! I would have expected more from you. This cute little game (which I remember almost picking up as an impulse buy a couple months ago) may be made of bamboo, but the pieces are potentially covered with lead paint. Sold for $10 between December 2006 through April 2007 and manufactured in — say it with me — CHINA!, return these suckers directly to your nearest Target store for a full refund.

Children’s Rings with Dice or Horseshoes - Cardinal Distributing Co.
More lead from overseas, but this time from a different part of Asia. Manufactured in India, these incredibly ugly rings contain an extremely high level of lead. The ones affected by the recall have either dice or horseshoes on them (I love toys with a gambling theme!) and were sold in vending machines across the country between August 2004 and March 2007. And get this — these same exact rings were recalled back in 2004, but the distributor apparently put the rings it had collected from stores back into circulation! Nice job, guys. Let’s avoid that happening again — eat the $.25 and just get rid of the thing instead of returning it.

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