“Bad toy!”
Aug. 2 (Bloomberg) — Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, said a recall of 1.5 million Chinese-made products will reduce second-quarter operating income by almost 50 percent and that it will review the production methods of all its contractors in China.
The recall of toys, including Sesame Street dolls, that may contain excessive lead levels will cut $30 million from Mattel’s previously reported operating income of $63.5 million. The company didn’t say what the impact on net income would be.
The lead discovery might force Mattel to find new sources of low-cost goods and may further damage China’s reputation as an exporter, following a recall of “Thomas & Friends” toys, a U.S. ban on Chinese toothpaste and scandals involving tainted cooking oil and diseased pork.
DAMN!! You got my attention.
SN you horny bastard!
There’s a lot of that going around these days. We had to dig through all our kids’ Thomas and Friends toys to weed out the lead paint recalls.
Best pic ever?
This is how the Chinese will take over America. They will send us poison in something that we all use, and say it was an accident.
(Where’s that darn tin-foil hat?)
Dang! she can call me her bad toy ANYTIME !
Yep, we had EIGHT toys on that list–all bought within the last few months. You can go to the Mattel website to get a postage-paid label sent to you along with coupons for the retail amount of the toys.
My local Mattel outlet also said they would accept the toys for store credit, though it wouldn’t be as much as the retail worth. So I’m sending mine in.
Too bad, too. One is these is my kid’s favorite toy ever. 🙁
And think about this, Mattel is only recalling the unsafe toys. Think about the billions wasted in shoddy toys that are not being recalled.
5. “This is how the Chinese will take over America.”
It may be crazy, but I’ve thought the exact same thing. Unfortunately those that can actually do something about it are not thinking it or are choosing to ignore it.
And think about this, nearly all of the electronics in our military equipment, gear, planes, submarines etc. is made in China. Think of all the back doors they could put in place.
#9
Or taking money from China.
BTW – you have more of this woman
oooooh
You guys quit looking at my girlfriend!
jeepers mr. d!!! if we could just get rid of pesky regulations here in America we could make faulty and dangerous products right here at home!! just think of the money American executives would make!!!
get rid of monetary damages in the court system and there would be no stopping American industry!!!
weeeeeeeee!!!!!
Just don’t buy this junk for your kids.
And yes, SN… good picture! 🙂
1. Matel had to send the china company a design, with specs.
2. Matel had to OK’ the production of said toys.
3. matel should have tested ALL, for Anything hazardous for the USA market.
4. what happened? Matel changed manufacturers? to SAVE more money, and found a Shady company to do the same job, at lesser cost??
4. WHO is responsible?? Matel.
16. “WHO is responsible?? Matel.”
I don’t think anyone is doubting that Mattel is responsible. I think the point of the posting is that going cheaper to save money doesn’t always save money in the long run. That’s the real cost of doing business in China. Heck, getting what you paid for is true everywhere.
Anyway, good comment.
#11. Thanks.
God was very kind to this woman.
Mmmm… Undercleavage…
SN you dirty bastard 🙂
WTG SN!!!! very nice pic
As fas as the actual article goes – *shrugs*
It’s a non-issue. China will deal with it or lower-class American’s who shop at Wally’s World (ie: china r us) will have a shorter lifespan due to heavy metal poisoning.
Which is just another form of population control.
17, SN,
And Whom do you think they are going to Blame??
Also heard another recall, is out for the SAME reason from anohter Children’s Toy corp..
Who are they going to pass the buck to??
PS…
Mommy can I have THAT toy??
PLEASE???!!!!!!!
PLEEEAAASSSEEEEEEEEE???????
#24
Asian women are high maintenance toys, and they’re not trashy expensive, they want pricy AND classy.
Great, we have a bunch of these toys in the house. My 2 year old daughter had chewed on a lot of them. I’m sure glad that the article is focusing on the “operating income” and downplaying the possible danger to the kids. I seriously would rather pay more and have it made in this country than send it out to other countries!
Its too difficult for someone who hasn’t been in business in China to understand how this can happen.
IMHO, counterfeit paint was used.
I have a rather long post on the mechanics on this on my new (newbie) blog – please be kind 🙂
Cheers
26,
but that IS the problem…
Those on top want MORe money then those on the bottom.
with wages 100 times those in the shipping department, HOW can you make them Cut their own wages to have it made in the USA.
Wages in China are $1 per HOUR MAX…
If they made it in the USA, to keep the CEO/board members/others happy, you would be paying 5-10 times the price.
27,
BUT if Matel had taken 1 toy from each shipment and tested it for SAFETY,??
Or do you think that SMALL feature and CARE costs to much for a MAJOR company to do???
AND I can see where china is having problems as they USEd to be in the USA…Just cause someone SAYS, this is the right STUFF/Better STUFF/the STUFF that works…DONT mean its the CORRECT STUFF.
Go look back in the 30’s-50’s….
#28 ECA I agree with you 100%…however…
While it seems that Mattel did not do this any manufacturer would be compelled do lot / batch testing in keeping with the most basic QA practices.
Obviously the failure of quality assurance management occurred at the point of manufacture – in this case in China and how it can happen I detailed in my blog post.
QA testing of product landed in each shipment sounds reasonable. However shipments are continuous involving hundreds of containers.
If say the lead tainted paint found its way into the manufacturing process ‘off an on’ it is very possible for product testing to miss it entirely.
Not every toy can be tested. Lets say just 10% of a production run of of 200,000 units are tested (which is very high) that means if only 10,000 toys were affected it is possible that testing could have easily missed it. The odds are against it.
So lets back up and instead of testing after the fact, test before. This means the paint and all other materials used in manufacture would need to be tested. While this appears easy enough in practice it is not so easy accomplish due to the sheer volumes of materials used.
This is why all manufacturers such as Mattel only use approved vendors for all materials used in production. A vendor approval process is not a simple task – it involves an investment of time – up to two years and a lot of money. There is also a certain amount of risk over benefit on how far one needs to go to maintain a level of QA based on statistics. This was one of the points I was making in my blog, there are exploitable holes in any supply chain even with suppliers that are approved or otherwise. The real fix is not as easy as it appears to the lay person.
Changing QA management procedures take time and money. There isn’t just one person making all the decisions. Variances in the QA processes means data collection and analysis – like CSI in making the comparison. Unlike CSI the killer is not always found at the end of the episode. 🙂
I always liked this saying “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. The smoke is not the cause of the problem, its the fire that creates it. Finding the fire is not easy when it is small and smoldering, undetected. When you get a conflagration in your face it surprises you – WTF where did that come from? Run to the hills!
So in being a fireman – why are these problems with manufacturing a more of problem in China and not in America? Well you said it yourself look back a 100 years, 60 and even less. Sounds like a good blog post to me. 😉
Cheers
errr – be sure to take off your “safe search” features when following the google search from #11. Sigh
AC
#30
Thanks for the tip – though curiosity got the better of me and I clicked it.
I was more surprised in that I was able to be surprised being in China
I am behind the Chinese Great Fire Wall which is meant to prevent such things so maybe the guy who presses the “BLOCK IT” button was out getting some tea 😉
I’m still looking for the article lol