If you have heard, seen, or read any news lately, you probably know about the massive Mattel Toys recall. Yesterday, a second recall was announced, this time including Barbie, Batman, Polly Pocket and One Piece. The Brisbane Times reported:
Mattel Australia is recalling more than 460,000 toys across 31 varieties, including Batman and Barbie accessories, in its second major recall this month.
Cruising around the internet and hearing people talk, the majority of the panic focuses around lead paint in all of their Mattel products. People almost makes it sound like every Mattel toy is being recalled. But before you throw out all your precious Batman and JLU action figures and taint landfills with toxic levels of lead, it’s worth going to Mattel’s website and checking out what was actually recalled and why.
Mattel, in cooperation with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is voluntarily recalling a number of Polly Pocket!™, Batman™ Magna, Doggie Daycare™ and Shonen Jump’s One Piece™ playsets containing small powerful magnets.
The magnets inside these dolls and accessories can fall out — undetected to parents and caregivers. These magnets can be swallowed or aspirated by young children or placed by a child in their nose or ears. When more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal. Aspiration to the lungs requires immediate surgery. Magnets placed in the nose or ears can cause swelling and be difficult to remove.
You probably still want to take away these specific toys from your children. But when you boil it down, only four Batman figures are affected by this. They are:
• The Batman™ Magna Battle Armor™ Batman™ Figure
• The Batman™ Magna Fight Wing™ Batman™ Figure
• The Batman™ Magna Secret I.D.™ Batman™ Figure
• The Batman™ Magna Flying Fox™ Batman™ Figure
As for other comic-related properties, a single One Piece toy is on the recall list.
• One Piece™ Triple Slash™ Zolo Roronoa™
For more information about the two recalls, and a complete list of toys affected, please consult Mattel’s recall website at Mattel.com/safety.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Pretty bold of you to take the “stop overreacting people!” position. I had to toss Thomas in June, Drop Dora yesterday, and now it seems the bibs I bought Friday may have lead. I think it’s cause enough for alarm…
There’s a decent blog post on Mattel’s response, and how it simply obfuscates the bigger problem:
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/1978/50/
I do appreciate your attempt to keep the reaction rational.