MATTEL fined $2.3 mln for lead-tainted toys from China

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has fined MATTEL Inc $2.3 million for violating a ban on bringing dangerous products into the United States.  

The fine stems from the toymaker's 2007 recall of 95 types of toys and up to 2 million units, primarily for excessive lead in paint, including the "Sarge" toy car and Barbie brand accessories. 

A 1978 law bans toys and other children's articles that have more than 0.06 percent lead by weight in coatings. 

Source: Reuters

MATTEL = Toy Monster ?

Five Questions for Jerry Oppenheimer, author of Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel

Mattel is a beloved and iconic toy company – what first inspired you to write an expose of the “secret side” of the company?

All of my previous books have been about iconic people and dynasties – The Kennedys, Clintons, Hiltons, Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters, Jerry Seinfeld. But for my ninth book I decided to write about an iconic institution, one that was a household name whose products had a profound impact on generations. Mattel fit the profile – especially since it was in the headlines for the massive toy recalls in 2007, and with the iconic Barbie doll’s 50th anniversary looming this year.

How did you gather all the information that you discuss in the book?

I gathered everything that was in the public record about Mattel, going back to its earliest days to the present, more than 60 years worth. That kind of organization is important for a biography such as the one I planned to write about Mattel. Then I began doing the legwork, tracking down former and present Mattel employees and executives, and interviewing them on the record about their experiences at Mattel, about the company’s corporate culture, and cast of characters. Then came the immense job of organizing all of that material and research and writing what I hope readers will enjoy and from which they will learn.

What was the most shocking revelation you uncovered in the course of writing Toy Monster?

There were many jaw-droppers and shockers that surfaced during my research. One especially was the vicious feud between Jack Ryan, the Father of Barbie, and Ruth Handler, the co-founder of Mattel, over who conceived and developed the company’s best-known and biggest-selling toy, Barbie.

The book reveals many little-known facts about the company history of Mattel and the odd corporate culture. What, in your opinion, is the most misconstrued assumption in popular opinion that you address in Toy Monster?

During the course of my research, I discovered that Jack Ryan was the key person to bring Barbie in to the world, but that Handler, after Ryan’s death, dismissed and denigrated his major contributions, taking all credit for the iconic doll. After Ryan committed suicide, Handler wrote an autobiography and etched her story in stone that Barbie was all her idea from start to finish, and that myth has since been perpetuated. For the first time Toy Monster gives Ryan’s side of the previous untold story, and flips the birth of Barbie 180 degrees.

What’s the one thing you’d like readers to take away after reading Toy Monster?

Don’t be fooled by those wonderful playthings. Behind the scenes the big business of toys is a highly competitive battleground, and is far from fun and games.

Source : Amazon.Com

MATTEL : 2007 Financial Results Webcast

Listen to MATTEL 2007 financial results conference call.

MATTEL : Lawmakers Say Mattel Broke Word on Lead

Dozens of members of Congress sent a letter Tuesday to the chief executive of Mattel, accusing the company of not living up to its promise to keep lead-tainted toys out of children’s hands.

The letter was prompted by Mattel’s decision not to issue a nationwide recall of a blood-pressure cuff in a toy medical kit sold under the Fisher-Price brand, recalled on Dec 4th 2007. The legislators said they were disturbed by the company’s “lack of action.”

Source : The New York Times

MATTEL : New social audit released for 4 Mattel factories

At Mattel's request, The International Center for Corporate Accountability (ICCA) just release the results of their audit of 4 Mattel-owned or Mattel-operated factories in China. The audits have been paid and ordered by Mattel.

The audit document can be downloaded here.
Mattel's remarks after the audit can be downloaded here.
The Playthings magazine article.

Chinese workers are sick of making toxic cadmium batteries

Over the holidays, millions of American children received Chinese-made toys powered by cadmium batteries. Cadmium batteries are safe to use. They are also cheap, saving American parents about $1.50 on the average toy, compared with pricier batteries, but cadmium batteries can be hazardous to make as workers inhale the toxic red cadmium dust that filled the air in the plant.

As the U.S. and other Western nations tightened their regulation of cadmium, production of nickel-cadmium batteries moved to less-developed countries, most of it eventually winding up in China.

In America, five years after Hasbro stopped using nickel-cadmium batteries, Mattel and Toys "R" Us are yet to follow suit, but say they are exploring alternatives. Wal-Mart no longer purchases cadmium batteries from GP Batteries but declined to comment on whether it still uses them in its products.

Mattel says cadmium batteries have some performance advantages over alternatives, such as a better ability to retain a charge when not used for long periods.

Only this year, the European Union is banning the sale of nearly all cadmium batteries.

In China, government standards on cadmium exposure are in line with those endorsed by the World Health Organization. And without question, there are safe cadmium plants in China.

But having rules and enforcing them are two different things.

Source : The Wall Street Journal Asia

MATTEL : We will "recycle" toys

Mattel mentioned that it planned to recycle as many components of its returned toys as possible, including selling or reusing zinc and some of the resins used to make the toys.

Lisa Marie Bongiovanni, Mattel's vice president for corporate communications said in a discreet statement, “We quarantine them, we do not release them, we do not export them, we do not ship them out of the country.”

She added “It depends on why the toy was recalled. Sometimes, we destroy the toy completely. Other times, we are able to recycle certain parts, and other times there is a 'fix' to the toy, the same fix that we would send to consumers."

In January 2008, all mention of the recall & safety information had vanished from the homepage of www.mattel.com, as if it was a matter of the past.

Mattel & Hasbro 2007 Financial Results Webcasts

Mattel will webcast its quarterly conference call on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time (5:30 a.m. Pacific time). The conference call will be webcast on the "Investors & Media" section of the company's corporate Web site, www.mattel.com. To listen to the live call, log on to the Web site at least 15 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. An archive of the webcast will be available on the company's Web site for 90 days and may be accessed beginning two hours after the completion of the live call.

Hasbro will webcast its quarterly conference call on Monday February 11, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time (5:30 a.m. Pacific time).The conference call will be webcast on the "Investors Relations" section of the company's corporate Web site, www.hasbro.com. Click on "Corporate Information" on the bottom of the page and then click on "Investors," then click on the webcast microphone.

TOY SAFETY : Is 10% of the company value the right valuation ?

Click to see the graphs

Robert Eckert, CEO of Mattel, must be a reassured man by now... as the Mattel recently got through three massive recalls - and a resulting public relations mess - while it seems that the impact on the stock price is only 10% compared to Hasbro who didn't recall any toy this year.

One factor is that it is almost impossible to avoid Chinese made toys, even if you want to... Customers surveys indicate that people would rather "avoid non-made in China" toys which is virtually impossible to put in practice since the regulation in many countries doesn't make it mandatory to mention the origin of the toys anymore, and simply because - As the (very bad) book "A year without made in China" tried to demonstrate - living without made in China products is almost mission impossible since only a handfull of toys are not of Chinese origin...

Let's compare with Hasbro, Mattel's major competitor, who recently advertised in newspapers ads that they had had no recall in the past years.

Mattel is down -17% and Hasbro is "only" down -7%
Obviously, the Mattel and other recalls had an impact on Hasbro's stockprice, as customers don't make the difference at first glance to the toys shelves, but the gap is "only" 10%...

Does it mean that the professionnalism and toy safety are worth only 10% of a toys company's value ?

MATTEL : A lot of wandering around...

According to some ex-Mattel employees, the company would currently be retesting and examing which products are actually tainted and which ones are not.

Our source said:

"They (Mattel) have started putting stickers on the products that they find which are not tainted and selling them through thier regular channels. For the products that are tainted, they have to find a suitable means of disposing of them and a suitable location."

"The Environmental Protection Agency requires companies to test their returned products for an aggregate level of lead to determine a disposal plan. This process is taking them some time, hence only the 375,000 that have so far been disposed of."

"And it's not only the finished product that Mattel have to deal with, they also have the tainted materials that need to be disposed of. Mattel are also trying re-cycle some of thier products into park benches and the like."

"Then, (they must) consider the amount of products in the consumers hands that will not be returned for one reason or another, that will be a large sum, maybe as high as 80%, that Mattel can not destroy. They may be holding some of these products as they go through litigation to. It is very compliated with many variables."

MATTEL : Dangerous toys protected by a single bike padlock ?

In recent months, the factory workers from Foshan Lee Deer Toy Co., the chinese toy factory that produced the Mattel-Fisher Price first set of recalled toys in August, have been laid off after the factory owner comitted suicide leading to the closing of the factory.

If you walk in front of the factory gates this week, closed by a low-quality yellow bicycle padlock, you can see the Mattel-Fisher Price toys boxes stacked in the factory warehouse. This would mean that Mattel didn't recall these toys but left them where they were... with no specific surveillance !

From a legal standpoint, it might be that these toys don't belong to Mattel-Fisher Price yet since they haven't been delivered by Lee Deer... but will these toys stay in the factory, only to finished being sold under the counter in a local market or in a less regulated country than EU/USA ?

When your brandname is printed on a product, shouldn't the company directors get their hand on them to destroy or fix these toys ? Are they waiting that these toys disappear by magic one morning ? Would then Mattel claim that "we didn't own these toys, therefore they weren't part of the recall" ?

MATTEL : Toys destructions countdown

As Mattel starts destroying toys, we will keep track on the total toys destruction figures for a total of 21.000.000 toys to be destroyed in the near future. So far, Mattel showed photographic evidence and declared to have destroyed only 175.000 toys based in Mexico. They still have to destroy over 20 millions toys... keep crushing, we're watching !

MATTEL Mexico : You've been informed here first !

It's nice to see that this blog informed you faster than... the Associated Press itself !
Yesterday, my blog announced the MATTEL toys destruction in Mexico (see the post down below).
Today, the global press agency Associated Press has confirmed the news.
The article confirms that quantity of destroyed toys is mentionned to be between 164000 and 175000 pcs, including lead tainted toys such as race cars, action figures, and colored plastic dragons.

LINK to the AP article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22015267/

MATTEL Mexico : Destruction of (some) dangerous toys

On November 6th 2007, MATTEL recalled 150.000 made in Mexico unsafe FISHER PRICE toys.

On November 28th, we can show you some photos showing the destruction of some toys, by the mexican waste management company ECOLTEC (www.ecoltex.com.mx), taken in their Apaxco plant.

Mattel didn't confirm how many toys have been destroyed.
Ecoltec should issue a destruction certificate showing the quantity but it will be handed directly to Mattel.

The face masks look great on the photos, eventhough they seem useless when facing this kind of plastic toys. I guess it is a safety regulation of the factory to always wear these masks.
MATTEL goal is to reassure people like my mother to bring her back to the MATTEL toys store shelves. Certainly, she will be very impressed by the masks in this toy destruction show !

LIENS :
http://www.ecoltec.com.mx/

Toys recall : Where do the recalled toys go ?

Open question for comments :

What happen's with the recalled unsafe toys after the recall ?

Mattel, Spin Master & co. didn't mention anything about...
Do they distroy 100% of the toys or do they put them back in the market after fixing them ?

IF THEY FIX THE TOYS, can we trust that they can control the people fixing the toys better than they controled their factory ? Which toys would they fix ? How would they fix them ? Would it require resending the toys to China for fixing ?

IF THEY DESTROY THE TOYS, can we trust that destroying the toys doesn't lead to many toys disappearing... until they reappear somewhere, still unsafe, with a different packaging and branding. What proof do we have that the toys are effectively distroyed ? More importantly, what does toy companies do to get proofs that 100% of the toys to be distroyed are effectively distroyed ?

According to Xinhua News Agency, Xie Yuguang, board chairman of Lida Plastic Toys Co. Ltd, the supplier of Mattel's lead painted recalled toys, said he had a stock of nearly 50 million yuan (6.6 million U.S. dollars/4.5 million euros) overstocks toys (understand "in his factory" ?).
The company has now come to a full stop after the recall.
Apparently, Mattel hadn't paid for these toys yet. Therefore, they don't belong to Mattel, eventhough they bear the Mattel brand. They are unsafe. They are located in China. What happen's next ?

Due to the loss of the export licence by Lida, it seems to be very similar to the tchernobil nuclear plant issue. The russian scientists had a financial interest to resell nuclear material in the black market because they weren't paid anymore.

Who/What prevents Lida executives or laid off workers to get some of these toys and resell them on the black market ?

What prevents the company to repackage the toys under a new brand to sell them anywhere but in the U.S. or Europe ?

After failing in the production control process, is Mattel failing in the recall process ?

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS :
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-09/25/content_6791662.htm

What do you think happens ?

MATTEL... 1-2-3 distinct flaws !

Mattel numerous toys recalls were the consequence of at least 3 distinct flaws from various departments and managers at Mattel : design manager, manufacturing, supply chain control and quality inspections errors .

1- The lead paint problem is both a purchasing policy problem & a lack of laboratory testing (the lead paint test is almost immediate)
2- The magnet problem is a design problem, from the Mattel's design department.
3- The "Laugh & Learn et Learning Kitchen Toys" is a small parts choking hazard problem, which is also a design problem.

MATTEL recalls have certainly an impact on the toys sales this year. The figures might show that parents are afraid of "paint and magnets" and might simply buy more books, DVD's, iPods, LCD toys (understand "tamagohis") which be the "safe heaven" parents are looking for.

MATTEL recalled toys because of 3 different types of flaws in their manufacturing & control process.
Parents would understand that 1 flaw can happen one time one day.
We could agree that one flaw makes other problems occur: the domino effect.
But regarding Mattel's 2007 recalls, the 3 different mistakes were totally distinct which is truly not acceptable.

When the approved Mattel and Lee Deer Industrial paint chinese supplier, Dongxing New Energy, told Lee Deer that he couldn't deliver the next 500 kgs of yellow color pigment on time, Lee Deer found Dongguan Zhongzin Colorants on the internet.

Lee Deer accepted the fake lab test from présenté par Dongguan Zhongzin Colorants, and didn't investigate further despite a worker's comment about the unusual smell of the yellow paint made with these pigments...

In fact, they trusted unknown people : Dongguan Zhongzin Colorants was only created in 2001 and Lee Deer didn't work with them before. The basic reason of the flaw was "rush delivery": They couldn't wait long enough for their usual supplier to provide the paint for the toys.

To my opnion, they should have waited or they should have tested the paint in an internal lab in the factory : The lead paint test can be done almost instantly. They trusted a new company. That is the first mistake.

These 500 kgs of yellow color pigment allowed to make thousands of yellow paint which lead to millions of toys, knowing that each toy uses only very small yellow paint surface in terms of gramms per toy. This timeline of events are based on the best of my knowledge, but you may know more than I do and it's not 100% certified.

NEXT, the magnets product design flaw lead to the Polly Pocket's recalls. This is now a DESIGN flaw : It doesn't come from the same department at Mattel. I could understand a second set of toys recall for the yellow lead paint issue, but now, it's another team, another reason, very distinct.

FINALLY, the recall of the "Laugh & Learn et Learning Kitchen Toys" recall was due to a SMALL PARTS choking hazard flaw. It's yet another problem, another cause. It's not about lead... it's not about magnets... it's about small parts.

1-2-3 distinct flaws !

Are the design, production, quality control managers still in place at Mattel ?

Mc DONALD'S toy recall

In March 2001, McDonald's voluntarily recalled about 234,000 toys that come with the restaurant chain's Happy Meals after learning three children had choked or gagged on the "Scooter Bug" antenna, which is prone to breaking off. McDonald's has received two reports of children choking and one report of a child gagging on the broken off antenna.

The Scooter Bug toy is about 3 inches long and 2 1/2 inch wide. When rolled across the floor, the bug's legs move back and forth. The bug has a yellow face with red antennas, orange feet and a purple body with green spots. The words "Fisher Price" are on the top of the toy. The words "MFG.FOR MCD CORP.CHINA" are on the rear of the toy.

McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. and Canada distributed the toys with Happy Meals from November 2000 through February 2001.