Mattel on Tuesday recalled a total of 436,000 Chinese-made toys that had "impermissible levels of lead." The toys are die-cast vehicles featuring the Sarge character from the movie "Cars." Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
They look so neat and inviting up there to the man-child in all of us, don't they? Well, they are all being jerked back by Mattel--a fond name from my toy-playing youth, a handful of decades past. 436,000 of those little 'jeeps' are coming off the shelves. But they are only a fraction of the stupefying number of almost 19 million toys being recalled by the iconic giant of American play time. Why? Because, as you will read and mostly misinterpret, they were manufactured in China; my 'home' for 5 years now, with the hope and expectation of many more to come.
If you live here and love it as I do, right now your heart and mind is racing and roaring in a directionless anxious dread from something you are powerless to understand much less reckon with. How do you compartmentalize any of it enough to talk about it with people who know little about China; and a hundred times worse, with people already critical--at best--of China?
I know not. But I do know that all demons, fears, terrors and monsters of any and all stripes can only be dealt with by turning and meeting them face-to-face. That is why the photo from The New York Times is above, and the article it goes with is excerpted below. Read it and weep with me. Please.
So sadly, the people who really should read it and cry are at the moment working their minds feverishly to spin this god-awful punch in the national solar plexus into anything other than what it really is: A goddamn dirty, dirty result of the reality none of them wanted to face--economic booms of historical proportions come with real-time and forward-looking responsibilities as large and meaningful as the ever-expanding boom itself. (Although, frankly, it's far easier said than done; what nation has ever even tried it?)
In many ways, the continuing avalanche of tainted goods from China being discovered abroad, where the press is not controlled in the same manner as here, is worse than the three T's, the F-G and the C word combined in the beady eyes and growling gullets of the far too many China-haters walking this earth.
This must not stand if China is not to implode and plunge pell-mell into one of the greatest national failures of all times.
However, while everyone will see "China" in the headline and opening graph with the following gigantic numbers, almost all will overlook the reported fact that many millions of the toys recalled, though manufactured in China are being recalled due to specifications delivered from the west. Regardless, this fact should not mitigate the disaster to China inherent in this recall and the other quite recent evidence of malfeasance found in various goods "made in China."
This must not be 'spun' in any manner; it must be corrected. Here. In China.
Mattel, the world's largest toy company, yesterday announced the biggest recall in its history.
In a double-barreled announcement, the company said it was recalling 436,000 Chinese-made die-cast toy cars depicting the character Sarge from the animated film "Cars" because they are covered with lead paint.
At the same time, the toy maker said it was recalling 18.2 million other toys because their small, powerful magnets could harm children if swallowed. The magnetized toys were also made in China, but they followed a Mattel design specification.
About half of the toys in each recall were distributed in the United States.
Amid a wave of increasing safety concerns about products made in China, the recall threatened to set the toy industry on its heels--just as companies are beginning to ship toys to stores for the holiday shopping season, when half of all toy purchases are made.
Separately, laboratory tests have found that some Chinese-made vinyl baby bibs sold at Toys "R" Us stores appear to be contaminated with lead.
Industry analysts said Mattel's woes are part of a much larger problem.
"If I went down the shelves of Wal-Mart and tested everything, I’m going to find serious problems," said Sean McGowan, managing director and the toy analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. "The idea that Mattel--with its high standards--has a bigger problem than everybody else is laughable. If we don't see an increase of recalls in this industry, then it's a case of denial."
Even Mattel executives said repeatedly yesterday that the company may have more recalls.
"No system is perfect," Robert A. Eckert, Mattel's chairman and chief executive, said in a conference call. "There's no guarantee that we will not be here again."
Shares in Mattel dropped 57 cents, to $23, during regular trading, but rose the same amount after hours.
The mounting wave of safety concerns is forcing Mattel and other toy companies to reconsider long-held assumptions about the safety of their products. Mattel executives said yesterday that in the long run they are trying to shift more of their toy production into factories they own and operate--and away from Chinese contractors and sub-contractors.
"We do realize the need for increased vigilance, increased surveillance," said Jim Walter, senior vice president of worldwide quality assurance at Mattel, in an interview.
Still, the latest recall led to intensified calls from consumer advocates and politicians for stricter safety standards, as well as tougher penalties for companies.
"This summer alone has seen well over 13 million toy recalls, popular toys removed from our homes and our stores because they have been found to be extremely dangerous, in some cases lethal, to our children," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, a member of the Senate commerce committee.
Senator Klobuchar said it was "increasingly clear" that the Consumer Product Safety Commission needed more financing and greater authority. The commerce committee held a hearing last month on the safety of goods made in China.
The lead-paint recall was Mattel's second in less than a month of lead-tainted toys made in China. Together, the recalls have thrust the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars into the heart of rising concern over products made in low-cost factories in China.
Last month's recall of toys with lead paint included some based on characters from "Sesame Street" and "Dora the Explorer."
