Family Dollar To Pay Civil Penalty

Joining Mattel, Fisher Price and OKK Trading, the Family Dollar Inc discount stores now has to pay a fine due to allegations that they were aware of and still sold toys with high lead content reports Bizjournal. Unlike Mattel, Fisher Price and OKK Trading, who generally make the toys, Family Dollar is merely the discount dollar store that sells the toys. They have agreed to pay $75,000 to settle the allegations of violating the laws. The Family Dollar Stores Inc is said to be one of nine companies fined for that reason, but the other eight aren’t listed, making Family Dollar the big name of the group or the company that has to pay the most of all nine companies. The total fine is over $500,000 for the nine companies combined and the $75,000 Family Dollar has to pay is at least 10% of what is fined. The Consumer Product Safety Commission allegations say the companies knew they were doing it and the companies say they didn’t. No surprises there, but it is a surprise as to why they didn’t mention the other eight companies that were included in the fine. Isn’t it kind of important to know what companies were fined so you can see if you happened to buy anything from...

Seized Toy Guns To Be Destroyed

Over 4,000 projectile firing toy guns were found during an inspection of a Melbourne importer. Toys guns were banned in Victoria back in 2002 due to the risk of blindness and other injuries to children. These toy guns are said to be destroyed. The company is probably only out about $4,000 for the 4,000 guns, har har. The Melbourne importer, Mr Jia Hao Huang, has admitted to bringing toy guns into Victoria and has pleaded guilty to charges of breaching the fair trade act. Since the ban, beginning in 2002, over 18,000 toy guns have been confiscated. It’s odd to think that toy guns would be banned just because of what could happen. I’m all for safety, but you’d think the parents wouldn’t get their kids anything like that if they didn’t think their kids were responsible enough not to shoot their eye out. In addition to that, drinking could cause accidents and smoking can cause diseases. What about banning those and other products that could do damage or kill people? I guess it’s the whole “kids don’t know any better” deal. I doubt alcohol and smokes would ever be banned because the people who are allowed to drink and smoke should know better. Read the story...

Freaky Looking Transformer Not A Toy

This is something you wouldn’t find at any dollar store, even the so-called dollar stores that charge more than a dollar on things. This new toy is called Homage and it’s a metal robot that transforms into a jet. It’s been said to have similarities to cylons or possibly a variation of a terminator in appearance. When in robot form it stands almost a foot and a half tall at 17 inches and it’s posable. Just from the image in jet form, it’s tough to make out how it’s a jet, and it looks very sharp and pointy with a possible impalement, laceration or puncture hazard. It’s by no means meant to be a toy for kids just because it transforms. With a $2000 price tag for a commissioned piece, it would be the kid’s birthday and Christmas presents for the next decade. It would also need to be ordered well ahead of time because it takes 3-4 weeks to deliver. It’s really meant to be a collector’s item more than anything I would think. But even with the $2000 price tag, if a kid played with that, it definitely has safety issues and, in that respect, it’s similar to a dollar store toy. Kudos to the creator though, it looks awesome. Check out the story at...

Mattel To Pay Civil Penalty

It looks like something is finally being done about toy safety issues with another toy company being issued a civil penalty. Bloomberg.com reports that Mattel has to pay a civil penalty for violating the lead paint standards in their toys with Fisher Price included in that penalty. As with the OKK trading civil penalty, the CPSC alleges that Mattel did it with knowledge of the violation, but Mattel basically claims it was an oversight and worked to stop the problem once discovered. But did they only do that because they were discovered? Mattel, in agreement with the CPSC, has to pay a sum of $2.3 million dollars. It’s the largest fine against a toy company and it’s intended to send a message to other toy companies to make sure they follow the standards or something will be done about it. Something should be done about it since Mattel had to recall more than 21 million dangerous toys imported from China. By the way, it doesn’t really matter if the Mattel one was issued before the OKK Trading so don’t bother pointing it out. Guess we’ll have to see which toy company will get the next civil penalty. At least the reason won’t be a surprise, the violation of lead level standards seems to be the safe...

OKK Trading To Pay Civil Penalty

It looks like the OKK Trading toy company has to pay a civil penalty for violating the federal lead paint ban and other child safety standards. The federal ban started back in 1978 making it over 30 years young. Some OKK Trading action figures were recalled late last year for high levels of lead paint. Okk Trading has agreed to and is supposed to pay a penalty sum of $665,000. Several problem toys have been outlined in the full CPSC article here. The CPSC alleges that OKK Trading knew the toys violated the child safety standards, but sold them anyway, a claim OKK Trading denies. Although it’s possible OKK Trading knew, it would be difficult to prove. It’s not surprising OKK Trading denies it even if they did know. For now, they only have to pay the civil penalty over the blunder of selling dangerous toys whether they knew or not. This forces them to put better checks in place so they don’t get a bigger fine for a second offense. Admitting they knew they were doing something bad would really bring down the punishment, but even if they didn’t know, is a few hundred thousand dollars enough to send the message? I guess if they are dollar store toys,...