Be Careful Selling Or Donating Old Toys

One has many options at their disposal when it comes to dealing with an owned toy that is being recalled for any of the several reasons toys have been recalled for lately. Some people simply throw the toy out, other people exchange it for a different item and the rest get a refund where available, if the refund is worth the time and money to get. One thing you shouldn’t do with a recalled toy is try to sell it. Garage sales are great to clear out some old junk and make some money on the side, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission have the power to monitor garage and other sales of that type to ensure any toys that have been recalled aren’t being sold. Anyone caught selling any toys that were recalled in the past could go to jail reports Bob Barr from the Barr Code. I guess it would depend on the situation on what could happen, but saying you didn’t know you couldn’t do that isn’t going to get you off the hook. In fact, it would probably get you in more trouble since that would be a common excuse. It’s as they say, ignorance of the law doesn’t make it ok. Toys being sold on the internet are also being watched so that’s not a safe option either if you’re trying to sell. Even donating toys is getting tougher because of the recalled toys. It’s just slightly a slap in the face to the kids “Here you go, a cheap toy that might put your eye out or stunt your mental development, enjoy”. Since it’s the Consumer Product Safety Commission regulating this sort of this, you should probably check their website for all recalled toys if you plan on donating or selling toys. It’s not that big of a list although the first recall was back in the 1970s. That sort of thing is probably just going to deter people from donating toys. I know I wouldn’t want to try and do something good like donate toys only to find out something I donated was recalled and I look bad for donating a bad toy. I don’t think you can get into trouble for donating a recalled toy, but it would most certainly be frowned upon, defeating the purpose of the donation in the first place. Any toys known or are suspected of being bad would just be kept out of circulation. Would this keep you from donating or selling old...

Lego IR Remote Controls Recalled

Hey, something Lego is being recalled and it isn’t for a choking hazard. With its tiny blocks, I long suspected a choking hazard warning would eventually come up since those blocks could fit down a child’s throat. The recall doesn’t have to do with a block choking hazard though. It’s about a burn hazard for remote controls used with a train kit. Lego Systems Inc is recalling about 1,600 Power Functions IF Remote Controls because it needs batteries and the batteries can overheat with almost a half a dozen reports of them overheating. Thankfully no one had the opportunity to yell out “BURN” a la Michael Kelso. They were sold out of the Lego catalogs and on their website lego.com in April and May of this year, 2009, for 13 bucks and they went along with the Emerald Night Train and the Power Functions kit. People who purchased the remote control should contact Lego Systems Inc to find out if their unit was part of the recall, usually determined through a serial number or something, and they can get it replaced if they got a bad one. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has the full report...

Toys Recalled in January 2009

Unfortunately, I got a couple months behind in my toy recall updates. I tried to write-ups for all the posts I missed to catch up, but that was about a month ago and I haven’t done any since. At this point, I can only catch up if I just do a quick listing of all toys recalled each month for the first few months of the year until I am caught up. So here are the toys that I hadn’t posted yet recalled in January 2009 for those who didn’t know about them. Lion and Lamb Grabby Rattles Approximately 131,000 rattle units were recalled on January 15th and 20,000 were previously recalled in March of 2008. They presented a choking hazard to children because the tail on the rattles could come off. They were manufactured in China and they were sold at Wal-Mart and Babies R Us between May 2007 and September 2008 for 3 or 4 dollars. Spa Factory and Aromatherapy Kits Here’s one of the more rare recall reasons, explosion and projectile hazard. Several different spa and aromatherapy kits, around 516,000 units total, have an issue with with containers for bath balls and bath fizzies. The lids on the containers don’t have holes in the top so carbon dioxide pressure can build up and pop the tops off. The lids can become projectiles when enough pressure builds up and chemicals used can irritate eyes with splashing with some reports of injuries. These kits were sold at Wal-Mart, Target and Sam’s Club among other toy stores between August 2008 and January 2009 with the cost of the various kits ranging from 13 to 50 dollars and they were made in China. People who purchased the kits can trade their caps without vent holes for new caps with vent holes. This prevents the pressure build up. If that’s all you can do, I would just drill vent holes on the caps that don’t have them already. Construction Play Set It’s back to the original problem with this toy construction site, excessive lead hazard with 3,000 units being recalled. They were sold during the last few months of 2008 for about 20 dollars. These sets were made in China and sold at hardware and farm stores all over the nation. No injuries were reported and customers should take the sets away from their kids and return it for a...

State Farm Bears Recalled

This recall from today comes from your good neighbor, State Farm Insurance, in the form of a cute and cuddly, but not so kid-friendly advertisement toy. The State Farm Good Neigh Bears®, another product manufactured in China, were given away for free by agents and during some sponsored events between September 2005 and March 2007. The stuffed animal bear’s eyes can fall off and pose a choking hazard to children, with one report of a child putting the eye in her mouth. Over 800,000 bears are included in the recall for the United States and Canadians have 27,000 to worry about. Because these toys were given away, and were free, the only thing you can do with them is take them away from the child and dispose of them. Or, for those people who are daring, actually just sew the eye back on! Is it just me or should the art of sewing be somewhat perfected by this point? Honestly, unless they are making a big deal out of everything these days, you’d think they’d have a way of securing eyes onto stuffed animals by now. Wouldn’t be ironic if someone filed some form of insurance claim to some incident regarding one of these bears? Read the CPSC report...

Land of Nod Xylophone Toy Recall

I’m a little behind on toy recall reporting so the next little while will be catching up on whats been going on in the recall sector this past little while. Looks like there’s been eight CPSC recalls since my last reported recall. This time it’s a xylophone, one of those ones on wheels that you can pull along, and it’s being recalled for a choking hazard. The pegs can break and be swallowed by children. At the time of recall, there were 22 broken peg reports, but no one filed an injury report. The recall affects about 500 units that were last sold in March of 2008 from the Land of Nod Catalogue, their website and various store, so it’s kind of late since it was almost a year ago they were even last sold. As usual, it’s best to take them away from the kids. You can return it to the company and get a purchase price credit (it was about $45) and a gift certificate worth $10. At a first glance, you’d think there would be a lead paint issue, I mean honestly, it looks like it’s made of candy. Look at the pinwheel sucker wheels, licorice lace pull string and the xylophone sticks look like Chupa Chups. Kids are probably sucking on the thing. Watch the flash animation on the Chupa Chups website and see if you can count the number of possible copyright infringements. So far, I recognize the Rolling Stones(Lolling Stones?), Star Wars, Apple Computers(Pear?), Back to the Future, Pac-Man, Bill Clinton and possibly the Spice Girls. Oh, and if you care, they were made in China. View the full CPSC recall report...