Do you trust Mattel products after Mattel APOLOGIZED to China over "Design flaws?"?

Question

I know that I don't. I wonder how long that we have been getting lead tainted toys from China?

I hope to God that parents send Mattel a clear message this Christmas season that AS PARENTS we wont put up with these actions that Mattel has done.

Answer 1

Never trusted Mattel and it had or has nothing to do with China , read -

Mattel toys in Israel have no lead paint - Yes you are reading that headline correct and here's part of the article and what I believe should be a front page news story all over the U.S. -

Israeli parents who are worried that they may have possibly bought dangerous toys containing lead paint can relax : Tests conducted by the Israel Standards Institute on Mattel toys taken from store shelves show that all of the products meet the safety standards .

U.S. toymaker Mattel ordered a recall in the last week of its Polly Pocket and Barbie dolls and sets and those of Tanner ( Barbie's dog ) and other items made in China due to the use of lead paint and tiny magnets that could be swallowed by children .

Less than two weeks ago , Mattel was also forced to recall other Chinese-made toys such as Dora the Explorer and Big Bird and Elmo dolls over concerns about lead paint used on the toys .

See link - http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/894506.html

My opinion on this is simple - Even if the Israelis test samples while Americans and Europeans don't , then why { yes why } would a company like Mattel distribute hazardous toys in America and Europe and reserve the safe ones for Israel ?

And I am sure you are thinking it , so lets ask the $50,000 question - Is this by coincidence or by design ? I will let you decide .

Answer 2

I would not trust Mattel products at this time. I understand the recall, however there were toys from five years ago being recalled.

China wanted an apology because this incident made China look bad.

How many times have we hear on 60 minutes and/or 20;20 about the abuse of employees in China.

I am able to understand the United States is trying to get China to institute human rights in China, but when you have a government and certain business people who are taking advantage of the poor, and I do mean the poor, to become wealthy, I just do not know what to say or think.

Employees not getting paid for a year's worth of work. Employees paid on production piece. Sweat shop workers. This is not only in China, this is in third world countries.

We American's fought many wars in the past and the present. I feel sometimes the United States Government is not bringing these third world countries up to our standards, they are taking us down to third world standards.

At this time it is Mattel and tomorrow it will be something else. Where was American Quality Control in those factories? We have many factories in the U.S. owned by other countries and they have their Quality Cotrol People in the United States.

I am just thankful I never had gotten married and had children. It has to be a tough job to be a parent.

Just remember before you purchase anything and I do mean anything. "Buyer Beware!"

Answer 3

It could be that Mattel had realized its own shortfall on the issue. The fact of the matter is that all factories (whether inside or outside the US) simply follows the design details and specifications provided to them by the manufacturer. The factories then have to produce the product based on these provided design details. It could be that Mattel failed to include in the design specifications the regulation on maximum amount of lead that is allowed to be present on the toys. Nor did Mattel conducted tests to verify the actual amount of lead content as part of its quality control process. The fact that millions of toys made their way into the US supermarket shelves indicate that such tests were never done, and that these toys all passed the quality control process.

Now, that these design flaws are coming out into the open, Mattel decided to apologize. This is because design flaws cannot be blamed on the Chinese factories, as Mattel itself is the source of the designs.

Take note that a "design flaw" is totally different from a "manufacturing flaw".

Answer 4

Fortunately, I don't buy toys anymore, but I do have to say that the recall was huge and I'm afraid that there are a lot of kids out there playing with toys they shouldn't be. I doubt I would buy any Mattel if I had children young enough to play with them.

Answer 5

How can it have been a design flaw? It makes no sense. A design flaw wouldn't specify lead based paint - it might specify the wrong colour possibly. Maybe Mattel have upset their Chinese supplier by getting them a lot of bad publicity recently, and now the Chinese won't supply them with cheap toys unless they deflect the blame from China. It wouldn't surpirse me - after all Mattel are in business to make money and cheap labour and goods from China are essential to continued high profits.

Answer 6

i personally think there should be a federal lawsuit against Mattel for lack of quality control. doesn't seem common sense that if you outsource production, you would check that it's being done up to your specification. or maybe Mattel specified lead paint on purpose to save money? i wonder that they didn't at least know about and conveniently ignored it. there should be an investigation! if we don't hold these companies accountable for thier products they'll just keep blaming it on China or Malaysia or Taiwan or whoever.

Answer 7

In my Opinion, Mattel is Responsible for Anything they Make a Profit Off of.

Answer 8

I think if we were all willing to pay more for our goods, production lines in western countries would not have shut down and we could be certain that local standards of quality control were adhered to. Once we started on the 'cheaper and more' attitude to consumer goods, we opened the way for this very thing to happen, and keep happening. Price cuts come at a cost, and in some countries wages are already so low they simply cannot be cut anymore, and the 'top end' are not going to relinquish one cent in profits or bonuses. The choice is in our hands ~ higher dividends and cheaper toys, or more expensive but safer products (regardless of where they are made). Cheers :-)

Answer 9

Mattel has been upfront about the bad toys, has gone out of their way to find any other tainted toys, and even erred on the side of caution... hence the apology to China for being better safe than sorry.

I absolutely trust Mattel is well aware of bad publicity and is now safer than it has ever been

So, in answer to your question, yes, I trust Mattel.

Answer 10

Mattel didn't do anything........not intentional. MANY MANY MANY PRODUCTS, including vehicles (you know...actual killers if something is bad) have had recalls. This is not and won't be the last recall company. Yes, I trust Mattel. You ought to not take your kids outside either because they may be exposed to something really bad....sorry, I disagree -- I'd hate to see such a large company go completely DOWN because of this. That would be sad too. What if you owned the company?