Toxic Toys: A China-Free Christmas

Do you want to know how I spent my morning?  Do you?

A good 20 minutes was spent deciphering Mattel's Fisher-Price recall email.  Then I had to print out a postage-paid label, fill out paperwork and walk to the post office to return an innocent-looking Diego action figure.

I then went on GoodyBlog and read this.

Seriously? Are you kidding?

This is ridiculous and I'm beyond pissed.

That's it.  It's going to be a China-Free Christmas. 

A brand is built on trust, and if toy makers are going to continue to put their brands in the hands of criminally incompetent factories simply because they're the lowest bidder then they've lost my trust. 

No trust = No money

Chinese toy manufacturers?  You can suck it.

(And Fisher-Price?  The Go Diego Go Deep Sea Rescue set (code J0344) that you insist is sold in Canada only?  Newsflash - it's also sold in America.  I know for a fact that the set we received as a gift was purchased at a Target in Miami - which is pretty far from Canada last time I checked.)

I know that it's pretty much impossible to not buy toys made in China.  But it's the only way I know to make a difference.

So what if it's hard to find American and European toys?  That only means that I don't have go spend money in Hell's Armpit this year.  It may be harder to find non-Chinese made toys, but that's why God invented the internet - it took me 2 seconds to find a site that lists American made toys.  Thank you Google!

Non-Chinese toys too expensive?  Great!  We'll buy less toys - but better made ones.  That way there will be less plastic crap all over the house. 

I don't want to buy toys made in China anymore, and you know what?  I don't have to.  Neither do you.

Remember milk from cows treated with rBST?  It's getting harder and harder to find, because enough people decided they didn't want to buy it anymore.  I can only hope that someday the same will happen with toxic toys.

Comments

[Jess]

Here, here.

Now, how do you stop other people from buying you toys made in China? That's what I'm worried about--especially with a new baby who will be arriving right before Christmas.

[Erin]

I'm really selective about the toys I buy and bring into the house, which I'm now so very glad about. It's truly hard to "stop" other people from buying you toys (made in China) but I have a pretty strict "no toys"
policy that anyone who'd buy toys for my daughter knows. I'm definitely not anti-toy of course - but I'm anti plastic and potentially dangerous crap all over my house.

Hell's armpit is probably the best description of that hell hole of a toy store I've heard in a long time. I went in there once and that? Was enough.

[Miguelina]

Jess,

Unfortunately, you can't...That Diego figure was a gift, which I graciously accepted because a gift is a gift and it was given with love and all the good intentions in the world.

I can't expect other people to go through all the trouble to find toys that I'll go through this Christmas.

I'm a bit of a toy snob myself, so I usually buy from local shops anyways.

But you! You're going to have a baby and will be getting wee little outfits and adorable blankets and I can't wait for you to bask in all the new baby awesomeness! You won't have to worry about Chinese toys for a few months.

[Mrs. Chicky]

Thank you for that link to the toys still made in the USA. I can't ensure that my daughter won't get any toys made in China from relatives but she won't get any from me.

[Katie]

I command your comments, I have been sick about this for a while now. It prompted me to start a Lead Blog:
http://leadawareness.blogspot.com
I am trying to get my friends and family to boycott buying any items from China, I figure if enough people do then possibly we can elimate this hazard.

[Roberta]

I am down with going "china free", but not just for the holidays. I want to do it for kids birthdays-those gift bag things make me nuts. I wish there was a way to create/find eco friendly gift bags....we did give my boys a bag of live lady bugs the other day to let loose in the garden, but I am not sure how other mothers would feel about that in a gift bag.

[julia]

Thanks for the great information. I'll be paying more attention to the toys I get....

There's something to be said for a nice wooden toy.

[Sandy]

Great article!

Also, check out http://americanmadetoys.googlepages.com/americanmadetoys for a long list of companies that sell toys made in the U.S.A.