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Parents picky with playthings this
holiday season
By Jeff Eason
When it comes to getting parents more “hands-on”
with the selection of their children’s Christmas toys, you
can’t beat a good old-fashioned toy recall. Especially if
that recall involves lead-based paint or plastic beads containing
a chemical that converts into a “date rape” drug when
swallowed.
Playmobil sets, made in
Germany, are a popular alternative to toys made in China
this season. Photos
by Jeff Eason |
Meredith Anders and Debi
Golembieski display their large selection of wooden toys
for kids at Green Mother Goods in Boone. |
Old fashioned toys like
the Flexible Flyer are making a comeback this holiday
season. |
While much of the news in the toy industry this year has been
fraught with danger, some makers of traditional toys are reaping
the benefits of the various toy recalls. Wooden toys, fabric items,
board games, arts & crafts kits, books, CDs and playthings
made in the USA are flying off the shelves this season as parents
find themselves wary about plastic toys and jewelry, particularly
those made in China.
Locally owned stores such as The Mast General Store, The Incredible
Toy Company and Green Mother Goods have been fielding questions
from hundreds of concerned parents this holiday season. Some are
looking to stay away from plastic toys altogether while others
want to make sure the plastic items they do buy have been tested
for toxins.
“80 to 90 percent of all toys in this country are made in
China,” said Meredith Anders, co-owner of the new Boone store
Green Mother Goods. “All of our toy customers have been asking
for stuff that is non-toxic and not made in China. It’s been
phenomenal. We’re getting stuff daily but it keeps selling
out and is becoming harder to order.”
Anders stated that one of the more popular toys this season at
Green Mother Goods is called Marble Runs. Kids use wooden blocks
to make their own course for rolling marbles.
“We’ve also been selling a lot of the locally made wooden
trucks, planes and trains that have been finished with olive oil
rather than varnish,” said Anders.
The recall of Chinese goods started early in 2007 when products
as diverse as toothpaste, tires and pet food were pulled from
store shelves for a variety of reasons. As the Christmas shopping
season neared, some Chinese-made items for large companies such
as Fisher-Price and Mattel were recalled for excessive lead in
the surface paint of the toys.
“‘Is it made in the United States?’ has become
the question of the holiday season,” said Sheri Moretz of
the Mast General Store. “Our philosophy is that when we source
things for the store, we look locally first, then regionally,
then nationally, then internationally. We always try to find what
we’re looking for locally, and then spread out from there.”
Moretz added that of the Mast Store’s locally made items,
handmade wooden toys by Pioneer Folk Toys of Hudson, North Carolina,
seem to be hot Christmas gifts this season. The company makes
a variety of old-fashioned toys such as the Gee-Haw Whimmydiddle,
train whistles, spinning tops, and the famous dancing lumberjack.
Other Mast Store toys made in the USA and Canada include puzzles,
the Slinky, bake sets, magnetic paper dolls, musical instruments,
Dick and Jane books, Gyroscopes, jumbo jacks and Woolly Willie
and Hairdo Harriet—the old fashioned games where kids arrange
the hair of a cartoon character with iron filings and a magnet.
“Our sock monkeys used to be made by a woman in her eighties
in Hendersonville,” said Moretz. “But it just became
too much for her so we switched for a short period of time to
sock monkeys that were made in China. Nobody liked them. They
just didn’t look right. So we found a company called Made
in the Ozarks from Arkansas that employs stay-at-home moms to
make our sock monkeys.”
Moretz stated that a woman recently came into the store and bought
30 of the small wooden looms used by kids to make potholders.
“Her only stipulation was that they were made in this country,”
said Moretz.
Many parents are avoiding dangerous toys by going retro this Christmas.
Classic children’s gifts such as Raggedy Ann dolls, Monopoly
games, Play-doh, Mr. Potato Head and Twister are making comebacks
as parents lean on the “old reliables” as a method of
avoiding the new and dangerous. This strategy is far from foolproof,
however, as one of the old standbys, Mattel’s Barbie, was
the focus of one 2007 recall when lead paint was found in a number
of the popular doll’s accessories made in China.
“We’ve been selling a lot of games, which is great because
it suggests that families are watching less TV,” said Kathleen
Rowell, owner of the Incredible Toy Company in Boone. “There’s
also a Swiss toy called Bilibo that’s just a big plastic
bowl that kids love. They can spin in it or put sand in it or
use it with wooden trains. It really stimulates their imaginations.”
Rowell stated that the only recall that involved a toy in her
inventory was one early this year involving Thomas the Tank Engine
toys. “We pulled them all. That was the first one before
the avalanche of toy recalls.”
According to Rowell, this holiday shopping season has seen a resurgence
in interest in board games such as Bananagram—a kind of high
speed version of Scrabble—and party games such as Apples
to Apples and Quelf.
According to the employees of the Incredible Toy Company, play
sets by Playmobil have also been immensely popular this season,
especially for the younger kids. The Incredible Toy Company boasts
the largest selection of Playmobil sets in the High Country, with
varieties such as barns and stables, animal parks and a Roman
coliseum.
Playmobil, a division of a German company (The Bandstätter
Group) that has been manufacturing plastic toys since the hula
hoop craze of fifty years ago, has been one of the main beneficiaries
of recent toy recalls, most of which have originated with problems
in China and other Asian nations. Playmobil specializes in three-inch-high
plastic human figures that come with animals, vehicles, houses,
barns and other settings. To date, 2 billion Playmobil figures
have been sold in the last three decades.
“We take up to three years to develop an extremely safe and
high-quality product,” said a Playmobil spokesperson. “This
means that, during the creation process, our designers and engineers
are trained to avoid any hazards including sharp edges, choking
dangers and misuse. (We also have) all raw materials, including
paint, tested according to European and U.S. safety standards
prior to using it in the manufacturing process.”
While some toy companies such as Playmobil are relying on their
products’ reputation for safety to lure parents into buying
them, others are taking a different approach. This week Hasbro
Inc. ran newspaper ads trying to distance itself from the lead
paint issues that plagued Mattel and other toymakers this past
year.
Hasbro’s ad fails to mention that it did recall one million
Easy-Bake Ovens because kids’ hands were getting caught in
an opening.
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