I’ve had it!!
Barbie sets withdrawn in new alert over toys from China | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited — What next for Mattel?
Thousands of Barbie doll accessories imported from China are being taken off the shelves in the United Kingdom because of excessive levels of lead paint. The admission by Mattel, the worlds largest toymaker, that its products do not conform to safety standards has revived concerns about subcontracting manufacturing processes to Chinas rapidly expanding industrial capacity.
Mattel has been forced to take millions of toys off the shelves in the United Kingdom and around the world this summer. The latest recall affects about 2,500 toys sold in the UK and up to 700,000 worldwide. Paint pigment on parts of seven Barbie accessory sets was found to exceed permissible levels and could, according to the companys website, “cause adverse health effects”.
Toy manufacturers should have it figured out by now… dont make toys in china if you want to sell them in the US
Well toymakers did make a huge bang-for-buck there awhile, #1
yeah, no argument here – they had a nice long run
seriously who the hell buys barbie dolls anymore anyway?
I grew up in Western NY – within an hours drive of the three factories that made all Fisher Price toys from the 1930′s to the late 1980′s/early ’90s. Mattel bought them out and shortly after those plants were gone. Now we don’t buy the crappy, cheap plastic, sorry substitutes that replaced the quality stuff that used to be made in the the Buffalo area (the stuff people collect off of eBay now – the stuff that wasn’t loaded with lead paint from China).
I worked on the MCHR project trying to get lead paint banned in the United States. It only took a decade or more for recognition of the medical research + all the jive of moving Congress beyond “important” commitments to American paint manufacturers. Much more “important” than kids’ health.
Present-day business sense tells me the Chinese government will run right past our track record – whether it’s food quality, consumer safety issues in manufactured products, whatever. The liaison between business and government in China is grounded in growth – not defending creepy bastards whose businesses are in defensive mode.
That doesn’t lessen the need to push for quality and safety – any more than the historic precedence of economic growth over political structure takes away from keeping your finger in their eye over liberty and democracy.
Leave the populism and Cold War rhetoric to the politicians who get paid for it.
#1 – tallwookie – Toy manufacturers should have it figured out by now… dont make toys in china if you want to sell them in the US
Won’t happen… it’s too profitable to quit importing them. The small risk of recall is worth taking.
#3 – tallwookie – seriously who the hell buys barbie dolls anymore anyway?
Nightstar
But lead paint is the most delicious kind of paint!
Won’t somebody think of the children?
So I should stop licking barbie dolls?
If Mattel’s Chinese suppliers continue to ship toys with lead in the paint, and the U.S. importer (Mattel itself) keeps having to recall all these toys they’ve bought under contract, the stockholders are going to start selling en masse. Then the Chinese can come in and buy up what’s left of the name, shut down any remaining U.S. and Mexican manufacturing plants, and then move ALL the production to China, getting rid of the U.S. middleman for maximum profit.
Remember, people. Go short on Mattel stock… You heard it here first!
If you want some first hand insights on how this could happen read my one and only post I wrote months ago on my (pitiful) blog.
Mattel let go of the reins – manufacturing was subcontracted and even though certified paint was supplied it was not used. As in my outlined how this happens in my one blog post.
I manufacture in China for many years and if you are not watching watching what is happening its like driving with your eyes closed – very soon you will hit a tree!
I also have seen foreign companies ‘save’ money by not using expats for critical key manufacturing positions and or not rotating them so they don’t go ‘native’ so to speak.
One cannot label all Chinese manufacturing as bad because of this in as much as one cannot label all Americans as pick-up driving gun packing whisky drinking white supremacists looking for blacks to roll.
I am busy today with my European distributor however I do intend to update my blog and expand on what is happening in China.
While it appears that I defend China that is not my intention. I have strived to give a different perspective on what is happening in China other than what promulgated by the media.
Think of China in rehab after the Maoist regime – China is on methadone treatment weaning itself off of the communistic brainwashing on so many levels. The Chinese government is rewriting history school books placing much less emphasis on Mao (almost not even mentioned) and communism. Over time even socialism will have disappeared from school books.
If China were to attempt to go cold turkey which it seems what Americans expect the nation would collapse.
There are many comments that China abuses workers implying that this is the Chinese government which allows this. That is not correct it is the Chinese and foreign private businesses who operate outside of the labour laws but the Chinese government admits it is difficult to enforce the law.
Why is life so cheap in China? Blame Mao and the cultural revolution which encouraged people to spy on their friends and family. Slowly this is changing – again the methadone program…
Gotta go
Cheers
#8 No, YOU should continue to lick Barbie dolls. You may also want to think about increasing the frequency as well.
(Of course I’m kidding…)
Jägermeister (#6),
Too funny!!!!! Thanks for the early morning laugh.
#10, TIHZ
I really appreciate the insight your comments bring to our understanding of what is happening in China. As you just pointed out, this is all so new we can’t be blamed for our ignorance.
But, … My effen job ended up going to China in 2002. It took me awhile before I found something comparable. That is the reason I am not so delighted with China’s progress
#13
As the quality of life in China improves so is the demand for better salaries, which is why some jobs outsourced to China have been reoutsourced to Vietnam.
As for the barbie dolls.. You might want to get some of these recalled toys just for the collectible value.
#14 – As for the barbie dolls.. You might want to get some of these recalled toys just for the collectible value.
eBay ad 20 years from now:
As anyone who bought an American car in the 80s well knows, American made is not the same as quality built, just as Chinese made doesn’t necessarily mean made crappy.
Anger at China for acquiring so much of our manufacturing sector is understandable, but not really justifiable. The American worker was fucked by the American stockholder, the American big box department store, the American CEO, and even the American consumer.
Okay, so today I’m blaming America first. Sue me. I’m a liberal. I’m also right. Greedy conservative Ayn Rand worshipping believers in unfettered capitalism with no sense of social responsibility conspired to commit anal rape on the American worker.
That’s what makes the Reagan revolution so insidious. He wasn’t about making America great for Americans, he was about making already rich Americans richer for the privileged class.
This notion that the Chinese just make crap is bull. In China, some goods are well made, some are bad, and corruption occurs. Just like it does in The United States.
#16 – “…just as Chinese made doesn’t necessarily mean made crappy…”
lol dude go read the news, you are soooooo behind
#13 Sorry about your job outsourced.
If this is any comfort in about 10 years there will a Mr FuSen in China commenting on the Chinese DU.
Cheers
#18 – TIHZ_HO
10 years… it usually go faster than that…
Don’t be too surprised to see your name as THIZ_HO… 
My girls had all the Barbies and their dog would chew the arms and legs off. We ended up with several wheelchair Barbies and a few more Barbie amputees. We had landmine Barbie and in the extreme case, double mastectomy Barbie. It wasn’t a pretty sight!