Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, December 9, 2008 9:34 pm

Are bootleg toys in your future? Don’t laugh. Read on…

It was a sad moment yesterday when I learned via an email from Quiet Hours Toys (a favorite Unplugged Toystore) that one of my very favorite toy manufacturers, German company Selecta, will be leaving the U.S. market as of December 31, 2008.

The new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, passed in August 2008, prohibits phthalates and lead in toys sold in the U.S., mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys, and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.

Sounds great, especially the lead and phthalate part, but there are a few unintended consequences of this broadly-painted solution:

- A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
- A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
- A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.
- And even the handful of larger toy makers who still employ workers in the United States face increased costs to comply with the CPSIA, even though American-made toys had nothing to do with the toy safety problems of 2007.

- Handmade Toy Alliance

Selecta is the first quality-toy casualty of the new law. Selecta has decided to withdraw from the U.S. market. It’s toys comply with European EN71 and ASTM standards, but meeting the new CPSIA standards would require a cost increase of at least 50%, thus pricing the toys out of the market:

Among the higher costs Selecta said were associated with meeting the CPSIA’s new guidelines were those related to testing procedures for products shipped to the U.S. that are “different than the testing procedures required for the rest of the world, resulting in separate testing for each product destined for the USA”; new shipment labeling regulations that “significantly increases the labor associated with shipping”; and product liability insurance increases “due to changing regulations and their varied interpretations.

- Selecta Exits U.S. Market Over Cost Concerns - Toy industry news: playthings.com

I leave you with an interesting summary of the situation from the email I received:

What this means is small, innovative companies that typically make niche products, will be forced out of business, or forced to narrow their product range and sell to the mass market. Product availability and selection will diminish. We will be primarily left with imported plastic toys from China. Yes, quite ironic isn’t it.

Yes, it is ironic.

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What can you do? The Handmade Toy Alliance offers some useful suggestions and contact links:

Please write to your United States Congress Person and Senator to request changes in the CPSIA to save handmade toys. Use our sample letter or write your own. You can find your Congress Person here and Senator here.

Also (from the email):

URGENT Action:
The Subcommitte that put this law together is meeting to review its implementation on Wednesday. We need to send a message to them to revise the law or its implementation in ways that will maintain the integrity of the safety standards, but will not decimate the children’s natural products market. Here are the details of the meeting:

The Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection will hold a hearing on Wednesday, December 10, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled “Implementation of the CPSIA: Urgent Questions about Application Dates, Testing and Certification, and Protecting Children.” This is an oversight hearing examining implementation of Public Law 110-314 (H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)). Witnesses will be by invitation only.
The staff briefing for this hearing will be held on Monday, December 8, 2008, at 4:00 p.m. in room 2322 Rayburn House Office Building.

Here is a link to the list of Committee Members. Please contact your Representative of Congress. If any one of these Representatives on the Subcommittee is YOUR representative, PLEASE be sure to call & email them to voice your concerns about the provisions in the law as they affect you and the children’s products industry in general. Please do this as soon as you are able.

Here is a link to some suggestions for talking to our representatives from WAHM Solutions.

What else can you do? Pass this on in your e-newsletters, in your stores, among your friends. There is much disinformation in the market, and it is up to us to warn consumers and colleagues of the pending disappearance of the natural & specialty toys we have come to rely on in the recent years.

This is a critical time to raise our voices and be heard. Important issues that affect us will be discussed in a public way next week…NOT after Christmas.

What else can you do? Join the Handmade Toy Alliance, join the online community cpsia-central and become informed & involved. Contact the media, discuss this in forums and in your own online communities. It isn’t just small businesses that are at risk, it is the very nature of the toys & products our children & grandchildren will have access to in the future.

I really dislike alarmist statements, but it does seem that a revision of the new CPSIA regulation is essential otherwise there will be no more Unplugged Toystores, no more Etsy toy shops, no more lovely, unique, and creative toys. Made in China plastic junk might well become the only choice here in the United States.

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More information:

From the CPSC - Information on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Text of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (H.R. 4040)

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Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, October 3, 2007 7:16 pm

While searching for a new unplugged toy to feature this week, I stumbled upon the Filino Pull Toy by German toy manufacturer Selecta. I have already written about our much loved wooden stacking mouse pull toy by French manufacturer Boikido, but this one looks just as cute.

Selecta makes wonderful, high quality wooden toys that are very durable. We have a few of their toys and they have lasted through three children and are still going strong. Plus, all Selecta’s toys are actually made in Germany and conform to European toy safety standards, so no lead paint. I am so sorry that this has had to become a consideration for parents nowadays.

This toy is fun because it is really several toys in one. Not only can children pull the cute dog and mouse around, but they can disassemble and stack the pieces too. I found that my little one first enjoyed taking our mouse toy apart, but couldn’t stack or pull. Now, at twenty months she loves giving the mouse family a ride, but still can’t stack it well.

If you want a multipurpose baby toy that can accommodate your child as she grows and develops, then I recommend the durable, heirloom-quality Filino Pull Toy.

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, August 24, 2007 6:15 pm

Varialand is not really a puzzle, I would call it more of a collage. It consists of 80 wooden picture tiles that can be combined any way a child wants to make different scenes. Some tiles are parts of houses, some are clouds in the sky, many are animals or trees.

This is the ultimate in creativity for children. I guarantee that kids will never make the same scene twice!

Plus it is made out of very durable wood. The images are printed on the tiles, not glued on. All in all, this is a toy that should last for generations to come.

Comments (13)

By Mom Unplugged, August 11, 2007 8:40 am

We just returned from vacation and a great unplugged travel game that I discovered for the trip home is a cute travel-sized version of the game “Connect Four.” The goal, or course, is to get four pieces in a row before your opponent does. This is such a simple concept, yet it encourages the development of strategic thinking skills and can lead to quite a complex game. Plus I can also highly recommend it since it kept my 5 and 6 year-old entertained for the better part of a 4 hour flight (although we might have lost a few pieces on the plane).

Another really nice one (but a bit harder to find) is Haba’s 4-In-A-Row game. We have this one and my husband and I play it more often than the kids! I should have thought to bring it on the trip because the small size (a 4″ X 5.5″ tin) is ideal for travel. Plus, it is wood so it feels like it will last forever. You can buy it here for $6.99.

Comments (0)

By Mom Unplugged, June 5, 2007 9:07 pm

We have several Selecta games, and they are all good quality, simple, nice games.

This one, “Grief Zu” in German, “Grab It” in English is fun for younger players. Adults joining in will have to slow down a little.

There are 24 wooden tiles (images are printed and lacquered on to last - not like glued on paper which peels off quickly) and four dice, each side of which depicts a very simplified, silhouette image of one of the tiles.

Players take turns throwing the dice, then all players try to be the first to find and grab the matching tiles. The player with the most tiles wins.

Adults will find this boring, but little ones really seem to enjoy it. Plus it is built to survive a lot of play.

Another great thing is that the picture tiles can be used for sorting or story-telling activities too!