Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Thursday, October 11, 2007
More trouble for Mattel. You remember those are the people we used to trust to make toys for our children. If Mattel is able to survive their latest troubles I will be surprised.
Shareholders have lost up to 20% of the value of their stocks and are now finding out they may have been knowingly fleeced. Mattel toy problems didn’t start, nor will they stop with the massive recall of toys made in China with up to 186 times the legal level of lead.
If there could possibly be a worse offense than failing to report the injuries to children caused by their products, for months and in some cases knowing about dangerous defects for years; I don’t know what it could be.
The morally reprehensible team in charge at Mattel needs to face a jury for their negligent actions. Mattel was well aware of their safety failures, yet they failed to report and recall products that caused fires in homes, burned children, and in at least one case caused an infant to undergo lung surgery after a small piece of Mattel was inhaled.
One might assume if Mattel failed to report product defects they were aware of, they may certainly have been busy covering them up. Apparently in no case were they busy fixing these failures.
At least Mattel will have to face the justice system. Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement system, Michigan, has filed a suit seeking compensatory and other damages, the suit alleges Mattel failed to be forthright in its reporting defects in its products to regulators.
Adding to Mattel’s problems the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, will soon become involved as evidence surfaces that Mattel directors may have sold off at least $33 million dollars worth of their own stock shortly before 10’s of millions of Mattel toys were recalled. We can anticipate other shareholders to follow suit.
China is none too happy with the Mattel problems further tarnishing their reputation. China has plenty of product problems of their own without Mattel heaping on more.
If malfeasance is met with a blind eye in the U.S., insider trading certainly is not.
It looks as though, one way or another, punishment will be dealt to at least some of these criminals.
Barbie may have to sell her dream house and down-grade to a condo to pay her legal fees. And,this coming so soon after her break-up with Ken.
Labels: Barbie Dream house, China Toys, FTC, Mattel, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Barbie Must Sell Dream House To Pay Legal Fees.
Friday, September 21, 2007
In what is being billed as Mattel’s mea culpa for the unprecedented toy recalls over the past several months Mattel apologizes to China.
Nothing says, ‘I’m sorry please don’t stop making our products for a fraction of the cost it would take to make them anywhere but in China’, like a personalized apology.
There is no question China’s reputation of being a nation of pariah has been increasing almost daily; now Mattel wants to mend that perception by telling the world and China that the recent recalls are all their fault.
It’s said that fear has a recognizable scent. Is that the odor wafting out of Barbie’s Dream House?
Mattel is now claiming the majority of toys recalled were in fact recalled as a result of poor Mattel engineering, and that only a small percentage of the recall involved banned lead-based paint.
80% of children’s toys are manufactured in China equaling a mind blowing 7.5 BILLION dollars worth of products. We’ve held the opinion that regardless of what was going on in China, Mattel, as other toy companies, own the responsibility for producing safe toys.
Mattel has announced plans to upgrade its safety system?
Here is a bulletin Mattel!
The time to upgrade your safety standards is:
frequently and prior to one child being harmed while engaged in the act of play!
Don’t wait until your stock values fall. Companies making anything that comes in contact with our most valuable, precious and helpless children owe those children and their wallet carrying parents a reasonable expectation of safety.
When companies are charging obscene prices for their goods, when they are making obscene profits they need to go overboard to make their products safe. These companies spend obscene amounts of money to advertise and bend the minds of their ‘target’ consumers.
It is time that consumers ‘target’ these purveyors of hazards and tell them we have had enough! Tell the makers of Polly Pocket to stay out of your pocket until they can prove they have changed their bad practices.
Contact Mattel: http://service.mattel.com/us/contactus.aspx
Labels: China, Mattel, Tainted, Toys
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Mattel Seeks to Pull Their Moo Shu Pork From the Wok!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Healthy and safety officials in the US are saying that parents shouldn’t trust Mattel to make safe toys for their children. That it is the parents responsibility to be sure products are safe! Just think about that statement for a moment. How in the world would anyone that wasn’t an engineer or a chemist be able to do that?
Of course a parent knows what pieces and parts can choke, pinch, or harm a child. But, there is no way on earth a parent can detect the hidden dangers in any product.
In a statement totally from left field the acting head of the Consumer Products Safety Commission in the US told viewers during a press conference that 9 million toys in the US, (18.5 million in total) recalled yesterday that were made in China, was only a small drop in the bucket. The vast majority of imports, when looking at the picture in totality, were safe. Oh really? This leaves the impression they are all being tested or monitored; clearly not so.
The very idea that the vast majority of imports from China, be they toys or any other product is ludicrous. How would anyone know? China knew.
Reuters is reporting today that China knew of the problems …”with magnets on toys as long ago as March”.
Lead paint has been banned from any type of use in the US since 1978. There is no presumable way the Chinese didn’t know the paint they were using was lead based.
The whole idea that any of these tainted products from China were honest mistakes would be comical were it not so serious. Deadly serious.
There are obviously no checks or balances when it comes to the poison being allowed to be shipped out of China.
Adding further insult CNN produced their in-house-doctor expert telling people if they think their child may have been exposed to lead they should have them tested. Okay…..and will Mattel be receiving the bill for that testing?
My opinion is, telling people not to depend on the safety of Mattel toys is the same as telling them not to depend on the safety of Gerber Baby Foods, or Heinz Baby.
Mattel is fact more responsible than the Chinese. It is their fiduciary responsibility to make sure the manufacturing of their products results in a safe product. They have shipped their production overseas to bulk up their profits, they need to spend some of those profits on inspection at the source.
Are we really to believe Mattel can’t afford to have one man on the ground at each manufacturing site that is in their pocket? Another ridiculous idea.
Are parents now being asked to preform their own lab tests on children’s products? What in the name of government are people paying the gate keepers of health and safety to do these days?
Confidence is the only currency any company has when it comes to gaining and keeping customers, one would think they would guard that confidence.
Are we to believe Mattel can’t or won’t afford a ’standard’ steward at manufacturing plants no matter where they are located? INCREDULOUS.
In light of China’s documented inability to produce safe products the public needs to start demanding truth in labeling, starting first with ‘China Free’ labels.
A company in Utah, food for Health International thinks so too. They have plans to start putting stickers on their products saying “China-Free”.
It has become nearly impossible to determine what portion of ingredients in any one product originate in China. International trade be damned. I’m fed up with being fed the party line.
“China-Free” stickers are an idea whose time has come….come and gone… in fact it’s way overdue.
Contact Mattel, Inc. and tell them you are going to be “Mattel-Free”, AG Brands-Free, Fisher-Price-Free until and unless they can prove they are putting the safety of our children and grandchildren ahead of their greed.
http://service.mattel.com/us/contactus.aspx for toll free numbers to call
http://www.mattel.com/contact_us/ US email
Labels: China, Chinese, Mattel, Recall, Tainted, imports, lead paint
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
China-Free, Mattel-Free: It’s time to put our ‘collective’ foot down!
