Fisher Price Kills Kids

You know, I have very fond memories of Fisher-Price toys when growing up.
I had the "Little People", and no OneF - they weren't midgets wrestlers - sets. The best one was the Sesame Street playset. It was versatile. It had a chalk board, and Mr. Hooper's Store. And when I got older, it was the downtown setting for the GI Joes to fight house to house in urban combat against the Star Wars and Cobra forces. I'd put snipers in Burt and Ernie's window, and mortar in Hooper's store provided spectacular crossfire. That is until the Joes brought in the tank...

My good memories of Fisher-Price has left me vulnerable to the idea that they are still a good company. A safe, family company - for some unknown reason. I have been buying Fisher-Price, almost exclusively for cousins, new babies, and my own child.

I was very happy when my mother purchased the crown in the basement activity for my baby - the Kitchen. This was in the midst of the first round of China recalls... mostly lead paint and wooden Train toys... but this Kitchen is safe!

Yesterday

Fisher-Price Inc. announced a voluntary recall of about 155,000 Laugh & Learn™ Learning Kitchen™ toys due to choking hazard. The pieces of the faucet or the clock hands can detach, posing a choking hazard to young children. There have been 48 reports of small parts separating from the toys. The recall involves a play kitchen learning toy with a pretend refrigerator, range, and sink. The product’s item number L5067 is stamped in several locations on the toy and printed on the product’s packaging above the UPC. They were sold at various retail and toy specialty stores nationwide from May 2007 through October 2007. Consumers should immediately take the recalled toys away from children.

Fisher-Price has now killed more people than George Ryan, but still has a lower body count than Cecil B. DeMille.

I am no longer going to be buying Fisher-Price... at least, not with the same hopeful carelessness that I have in the past. Fisher-Price, you're about on par with Tyleol cyanide in it to this consumer... yes, I'm old enough to remember that.

And you can't tell me that there isn't testing in the design through the delivery of your products. Products that you're selling to babies. Well, you either do or you don't - and if you do, you need to have an independent auditor come in and certify your testing. If you don't - God help you, because the government may finally take note (there's an election year coming up, ya know) and more importantly - the good parents will come after your pocket book and sue you out of existence for attempting or actually to kill their babies.