Last month, Mattel issued a recall for action figures with small magnets that could be swallowed by young children, including a One Piece figure. In the recall announcement, the world’s largest toy manufacturer blamed the Chinese production for these faults. Today in Beijing, Mattel officials made a stunning public apology to both the Chinese people and Chinese factories, stating the mistakes were US design flaws and in no way related to production problems.
The recall was reportedly 85% due to these small magnets and 15% due to high levels of lead paint. In unrelated news, 56,000 Chinese-made lunch boxes distributed to California children have been recalled today due to high levels of lead paint found in a July testing.
Date Posted: Friday, September 21, 2007