Link This |
Email this |
Blog This |
Comments (1)
Et tu, RC2?
October 3, 2007
What started as a tropical storm for the toy industry is turning into a category 5 hurricane. Amazingly, we are now confronted by RC2’s admission that they were recalling 200,000 more Thomas the Tank Engine products which included, mind numbingly, 2,000 train cars that were sent to families who turned in products from the earlier recall.
I feel for RC2’s management. I really do. I also feel tired of seeing the self inflected wounds of a few companies coming back to tar the entire toy industry. I don’t know about you, but I find the experience to be the equivalent of biting the same place in your mouth, over and over and over again.
As one exasperated father put it about the latest RC2 recall in the an Associated Press article, "...sending lead painted train cars to children as a make up for the earlier recall "… is so exactly what the villain in a children's movie would do," … "It's just ridiculous."
There are no villains here. There is, however, an astonishing mishandling of everything from whatever caused the original problem through the latest horrible iteration in the recall process.
So, what can the toy industry do? Well, it’s hard to be heard when a gale is blowing but heard we must be. I would like to see more toy manufacturers do what Hasbro did the other day and tout their success.
In a Toy News article written by Helen Jacobs, Al Verrecchia is quoted as saying: “Lots of people are talking about high standards. High standards are good, but if you don’t have a process in place to make sure they’re being adhered to, it doesn’t mean anything…” He went on to say that “…the firm’s “stringent” quality control procedures have protected it against unsafe toys, which have besieged other toy companies.”
I had someone mention to me that they found the statement a little cocky. Cocky? Maybe so. Justified? Maybe so. I think at this time, anyone who is getting it right needs to say so loud and clear. They also need to say it not just to their fellow industry members but to the consuming public.
We need to get some good news out there about the rest of the toy industry that is, until now at least (and keep your fingers crossed and knock on wood), getting it right.
Posted by Richard Gottlieb on October 3, 2007 | Comments (1)
