“I want them to pull all the old toys off the market and make sure they are gone and destroyed,” said Robert G. It is impossible to pinpoint the numbers of problematic Magnetix toys still out there. The Rosens are suing MEGA Brands in United States District Court in the Southern District of New York, contending that it failed to pay them $51 million, as they say the 2005 sale required.
#Magnetix set full
It also said it kept full and complete records of every consumer complaint about its products and that such logs were made available to MEGA Brands before and after its acquisition. Rosen and Sydney Rosen, said in a statement that the company “acted in a thorough and responsible manner with regard to the manufacture, safety, quality control and sale of its Magnetix toy products.” Rose Art said it disclosed all issues regarding Magnetix before it sold out to MEGA Brands. “In our 40-year history we’ve never had a recall until Magnetix.” “Rose Art didn’t keep very accurate records,” Mr.
They are manufactured by Rose Art Industries, a company in Livingston, N.J., that MEGA Brands bought for $350 million in July 2005. Chizick, of MEGA Brands, also said he did not know how many Magnetix sets have been sold or whether the recalls covered all of the magnet toys bought over the years. The sets cost $20 to $60, depending on their size and number of components. But the number is certainly well into the millions, because the two Magnetix product recalls cover 4.2 million sets. Julie Vallese, spokeswoman for the commission, says she does not know how many Magnetix sets have been sold. The agency can announce a recall only through a news release that it negotiates with the company involved.Ĭredit. While it can force products to be recalled, it typically prefers voluntary recalls because it believes that this course of action gets dangerous products off of store shelves faster. But its $63 million budget and 420 employees pale in comparison with the size of the industries whose goods it oversees.īy law, the commission has limited powers. Last week, officials at the Consumer Product Safety Commission said MEGA Brands, the largest marketer of magnet toys in the nation, remains the subject of an investigation into its Magnetix toys, an inquiry that began in late 2005.Ĭharged with protecting consumers from faulty or dangerous products, the commission has jurisdiction over 15,000 consumer goods. “When a company is selling dangerous products in America and refuses to cooperate with the C.P.S.C., we have few laws and few tools to use to protect consumers.” Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the Senate subcommittee on financial services and general government, which has jurisdiction over the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “The lesson learned is sobering,” said Senator Richard J. We did everything we were instructed to do.” “Obviously, the company wanted to make sure this was handled swiftly and properly. Harold Chizick, director of promotional marketing and public relations at MEGA Brands, says the company has done right by consumers and regulators. Problematic or improperly labeled toys also remained on sale at major retailers well after they were supposed to have been off the shelves. But if problems arise with the goods, the companies selling them can impede understaffed consumer protection regulators who are hamstrung in their efforts to get the products off the shelves. A hot new technology produced cheaply in China creates a highly profitable product for its maker. Still, the recalls that have been announced have not been followed very strenuously by sellers and manufacturers, until recently.” “But these are educational toys, and I’m not ready to say the answer is to take them off the market. “If the products were taken off the market then the danger would go away,” he said. Oestreich, pediatric radiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and one of the first physicians to recognize the ills associated with ingesting magnets. “They are neat, inviting and look like candy,” said Alan E. That means parents and even health care professionals can be fooled. Unfortunately, doctors say, the symptoms that result when a child swallows a magnet are usually no different from a stomachache, cold or flu. A child in Washington State died on Thanksgiving Day in 2005 after he swallowed several magnets from a Magnetix set. More than two dozen incidents involving magnet toys have been recorded since 2003, according to the Web site of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has regulatory oversight of the industry. Now the toys are also appearing in lawsuits brought by parents of children who, like William, swallowed or inhaled the magnets and required complex surgery.