Toy shortage

art_deco_machine · Oct 12, 2007

Woolworths' head of toys has warned parents that retailers could run out of toys this Christmas – as stringent checks are imposed on Chinese exports.

Reports of Christmas toy shortages are now almost as traditional as crackers and advent calendars but, with Chinese authorities imposing stringent checks following the high-profile recall of Mattel products earlier this year, shortages are being predicted even before stores have put up their Christmas decorations.

Christmas toys may run out .

Time to get out the old Ertyl molds, melt some old pistons, and crank up production.

I think retailers are afraid of a bleak Christmas season. Sounds like a ploy to raise prices a little.

Anyway, I generally avoid the crowds.

jim rozen · Oct 12, 2007

The best toys are home-made anyway.

Jim

anteekfreek · Oct 12, 2007

"Sounds like a ploy to raise prices a little."

I've already read of pending price hikes.
The toy industry is drunk on huge profits much the same as every American company that has shuttered a factory here to produce in China.

cnctoolcat · Oct 12, 2007

Funny how the CEO of Mattel actually apologized to the top toy bureaucrat in China!

Mattel don't want to piss off their cheap source of runaway profits!!

anteekfreek · Oct 12, 2007

I read recently that a finished, clothed Barbie doll costs Mattel 25 cents.

Think about that the next time you have to buy one for the daughter or granddaughter.

dvideo · Oct 12, 2007

You can get a MSP430 Experimenter's board for $99 from TI. Two CPUs on it - for the tots that want to actually want to learn to program C and machine language.....

Or you can get kits from Ten-Tec to build HAM radio recievers and transmiters.. $13 and up...

I think that is better spent than on Barbies.. that do not get used...

Airplane - remote controlled - are not a bad deal, either.

A Dad or Mom's time spent teaching - or a grandparent's - is not something sold by Mattel, either. There is lead involved with teaching kids to solder.. TL.

--jerry

GeneH · Oct 12, 2007

Jim Rozen and I agree on something else, again. The best toys are home made. Especially clever educational toys that stimulate the imagination or build up bodies.

My grandfather built a gigantic "monkey bar" set. For my brothers and I.

Imagine a three dimensional lattice that resembled half of a soap bar sliced across its length. Curved on the ends. Twenty feet long, eight to ten feet high and six to eight feet wide.

It had ladder bars on the top, and I never ever did manage to get down the whole length. We used to climb all over that damn thing, including walking along the bars on top.

Product liability being what it is today you cannot buy such a thing in the US.

I wish that they'd kept it, it was a tribute to the man's craft, cleverness and abilities as a welder and fabricator.

Looking back on it, it was a Christmas present meant for a king's kids. Really impressive.

Gene

Greg Menke · Oct 12, 2007

On a smaller scale I made a little set of sort-of tinkertoys for the son of some friends of ours. threaded the ends of some 1/2" rod, LH on one, RH on the other, one set of 8 about 4" long and another 8". THen made a 8 of 12L cubes, holes drilled thru between all faces, then threaded one end of each bore LH and the other RH.

The idea is to assemble them into things, small cubes, big ones, etc. It turned out to be a little puzzle as well because the assembly won't flex much so you have to screw together the pieces simultaneously.

Perfect job for my newbie skills and he loved it. Its still banging around their house someplace...

Greg

jim rozen · Oct 12, 2007

Oddly gene and I tend to disagree violently on
the mfr. board, and agree violently everywhere
else.

Thing about toys is, I think it's a very elastic
market. When the price goes up, folks stop
buying. Unlike fuel or food.

Yeah I taught my daughter to solder. I also
gave her a .22 and time at the local range.
I also happen to think the best toys are the ones
the kid chooses for themselves. So she got a
book allowance, twenty bucks a week to spend on
books, whatever she wanted. Basically since
she was about five or six. Remember twenty bucks
does not buy what it used to. Pretty modest
but it was budget she controlled and nobody
was there to second guess her choices.

Sometimes toys are a pile of old bicycle parts.

Sometimes they're a book.

Sometimes they're a patch of woods or a field.

The tough part for us as parents were trying
to figure out the traditional gift holidays,
how to do that without spending money at toy
stores.

Jim

art_deco_machine · Oct 12, 2007

I had a Mattel Winchester 94 rifle. That thing was an exact 2/3 replica. Lever worked, trigger, hammer. It would shoot plastic bullets, for about three feet. And fire caps. They don't make anything like that now.

And I had an Etch a Scetch. I think I was the 'first kid on the block' to have one of those. The quality so much surpassed what they sell today, which looks like junk.

And did you ever have one of those things that you turned over, and then back, and it would moo like a cow? I had several, and destroyed each one trying to see how it worked. Does anyone know how to make one of those? I might like to try to make one. I have seen some that make other animal sounds, like sheep. But all I ever had was the cow.

And then there were the crash car that you would put together and it had a release on the bumper, so you would crash it into the wall, and it flew apart. I loved those things. I just had small ones, but my cousin brought me one once that was about six inches long, and had lots of parts. Except for one or two missing. He gave me an erector set also. It had lots of missing parts. That was a toy I actually learned a few things from.

I also put together a lot of model planes, ships and such from those Revel and other kits. Then they started making 'safe' glue that smelled like lemons, and I never liked it as much after that.

I had a Tonka truck, but the neighbor ran over it with the car and smashed it flat.

anchorman · Oct 12, 2007

I keep looking back at this topic and all I can think to say is "awwww. so sad. no more cheap toys from china from christmas. weep weep. cry cry."

I'm trying to do better than that crap for my brother's kids. There's already too much, and I think I gave up the chrismas present of a life time when I let them borrow (semi-permanently) about 5 or 6 copy box chock full of awsome classic lego blocks. Like the good stuff that you could make into anything. not the garbage they sell today.

When I look at the difference between the toys around today and even just 25 years ago when I was a wee boy, I no longer need to wonder about the dumbing down of america. It starts when they are young, and just keeps on going downhill from there.

Glad there is at least one manufacturing and business related topic out there that doesn't make folks want to grab each other at the throat.

have a good weekend!

jon

GeneH · Oct 13, 2007

And did you ever have one of those things that you turned over, and then back, and it would moo like a cow? I had several, and destroyed each one trying to see how it worked. Does anyone know how to make one of those? I might like to try to make one. I have seen some that make other animal sounds, like sheep. But all I ever had was the cow.

I've wondered about those myself. Today you could do it electronically, but to be honest there are some things that ought to be mechanical, just because.

about 5 or 6 copy box chock full of awsome classic lego blocks. Like the good stuff that you could make into anything.

Full sized Lego Harpsichord that can be played...

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om21250.html

Gene

art_deco_machine · Oct 13, 2007

Cow in a box disected

Tom1 · Oct 13, 2007

What about cool toys from yesteryear?

You know things like lead toy soldiers, my friend even had a mold to make them. He would melt the lead and pour them, play with them awhile and melt them again. I know its not quite like the "bag o broken glass" or "bag o razor blades".

Thinking of danger, how come they still sell model airplanes, like Cox. I figure by now some kid cut off a finger or two with that spring starter. Perhaps they could get a burn from the hot engine. I had fun as a kid with control line planes and supervision of Grandpa, can still smell the burning castor oil...

Lionel trains still rank high on my all time favorite list too.

Is it me or do kids today have tons of toys? My friends have kids infant to elementary school age. There house is filled with toys, every room. I ask them of the Toys R Us truck exploded in side there house spreading toys through out, they don't see the humor... These kids play with a toy for a few minuets then off to the next one. I think that we appreciated some of our toys more...

morsetaper2 · Oct 13, 2007

Made in USA toys make a comeback...for now...

Article from Yahoo Business News

metlmunchr · Oct 13, 2007

There was an announcement by Mattel recently where they took partial responsibility for the lead paint and other screw-ups on their imported toys.

I figure that whole announcement was a lie designed for spin effect. They tried to take blame and thus create the impression that, since they screwed up, they could also fix it. That plays much better to the public than the real truth, which would be that they've near zero control over the quality of mass produced items subcontracted to suppliers half a world away, based solely on the lowest price.

If I was buying kids' toys today, I'd be much more likely to buy something that says right up front that it was made by the Dong Ping Toy Co in Bumphuque China, than to buy the same thing made in China and marketed by some American company whose name once represented some semblance of quality. Dong Ping just *might* be trying to establish themselves as a manufacturer of quality toys, whereas there's no 'mights' or 'maybes' concerning the motives and goals of the American marketer (note the term manufacturer no longer applies to a lot of these companies).

art_deco_machine · Oct 13, 2007

I heard that Mattel said it was a 'design error', therefore not China's fault. How the heck could it be a design error to substitute another paint?

GeneH · Oct 13, 2007

I heard that Mattel said it was a 'design error', therefore not China's fault. How the heck could it be a design error to substitute another paint?

They did not "specify" a certain kind of paint on the drawing, or they did not translate the paint type into a language that the vendor could understand.

Or they did the "following"...

1. Consulted with some marketing gurus about a list of possible excuses. Might have asked a few interns, young parents and others in the office what they thought.
2. Assembled "focus groups" composed of "targeted consumers and probably decision makers on buys". Had them observed with hidden cameras and such.
3. Trotted out the excuses.
4. Saw which of them were the "most effective".

That's now their story and they're sticking to it. They can also "cascade" a list of excuses, "leaked" and "released" from "different sources".

Yeah, it is pretty disgusting but governments have pulled this crap for years and maybe MBAs figure it'll work for them too.

ADM, thanks for the link about the "Cow in a can". As I said earlier, we could do it electronically, but there is something, I don't know, "right" about a mechanical gadget doing it.

Gene

art_deco_machine · Oct 13, 2007

Patent for sound maker

This is the earliest patent I found for a weight driven sound making toy. It was for a doll. Interesting way to fold the bellows. I can't quite figure it out.

Another patent for improvements

art_deco_machine · Oct 13, 2007

Hey, I found the etch a sketch patent also.

Grandjean tracind device.

I always wanted it to have a way to life the stylus away from the screen. I ran across a patent for that some place.

I don't know how Ohio Art got to make this thing. It was assigned to a Paul Chaze in France. In 1971, Ohio Art took out a patent for a plastic cover glued to the glass. They might have had some liability problems, is my guess.

I can't exactly remember what happened to mine. I think it quit working and I beat it apart with a hammer.

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