I guess nothing should surprise us anymore after this season of “rolling recalls”…but how is it possible that any product sold to children could possibly include a hallucinogen? Aqua Dots sold in North America by SpinMaster (a Canadian company) is the same toy sold in Australia under the name Bindeez (sold by Moose Enterprise). The product was recalled in Australia after two children were hospitalized after suffering seizures.

Aqua Dots are a lot like Hama Beads that you may remember as a child. With Hama beads you make the design and then a parent would have to iron them to make them stick. The Aqua Dots take the ironing out the equation with a machine that seals the dots. So why didn’t they win an award from us? Our testers liked the gadget, but we thought the kit didn’t come with enough dots. Something about having a need to buy refills almost immediately upset us. Who would ever have guessed that less would be more in this case?

This is just another example of how self-regulation does not work.