We’ve noticed that during the past two weeks there are a number of folks suggesting that all is fine in the toy industry. Some recommending that parents stick with big stores and well known manufacturers as a way to assure safety. Others recommending buying products that are Made in the USA or buying from small mom and pop stores since they know what’s best and what’s not.

All of this advice may be intended to make you feel better this holiday season, but it really doesn’t work. While we’ve answered many of the common myths on our website, www.toyportfolio.com, it does seem that most of this spin seems to ignore the facts of the toy industry.

Both big and small retailers and manufacturers have been involved in the recent recalls. There really isn’t one safe place or one safe company to buy from–that’s not comforting but until the government really steps up their regulations and enforcement of the industry there will continue to be recalls.

Made in the USA sounds great–but take note that they may be made with imported component parts. Plush toys also sound like a safe choice, but again there have been plush and fabric toys recalled because they had painted features that contained excessive levels of lead in the paint.

After talking to a reporter this morning about these issues, she kept asking the same question…so what are you recommending? Honestly, this is the question we’ve been working on for months. We’re happy to have a Lead-Free* Toy List that’s full of good choices (they’re on our website)–but as always I’m always stuck saying that we only tested one sample of these these toys and that we can’t guarantee that other samples or other production runs will have the same result. Not very satisifying the reporter pointed out. True….but then again that’s where we are for this holiday season.