Toy Safety…again

Last night I was talking about the new toy season – thinking about getting to share another year’s worth of testing.  I know we don’t make any of these toys, but we do take pride in our list of award winners.  It takes a lot of work to get to those select toys that do what they say they’re going to do–AND they’re fun, well made, and going to enhance your child’s play experience.  While there are definite points of the year when I ponder what I do for a living, at the end of the day my mother and I really love finding great products. Our network of family testers take their work seriously and we love the feedback we get from the play trenches!

So you can imagine my dismay this morning. I was barely awake when I saw a reporter on tv with a new set of toys being recalled.  I thought (hoped) that I was still asleep. But no, it was real and even more alarming one of our scheduled award winners was on the list.   All of my happy thoughts about kicking off a new season without the upset of recalls was gone.  Fisher-Price voluntarily recalled 10+ million plus toys and equipment for kids.

The issue this year is not lead or pvc — but small parts.  Now if you’ve read my blog you know this has been an on going worry for us.  In this case the issue is small parts potentially breaking off and posing a choking hazard–but we have been observing small parts that are meant to be there.  Small parts that just stick out of the official choke tube but fall in a toilet roll center (the at-home test recommended by the CPSC).

As always we encourage parents to trust their instincts. If something looks too small or is too loud or is too rough (we had lots of splinter issues this year as well)….take the toy back.  If you have kids that mouth their toys, keep a toilet roll near by.  Put away questionable pieces for the time being.

Fans of the show Mythbusters- here’s a great game

The new Mythbusters Game from Zimzala Games

Fans of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters will  love this new game based on the hit show that puts myths to the test by trying them whether it’s by catapluting a car or blowing something up.  I love that this show celebrates science and makes it fun.  It’s a great show to share with your kids (or in my case, a show that they shared with me!)

Many games from tv shows are a disappointment but this one from Zimzala Games delivers.  The concept is to get the trivia questions correct so that you get to launch Buster the dummy on the cataplut (how fun is that!).  At first we didn’t get many questions right–so there was no launching but we were enjoying the questions and often surprising answers so much that we didn’t really care.  For kids that are video gamers– this may be one of those few games that you can entice them away from their controller with — at least for a little while!

Watch our video demo!