Mattel announced today it is voluntarily recalling 436,000 Sarge toys from the “Cars” movie because of elevated levels of lead paint by a Chinese subcontractor.
According to the company’s release:
The recall of the Sarge toy results from Mattel’s increased investigation and ongoing testing procedures following the recall of select Fisher-Price toys on August 1, 2007. The toy was produced by Early Light Industrial Co., Ltd (Early Light), one of Mattel’s contract manufacturing facilities in China, which subcontracted the painting of parts of the toy to another vendor, Hong Li Da (HLD), also in China. While the painting subcontractor, HLD, was required to utilize paint supplied directly from Early Light, it instead violated Mattel’s standards and utilized paint from a non-authorized third-party supplier. […]
The Sarge toy from the “CARS” die-cast vehicle line was manufactured between May 2007 and August 2007. For additional information regarding the Sarge toy recall, contact Mattel at (800) 916-4997, or visit the company’s Web site at www.service.mattel.com.
A full list of products is published on the company’s Web site at www.mattel.com, as well as by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Consumers should immediately take these products away from children and contact Mattel to arrange return and to receive a voucher for a replacement toy of the consumer’s choice, up to the value of the returned product.
Two observations: First, one would think that with all the recent product scares, Americans would be less inclined to buy products made in China. The trouble is, there are so many products from China that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to avoid them.
Second, you’ll be hard-pressed to find many people with Sarge toys who would truly be in danger. The Sarge toy is more of a collector’s item, often sitting on a shelf next to a massive “Cars” display. Not many owners are going to chew on ol’ Sarge and ingest lead-paint flakes.
I wouldn’t be surprised if many Sarge owners ignore the recall.
As long as it took me to find Sarge, he will be sitting on the shelf with the rest of the cast of CARS, inside his plastic wrapper.
Same here..
They’ll have to pry Sarge outta my cold, dead hands!
Considering how almost every other manufacturing-error collectible (from the tall Snaggletooth Star Wars figure on up to the upside-down airplane stamp) turns into a mint for those lucky few who own them, this news makes the cynic in me wonder if letting a Chinese company slip the lead in isn’t just a way to drive up collector price– it’s certainly far easier than selling a lot of toys, and waiting 20 years for people to gradually lose a lot of them.
Yes, I’d say there’s a cynic in you. 😉
Because this has turned into a liability and public-relations nightmare for Mattel, I find it very hard to believe that this scandal was created for the highly dubious purpose of driving up the cost of *one* toy that was already was highly collectible.
If they produced 436,000 of them, why was Sarge so hard to find?
I don’t see what’s the problem. If you’re really into collecting these cars, you can find them on amazon, ebay, etc..