The contaminated preschool toys which were made in China and are based on popular characters such as Big Bird, Dora and Barney - Best Manners, have been pulled off shelves in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Canada and the United States.
Local toy store owners are now on the look out for plastic toys such as the popular Spongebob Squarepants or Elmo that may have been coated with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead.This came on the heels of a decision by the world's largest toymaker, Mattel's Fisher-Price Division, to recall nearly a million of the contaminated toys which were manufactured by a Chinese vendor and sold in the US between May and August 2007. Mattel apologized to customers affected by the recall on Thursday.
A senior official at Kidsworld, speaking anonymously said, "We also spoke to Mattel and based on their records KidsWorld did not purchase anything in production from May. But it as a precautionary measure we pulled off some of the items found on the list. They were mostly toys for toddlers."
Jameel Sadeek, a representative of Toymart, said the store also received a list of the contaminated toys from Mattel and as a result had made several checks "but we have not found any of the items that were recalled. We have toys here from Fisher-Price but it was the recently produced ones that were sent out around the period of March, April , May that have the problem."
He however said he was doubtful that any of the items might have reached Trinidad soil as yet "because it usually takes a long time before we get our stuff." He however assured the public that management would take the appropriate action if they were to get any of the toys and not sell them.
The affected toys include:
- Sesame Street Elmo Tub Tote
- Dora Let's Go Adventure
- Elmo Jack in Box
- Barney Band Buddies
- Barney Best Manners Phone
- Sesame Street Giggle Tool belt
- SpongeBob Squarepants
- Ernie's Splashin' Fun
- Giggle Doodler
- Elmo in the Giggle Box
