Thursday, September 27, 2007

Thomas, Not Again!




OK, Thomas, after the first lead paint recall, your "cheeky little engine" thing was wearing thin. Now, months later, still having not received the replacements for the original toys I sent back due to lead paint, (and that I and my mom and MIL spent a troublesome truck*load of money on!) I see that you're involved in more lead paint shenanigans. Now, I think the "cheeky little engine" is turning into "that bleeping bleepy train!"

Actually, Thomas, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at your parents. Or, rather, the company responsible for making you, or having you manufactured in China and not checking to make sure you and your pals weren't contaminated with lead paint before selling you to a mass market of young kids.

So, have Sir Topham Hatt* tell RC2 Corp. to get on the ball and get this lead paint crap dealt with, because you and your little train friends won't have much of a future outside of the Island of Sodor if this continues!

*Apologies to those who aren't familiar with the characters from Thomas and Friends. Actually, forget that. If you don't know these names, consider yourself very lucky! Then again, I'll take "Thomas and Friends" over that whiny Canadian bastard "Caillou", or those annoying American planes on "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" any day! (See, I have issues will all nationalities of whiny children's programming and toys!)


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Check this site to see if you need to return anything! Better yet, see here for still MORE toys that have been recalled recently. Sigh. I think I need to go through again and make sure I haven't missed any.

We own the Figure Eight set, so now I have to get all the little green bases to signs, as well as all the green maple tree tops and send them all back, since strangely enough, the boys don't keep the pieces all segregated by set and they're all intermingled in the storage bins under the train table.

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UPDATE: A got an email from RC2 Corp., which manufactures the Thomas toys that were recalled. Part of the groveling message of embarrassment and apology about the second big recall in only a few months included a warning that one of the toys sent as an appeasement (my word choice) to angry parents was recalled, too. The company sent out some trains to those affected by the recall. We received one with a note apologizing and promising they were working on safety. Apparently, some who sent in toys that were part of the recall received a train, Toad, that was a part of this latest recall. I can't remember which "appeasement train" we received, but I just searched through our box of trains and didn't see Toad, so I think we're OK. But if we had, I imagine that would make me even angrier!

Now, to give the company credit, they have instituted a new "Multi-Check Toy Safety System" to make sure the toys they manufacture are actually safe to play with. We'll see, RC2.

Off to mail three maple tree tops and four sign bases that may or may not be painted with lead paint. Hey, at least we're already chelating metals from Hutton's body!

7 comments:

Mom without a manual said...

Yeah, we have the dreaded figure 8 set as well. Here is my question. Since they have recalled just about everything in that set with paint on it--what are your thoughts about the two remaining pieces...Sir Topham Hat and the Conductor building?

I have a hard time thinking the green roof on our building is safe if the green base of the rail sign and the green trees are troublesome.

Fortunately, we have received our replacements. However, I heard from a few families on a listserv that their replacement present is now on the recall list!

I am not sure Sir Topham hat is managing his station very well! But if we get rid of Thomas and friends we won't have anything to play with...

Laura said...

Really, if the boys weren't totally into the trains, I would have no problem getting rid of them all, but that would cause more than "confusion and delay" around here. More like anarchy and rioting. :-/

I have no idea about the green roof. It's possible the smaller pieces may have been painted at a different location than the buildings, but that sounds almost overly Pollyanna-ish at this point! Maybe I'll wait a day or two to mail my stuff.

Unknown said...

I absolutely LOATHE Jay Jay... loathed him even more when I learned that it's a religious show like Veggie Tales. But I'm a hateful atheist who is going to burn in hell, so what do you expect? lol

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Wing Wigglin' at you! Yeah, my girls love The Jay Jay. Which sounds perilously close to Perez Hilton's term "VA Jay Jay!"

Lead in the mouth is bad. Mercury in the veins in OK. Got that?

Kim Rossi Stagliano said...

Allie, Jay Jay is NOT religious, by the way. Oh no,he's quite the little aero-heathen, I assure you. He talks to trees. Clearly a Wiccan. No worries! (no offense to Wiccans, who are lovely people. Put the SPELL BOOK DOWN!) ;)

Laura said...

Yeah, I was going to say that, too, Allie. Jay Jay isn't religious. Annoying as hell? Yep!

Alijah Fitt said...

I totally forgot about how whiny some of those cartoon voices were, thanks FOR THE AUDIO MEMORY, ER, NOT REALLY. i CANNOT BELIEVE THE frustrations you must be going through with that mess. Outsourcing, what a great idea!

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