Release of New "PlumBum Barbie"

Hits a snag.

Probably just a glitch in the translation software.

Story at this site.

Mattel Recalls 774,000 Barbie, Other Toys With Lead

By Heather Burke

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Mattel Inc., the world's largest toymaker, recalled almost 774,000 Chinese-made Barbie and Fisher-Price products whose paint may contain excessive levels of lead, its third recall in the past five weeks.

The recall includes 675,000 Barbie kitchen, living room and other furniture items as well as 90,000 Fisher-Price Geo Trax Locomotive toys and 8,900 Bongo Band drums. No injuries have been reported, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said today in a statement.

Mattel recalled more than 20 million Chinese-made products last month in two separate instances because the toys contained unsafe levels of lead paint or had magnets that children may be able to swallow.

The toymaker, based in El Segundo, California, may have to find new sources of low-cost goods as China struggles to repair its reputation as an exporter. Mattel is pulling toys off shelves going into the holiday season, which accounted for 69 percent of 2006 sales. The world's most populous nation supplies 80 percent of the U.S. toy market.

Shares of Mattel, which also makes Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, rose 34 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $21.97 as of 4:25 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading before the recall announcement.

(Details on the products being recall can be found here.)


Last Updated: September 4, 2007 20:37 EDT

File under: A little something for the chem and physics geeks out there, without whom life would be much more dazzle-poor and crap-dense than it already is.