toys

These Fake Plastic Pennies Cost Only 4.5 Cents Each

By Laura Northrup on January 29, 2010 11:03 AM 0 views

(Photo: oneiroi)

It's never too early to teach your kids about financial responsibility. That's why play money is a fun idea. What we find fiscally suspect, however, are plastic pennies from Learning Resources. 100 plastic pennies for the low, low price of $4.50. Yes, that's four cents per penny, and even more than the U.S. Mint pays to make real pennies. More »

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Science Toys "For Girls" Don't Need As Much Power

By Laura Northrup on December 31, 2009 1:30 PM 8714 views
Budding female science nerds of America, Toys R Us has an important message. This message is: "don't worry your pretty little head with the most powerful science toys we have to offer." More »

111 Comments

Self-Described Toy Tester Will Go Through Your Stuff If You Pay Her

By Chris Walters on December 29, 2009 3:48 PM 0 views

(Photo: Thermo Scientific)

Every time there's a warning or recall over lead-tainted toys--and it hasn't happened much this past year, but check out our archives from a couple of years ago--lots of people get up in arms about not being able to trust the government or big business. Well, one woman has bought herself an X-ray flourescence (XRF) analyzer and now hires her services out to worried families, reports the Washington Post. For a fee, she'll come to your house, point her gun at your kids' toys, your heirlooms, the fishtank, whatever you ask her to test, and then tell you whether you should throw it out. More »

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RC2 Agrees To Pay $1.25 Million Over Lead Toys

By Chris Walters on December 29, 2009 3:05 PM 983 views

(Photo: Lee Jordan)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has just worked out another penalty settlement with a toy company over those lead-tainted toys that graced shelves from 2005 to 2007. Reuters says RC2 will pay a $1.25 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that it "imported and sold Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys with paints and surface coatings that contained lead levels above legal limits." About two years ago, RC2 settled a class-action lawsuit over the same toys. More »

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Mattel Sells Overpriced Barbie Printer, Forgets To Make Overpriced Refill Cartridges

By Laura Northrup on December 26, 2009 7:30 PM 10644 views
Mattel's new "beautronics" device aimed at tween girls, the Barbie Nail Printer, is a glorified inkjet printer that customizes and prints designs on your fingernails. Neat idea in theory, though a bit pricey at $180. However, Mattel has apparently overlooked an essential part of the inkjet printer business model: selling new and overpriced cartridges. The problem, reader Richard writes, is that the company refuses to take orders for new cartridges, saying that they won't be available until next year. But I want pink leopard print fingernails now! More »

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Target Worker Fired For Zhu Zhu Pet Purchase

By Laura Northrup on December 18, 2009 6:25 PM 10147 views

Photo: Sarah-Mitt

A veteran Target employee in Buffalo, NY claims that she was fired for purchasing a Zhu Zhu pet. The chain told TV station WKBW that all employees were clearly instructed in a memo not to purchase the robot hamsters before 4 A.M., which the employee denies. [WKBW]
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Disney Princess Shrink Ray Hits Mattel Dolls

By Laura Northrup on December 17, 2009 5:46 PM 5528 views
Shopping for toys at Target, Anthony noticed an interesting change in a small, inexpensive doll that his daughter enjoys. The princesses have been affected by a toy shrink ray--the dolls are smaller, the mold used to make them is different, and they come with fewer accessories--for the same price, naturally. More »

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Make Your Own Zhu Zhu The Fad Robot Hamster Toy

By Chris Walters on December 16, 2009 11:57 AM 7189 views
If you have kids, you're probably biting your nails down to the quick worrying how you're going to find--much less pay for--this year's super hot fad toy, Zhu Zhu the Robot Hamster. But don't be so stupid! The thing about fad toys like Zhu Zhu is that they're about 30% fun, 30% marketing, and 40% media hype. You can bypass all that nonsense and make your own in less than 20 minutes, and for a fraction of the cost. More »

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Target Cancels Zhu Zhu Pet Order Placed In September, Ruins Christmas

By Laura Northrup on December 12, 2009 1:24 PM 26828 views

Photo: elifins

Long before the national robot hamster shortage began, before fights broke out over the toy critters, and even before Consumerist took notice of the trend, Stacey's daughters wanted Zhu Zhu Pets for Christmas. She ordered two hamsters and a playset for them from Target.com in mid-September, and waited for them to come off backorder. And waited. Finally, less than two weeks before Christmas, Target canceled her order. More »

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Relax, Toy Hamsters Not Metalloid Death Bringers After All

By Chris Walters on December 8, 2009 6:54 PM 3386 views
You can dig up that bag of Zhu Zhus from your backyard and re-wrap them for the kids again. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has said that the robot hamsters are not loaded with too much antimony after all, despite claims made by the website GoodGuide. More »

19 Comments

Mother Thinks Hannah Montana Doll Is Swearing

By Meg Marco on December 3, 2009 1:40 PM 10652 views
We're going to go ahead and suggest that if you are the type to hear swear words when confronted with awful audio recordings, you not buy dolls that sing. One Florida mom is such a person, and is convinced that her daughter's Hannah Montana doll has taught her kid to say the "F" word. More »

88 Comments

Police Called To Quell Fight Over Toy Hamsters

By Chris Walters on November 27, 2009 3:05 PM 15462 views
People in Indiana really want those trendy little robot hamsters that are the designated fad toy of 2009. Police were called to two Toys R Us stores, one in Indianapolis and one in Greenwood, on Friday after fights broke out among toy shoppers. More »

37 Comments

First Toy Store Melee Reported In Connecticut

By Laura Northrup on November 27, 2009 2:00 PM 11581 views
The crowd waiting at the doors of the Toys R Us in Manchester, Conn., burning up with Black Friday fever, grew impatient. Shortly before the store opened at midnight, a group of people tried to jump the line and get through the doors. The store didn't open until nearly an hour later--and after twenty police officers got the crowd under control. More »

30 Comments

Toys Are Not Immune To All-Zapping Shrink Ray

By Phil Villarreal on November 17, 2009 3:40 PM 3578 views

Alexey has found the ubiquitous Grocery Shrink Ray is also zapping toys. The pictured Imaginarium blocks used to come in sets of 200, as is reflected in the old price tag, barely visible at the bottom of the screen, but has been shrunk down to 150.  More »

25 Comments

Toys R Us Advertises Zhu Zhu Pet Sale, Forgets To Stock Zhu Zhu Pets

By Laura Northrup on November 11, 2009 6:10 PM 17192 views

Arnold was excited to receive an e-mail from Toys R Us advertising a special early-bird sale of Zhu Zhu Pets. The inexpensive little robot hamsters are in short supply, and the chain promised critters to the first fifty households who showed up at their local store on Sunday morning. Only Arnold reports that not only did his local store never have any of the battery-operated rodents in stock, it wasn't open at the advertised hour at all.  More »

62 Comments

Verizon Wireless Relegates iPhone To Island Of Misfit Toys

By Laura Northrup on November 8, 2009 10:00 PM 12163 views

As a whimsical follow-up to AT&T's lawsuit concerning their "There's a map for that" ads, Verizon Wireless released their Christmas-themed set of AT&T/iPhone bashing ads today. They're harsh, but also pretty funny.  More »

54 Comments

Game Consoles, Dolls And Wooden Dogs Are The Best Toys Ever

By Phil Villarreal on November 6, 2009 2:59 PM 2868 views

Did you play with a Slinky growing up? Well, that makes you a loser, because your toy didn't make Good Housekeeping's Yahoo list of the greatest toys ever made.  More »

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Mattel To Release "Palm Beach Sugar Daddy" Ken Doll. Yes, Really.

By Meg Marco on October 30, 2009 4:08 PM 8482 views

Playing "Madoff investors" just got a little easier thanks to Mattel's "Palm Beach Sugar Daddy" Ken doll, which will be released in April of 2010.   More »

89 Comments

Walt Disney Planning On Turning Stores Into Shopping Theme Parks

By Chris Walters on October 14, 2009 1:25 PM 4558 views

Starting the middle of next year, Walt Disney will be rolling out a new version of its mall store format that is intended to suck in your child like a fairy princess crack pipe. "The goal is to make children clamor to visit the stores and stay longer," writes Brooks Barnes in the New York Times, by using things like embedded chips in the packaging to trigger responses from the store's furnishings, a rotating library of scents that fill the store, and karaoke.  More »

66 Comments

Target: No Plans To Remove Bleeding Rock-A-Stacks

By Ben Popken on October 13, 2009 7:34 PM 7905 views

Target decided to break its rule about not talking to blogs and responded to our inquiry about the Fisher Price Rock A Stack toys with the blue rings that bleed blue dye on those who encounter it. We asked how many complaints has Target received about this defect? Are there any plans to remove the toy it from the shelves? And If a customer has bought the toy and wishes to return or exchange it, is a receipt required? They responded thusly:  More »

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