Fears Over Chinese Plastics Boost Sales Of Traditional Toys

The global media coverage of the problems US toy giant Mattel faced with their Chinese produced plastic toys appears to have been good news to retailers and manufacturers of Traditional Toys. 2007 was a disastrous year for the US company, famous for their Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher Price brands thanks to a series of product recalls for products incorrectly manufactured at some of their Chinese based factories. The three recalls affected a considerable amount of Mattel's toy products with problems ranging from high lead content of the paint used to poor design standards.

This disastrous year for Mattel however has seen customers moving to more traditional toys such as classic wooden toys, soft toys and old fashioned games.

Speaking from the companies East Yorkshire base Managing Director of Monkeyshine, Gary Clay, confirmed the company had seen a swing toward buying traditional toys; 'Customers have certainly been keen to buy wooden toys this Christmas and more and more of our customers are asking us the country of origin of many of our toys, clearly concerned by the recent scares suffered by Mattel. This has been good and bad for the company in that we have seen larger sales this year but unfortunately this has been duplicated across the world meaning many of our traditional toys sold out exceptionaly early'.

In the wake of the Mattel incidents Chinese officials have been quick to tighten up manufacturing legislation and control with health minister Chen Zhu insisting Beijing was "highly sensitive" to concerns over product safety.