Over 85 % of the world’s toys are manufactured in China. Each year I visit this developing country to explore and inspect new toys and to learn more about the factories which manufacture our products.
When I first visited China 12 years ago the factories employed many young girls between the ages of 14 and 21. They came from all over China to the South China Sea area or the outskirts of Shanghai. In the early years of their employment, most of their salaries were sent home to their families. After several years they were able to keep some money to start saving for a dowry.
A typical young woman would be seen sitting silently in the production line, clad in uniform, with a single long pigtail trailing down her back. The few men that were there operated the more sophisticated machinery that was just being introduced.
Today’s factories are very different. Since children now attend school to a later age so most employees are over 16 years old and tend to work in the factories until they are 23. There is not a pigtail to be seen; blue jeans have taken the place of uniforms, and there is a constant social chatter as people work in groups. Also, there are many very sophisticated new machines that have been purchased from Japan and Germany. Young men are becoming competent in injection molding, machine tooling, and design development.
This year’s visit to the Orient was especially poignant, since China as well as Museum Tour Catalog was still reeling from the many toy recalls and from the general uproar and concern regarding toy safety issues. Although I have always been concerned about quality, the Museum Tour Catalog prides itself on the products we carry. This year we decided that we must go the extra mile to acquire more information about the safety testing that is conducted for each product. As a result, we have been inspecting toys and speaking to manufacturer and distributors to insure that they meet U.S. standards, if not European standards. Every company we work with is required to give us test information on each product that insures that American Safety standards are met.
Hong Kong’s Toy Fair is very exciting. The theme of the 2008 fair was safety. I know that many people wonder why I can’t find these products in the U.S. The sad fact is that the costs of manufacturing locally are more than double the costs of Chinese made products, and most people are not willing or can not afford to pay these higher prices. We do keep our eyes open for local opportunities, and try to encourage involvement of companies in this country.
Wherever our products are made, we are committed to demanding high production standards. If there is ever a recall, it is our promise that we will notify you so you will not have to worry about missing a poorly publicized notice. For your assistance, we have a list of items on our web site that specifies nationally recalled toys. To date our items are not on that list.
