Yes, it's made in China, no it's not chock full of poison

Many people have developed an aversion to Chinese made toys in the past couple of years.
The news reports of unsafe toys almost always refer to toys that are made in China, so why wouldn't people put two and two together and come to the conclusion that Chinese made toys are unsafe?
Well, let's look into that a bit. Here at YoYo Joe's Toys & Fun, safety of the toy is one of the primary things we look for when checking out a new toy. We get e-mails from the Consumer Products Safety Comission anytime there is a recall of any toy, and we keep on top of it. Since we've opened in November, we've had no toys that we carry been subject to recall. We also seek out toys made in the USA, and have some awesome items we carry that are made in the USA (Most of our books, Yo-Yo Jam yo-yos, Lunastix juggling sticks, KEVA wooden planks, Melissa & Doug cardboard puzzles, Gamewright games, Briarpatch games, Make-A-Plate kits, Flying Turtles & more) as well as toys made in the EU (Bruder, Playmobil, etc) - but the vast majority of what we sell are made in China.
Don't make the mistake of assuming that all toys made in China are subject to the same conditions of manufacture. Most of the bigger toy companies, companies like Melissa & Doug, send employees to live in China and keep tabs on the manufacturing of toys. The mistakes that have been made in China generally occur when a company farms out the manufacture of a product with little or no controls on how it's made.
There's also a wide variety of factories in China - some of the best made toys we sell come from China. Take Blue-Orange Games as an example. Their games are made in China - many of them from wood. In addition to making sure all their games are safe - they are extremely active in protecting our environment. They are the only toy company that I'm aware of with a plan to replant trees they use for production. For each tree they use to produce games, they replant two. Read their policy here. They won the first "Green Toy Company" Award from Dr. Toy in 2007 in recognition of their environmental awareness. It would be a shame to completely ignore their products based on country of manufacture. The miYim soft organic toys we just got in stock are made in China, but you'd be hard pressed to find a plush company with a bigger dedication to the safety and quality of it's materials.
The simple fact is that companies feel pressure to move manufacturing to China in order to maintain competitiveness in terms of price. Things are changing in China - both because of the safety concerns that have arisen over the past couple of years and by the staggering growth their economy has seen over the past ten years. Will that just cause a move in manufacturing to another country? Possibly - I've seen more "Made in Vietnam" tags on my clothes over the past couple years. Will it cause a reversal and move manufacturing back to the USA? I certainly hope so, as part of our mission here is to shop local - keeping money as close to home as possible - but we also have a responsibility to make sure that the toys we sell are also fun and within the price range of our customers.
So, when shopping for good, quality toys, don't dismiss 'made in China' out of hand - use it as one of the factors when considering your purchases.

Steiff learns lesson, is moving production back to Germany

Steiff, who claim they develop the first plush bear with movable arms and legs, decided
to move about one fifth of it's production to China about five years ago. They wanted to try to bring down the cost of the traditionally very expensive plush toys. The cost-cutting moves worked, pushing the price of $31-$47 range. But, as explained in this article in the London Financial Times, they've recently decided to bring production back to Germany, where they can exercise better control over their products and how they get them.

“We have learnt our products are better if we make them ourselves,” says Martin Frechen, co-chief executive of the firm in Giengen, Baden-Württemberg.

“The things we wanted to be done were not the things the Chinese were used to doing.” He stresses that Steiff never had the problems with safety standards that some US importers have struggled with. “Things were also fine in terms of quality,” he says. “But when we looked at whether this was sustainable, big question marks arose.”

China's Toy Export grown slows significantly

Although still up by 3% from January through March over last year, the growth rate for Chinese toy exports was down from a 24% growth rate for the same period last year. Chinese exports to the United States were down by 5.8% for the first quarter vs the same period last year. Major factors include the toy safety scare for Chinese toys and higher production costs in China. To read the story from Playthings Magazine, click here.

Very interesting article in the New York Times

Jonathan Dee has written an extensive article about toymaker Mattel and it's quest to be a better global citizen in it's manufacture of toys. It's an eye-opening article about the steps they have taken to make it's factories better places to work. It also talks about Mattel's recent recalls. Check it out