Lead Paint?

[Decon]

With all the recent lead paint issues, could it affect plastic toys?

Could it affect any of our Macross stuff?

[eugimon]

I guess it could, though, there's precious little paint actually on our toys. I wonder how yamato would handle all the international toys if there were a recall.

[nightmareB4macross]

I guess it could, though, there's precious little paint actually on our toys. I wonder how yamato would handle all the international toys if there were a recall.

I think Yamato would send replacement paint to vendors to dispribute the paint free of charge to customers. Then the vendors would charge the customers 30.00 plus shipping for (higher content) lead based paint.

Basically, we'll just get Yamatoed.

[eugimon]

I think Yamato would send replacement paint to vendors to dispribute the paint free of charge to customers. Then the vendors would charge the customers 30.00 plus shipping for (higher content) lead based paint.

Basically, we'll just get Yamatoed.

I believe you mean, HLJ'd.

[big F]

Its safe to say that as most of our Macross merchandise is made in China, there is a very good chance that one or more line may have lead in the paint.

Its also safe to say that this will not work well for recalls etc. Luckly for us most of us do not play with or indead suck or eat our macross stuff, therefore were less likely to ingest the lead.

Having worked with lead and due to a faulty repirator breathed in lead particals for sometime I can understand why people will be worried. the tests and things I had to go through after just to make sure I couldnt sue my employers was tedious. Even though I am back to normal health I`d be worried if my kids were playing with em as theyd likely injest the paint when putting them in their mouths.

[miriya]

good point. I am not planning to let my son play with my yammies. He is only 2 and a half years old and he would destroy them. I let him play with my jetfire for a few minutes once (HE LOVED IT!!!) but I had to pry it from his hands to keep him from breaking it.

Most of us are not putting these in our mouths (hopefully) although I may want to lick nora's... what? Sorry everyone.

Three of my sons toys were recalled for lead paint and they were all made in China. I think that it is probably a safe assumption that the paint in these yammies do have some lead so no more licking and sucking on them! OK?

[Fly4victory]

Do not eat your Valks.

Recall is not a factor since the toys are not marketed for sale in the US and the current problem is a violation of US saftey standards. I do not know if it is a factor in Japan since I do not know about their laws... even if it were a factor in Japan I doubt they, the seller or producer, would be interested in paying for the return for toys shipped to the US since they are not for US consumption.

If someone was to pick a fight over this possible none issue, the suppliers like HLJ and others in Japan would just close sales to the US which would be bad for all us here in the States.

[miriya]

Another good point by fly4victory! Yeah, it is best if we don't cause and uproar and instead keep our toys out of our mouths, however hard that is. That makes the transformation contests more limited but WTF.

[Macross73]

what about all the other stuff like kaiyodo bandai fewture and so on ... don't use your toys as an after dinner mint and your good.

[Sdf-1]

But nothing tastes as yummy as a juicy Valk!

[miriya]

yummy yammies in yellow jammies.... huh?

[Nightbat]

Hell, at least lead paint will last forever instead of that POS acrylic trash they're using today

[miriya]

Yamato should use depleted uranium in their paint so that our valks will glow at night and help us mutate into super-miclones.

[scand]

I guess I should stop putting my 1/60s in my mouth then! I thought Lead based paints were outlawed for the use in toys. No?

By the way, for some reason this thread reminded me of Tommy Boy.

Edited August 15, 2007 by scand

[eugimon]

I guess I should stop putting my 1/60s in my mouth then! I thought Lead based paints were outlawed for the use in toys. No?

By the way, for some reason this thread reminded me of Tommy Boy.

for some strange reason, various chinese companies seem to love using hazardous materials and chemicals in various products.

[valkyrie13]

Many of the paints or materials conventionally used to produce great effects have been banned or are in the process of being outlawed, especially when producing childrens' toys. With that said, I have not seen Japan or other markets in Asia go after manufacturers (in particular, in China) on these grounds.

The bigger issue is the condition of labor in factories that produce our beloved toys and finished models. Labor is inhumanely cheap in China and Japan is certainly not oblivious to it. Nevertheless, the Japanese companies continue to outsource products to Chinese manufacturers and constantly try to improve the quality without increasing wages. I suspect that some day this will blow up in their face and the consumers will be left to deal with it.

[David Hingtgen]

A lot of stuff made in China (especially ANY metal) has lead in it. Basically, they don't clean out the vat/cauldron that they heat the metal in to make diecast, and lead impurities get in. This leads to diecast rot. And/or they use lead as "filler" because it's a really cheap metal. Or the cauldron itself has lead as part of its construction.

A lot of companies won't have anything to do with Chinese metal, whether it's a metal part itself or merely made in a mold made of Chinese metal, due to lead impurities getting in. Even small amounts of lead can screw up many alloys.

Technically, it may not even be "lead-based paint" that's the problem but actually "paint that's been stored in a lead-contaminated metal container".

Lead-based paint is actually awesome stuff, superior coverage and color to anything else--and the ONLY way to get a truly good yellow pigment. It's really only a problem if you eat it. But they still ban it totally in the US. I would so buy lead-based white and yellow paint if I could. (since I don't eat the stuff I paint)

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

I'm based in Mexico City. Mexico holds a stupid and unilateral economic quabble against China since they took away all the manufacturing, and each time I order toys, since they're ALL produced in China, I have to pay a fortune of custom taxes and write a responsive letter to the customs director, stating that the toys in question are intended to go to a private collection and will never fall in the hands of children, because of the lead in the paint, and things has been like this for years.

Now, excuse my cynicism, of course that my Yammies are painted with toxic paint, but what about all the Mr. Potato Heads that are sitting on the shelves of my local Walmart?

This is not about a few Doras and Elmoes. IMHO lead paint is used on almost every object manufactured in China, I mean lead paint is probably cheaper, and chinese always aim at increase their profit by cutting costs, so why not using it?

I think that "maybe" from time to time, somebody in the US has to raise the hand and recall some products, so US consumers can feel safe and keep consuming and this time the bill went to Mattel.

As far as I know most of us grew up eating lead and here we are. Granted, we are geeks, but other than that useful members of society

Edit: I just read David's post about lead in the paint. Thanks for clarify, David (again)

Edited August 15, 2007 by Lonely Soldier Boy

[isa_o]

china makes low end products anyways. always trying to cut costs now our mac-coss collection just went out the lead paint door. they suck. You know i always though yammies would produce the toys in japan. At least that would ahire to better quality.

[David Hingtgen]

It's all about the factory and QC you have, not where it's made. I actually have 2 slightly different versions of the same model train---one was made in the US, one was made after they switched production to China. Know what? The one made in China is better in almost every way. Much better painting, parts more carefully glued together, etc. I hate to admit it, but the Chinese factory "slave workers" did better than the (presumably) well-paid Americans. And that's not the only time I've seen stuff like that happen.

[eugimon]

I've always maintained that if american factories could produce wares at the same quality level as what we get from overseas, even from "slave labor" countries like china and the philipines, Americans would pay the extra money. The sad fact is, most american made products are of an inferior quality. I personally blame greedy executives and overly strong unions. Neither group cares one bit about consumers.

[valkyrie13]

Not to belabor this point but please note the following illustrations:

In the US, if the factory QC director doesn't like the quality of products, he sends them back into the assembly line or has it disposed of. If this results from a worker's poor performance, then he or she needs to follow protocol to issue verbal warnings, official warnings, reprimands and then needs to follow company procedures (which have been agreed to with the union) before the employee in question can be dismissed. This is a pain in the you-know-where, not to mention all the paper work.

In China, if the factory QC director (or any one in the managerial position) doesn't like the quality of products, he can send the employee home and hire any one of the experienced crafters waiting in line outside the factory. Heck, he can dismiss the whole assembly line if he can't pin-point the cause to a specific employee. In addition, there are companies lined up and knocking on doors of companies handing out the outsourcing contracts, all eager to produce higher quality products for less if the opportunity presents itself.

[big F]

Not to belabor this point but please note the following illustrations: In the US, if the factory QC director doesn't like the quality of products, he sends them back into the assembly line or has it disposed of. If this results from a worker's poor performance, then he or she needs to follow protocol to issue verbal warnings, official warnings, reprimands and then needs to follow company procedures (which have been agreed to with the union) before the employee in question can be dismissed. This is a pain in the you-know-where, not to mention all the paper work. In China, if the factory QC director (or any one in the managerial position) doesn't like the quality of products, he can send the employee home and hire any one of the experienced crafters waiting in line outside the factory. Heck, he can dismiss the whole assembly line if he can't pin-point the cause to a specific employee. In addition, there are companies lined up and knocking on doors of companies handing out the outsourcing contracts, all eager to produce higher quality products for less if the opportunity presents itself.

Yup as demonstrated on the 6pm news (in the U.K) the lines of Chinese people who have just been fired due to no production and therefore no money to pay them. One even asked the reporter if the paint was only poisonous to foreigners as Chinese people were not ill from working with it.

Edited August 15, 2007 by big F

[eugimon]

Having spent some time in china, I can tell you that even college educated chinese can be very naive about the world... a lot of them still completely trust State media and whatever they're told. If they're told that this chemical is good for them or not to worry about this other chemical, most will blindly follow a long. A life time of indoctrination + confucist thinking can make for a very powerful weapon.

[David Hingtgen]

Going a bit OT, but I recently read a book that had a part where in the early 80's an American guy had a chance to meet some of China's top aviation scientists while visiting there. During a brief time where the guard/political overseer left, they quickly asked if it was true that Americans had landed a man on the moon, and asked when it'd happened. They'd been kept that isolated over the years, and all their references were carefully edited---but one little mention in a bibliography about the "American Apollo moon landing mission" had made it through. Sad---the top aerodynamicists and engineers in the nation, unaware that rockets even existed that could travel such a distance, etc.

[eugimon]

yeah, I was in beijing shortly after 9/11 and the invasion of afghanistan, and college students were asking me why the United States invaded without reason. I asked them if they knew about the Twin Towers, which they did, but they had no idea that the attack led to the invasion. As amazing as it sounds, they had no idea.

[miriya]

I thought that the US invaded Afghanistan to get lots of petrol to Bush's friends for cheap.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Yeah, you can't really blame the chinese for being unable to link the two events. I can't either.

[eugimon]

uhm, there was a pretty clear link, osama was based out of afghanistan at the time, and the US went in to to get him. Afghanistan is not an oil rich country.

I think you two are confusing Iraq with afghanistan. But for Iraq, you need to look beyond bush jr and go back to clinton and bush sr. It was under those presidencies that the future invasion of iraq was setup (bush sr.) and the reasons for the invasion were trumpt up (clinton).

Edited August 15, 2007 by eugimon

[miriya]

Well there are many opinions about what happened and why it happened. I think that this page "explains" the whole situation (from one POV of course) which is quite funny. http://develnet.org/ThisAndThat/DaddyWhyDi...aveToAttackIraq

Anyway, this is off the point of lead paint now but I think the consensus here remains to keep our toys out of our orifices.

[eugimon]

or as the chinese put it, stop being overly cautious, there's nothing wrong with our toys.

[HoveringCheesecake]

Yeah, you can't really blame the chinese for being unable to link the two events. I can't either.

Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Bin Laden/Al Qaeda stayed in Afghanistan. It isn't that hard to figure out. However, Bin Laden was and still is supported by the ISI (Pakistani intelligence). They are the real problem, along with the Saudi royal family.

But I digress. I hope you guys were just confused and thought he meant Iraq.

But hey how about this lead paint! I doubt it will effect our Yammies. Hell, they skimp on the painted details as it is.

Question: Does tampo-printing use paint? What is it, exactly?

[Wicked Ace]

I've been eating the paint chips off my Yamato toys for years now, and I ahe ntn been affecteeac 1 beit.

[eugimon]

Don't forget the recall that just went out over the MAGNETS hurting kids. that's right, the magnets.

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Yeah, my apologies to all. I mixed up invations. Then again, the White House said so many times that 9/11 was the cause for the Iraqui invation too. Oh, well.

Edit: Last night I've heard in the news that the mexican government is making the vendors recall the alleged poisonous toys, including some Cars toys too, such as Sarge. Today I went to a store that has them and I couldn't find a Sarge anywhere.

Edited August 16, 2007 by Lonely Soldier Boy