Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it’s the Toy Geek!
Today we are very lucky to have a new guest writer on ToyTalk. Christina Maki runs the Toy Geek Blog, which brilliantly conveys her love of toys and is well worth a visit. In the first of what we hope will be a series of ‘letters from America’ (to pinch someone else’s line), Christina tells us why we should all be proud of our European toy companies…
My name’s Christina, but most people know me simply as the Toy Geek. I’m 23 years old, I’m a web content writer for an online toy store, and I love toys. More than a respectable 23-year-old woman should, actually, but that’s neither here nor there.
I’m also an American, but please try not to hold that against me.
I think Europe has a lot going for it. You’ve got us beat on several counts. Your cheese is far superior to the processed mess we try to pass off as cheese, your beer is phenomenal (Ireland, I’m looking at you!), and your toys, frankly, corner the market on all levels.
I grew up in eastern Kansas in a conservative and very patriotic blue-collar household, where our toys came from American companies with American names. (My parents just ignored that “Made in China” sticker that was all over the toys. Wilful ignorance: it’s a beautiful thing!) My childhood was filled with toys like Barbie and Fisher Price. And, for a while, I was perfectly okay with that. I didn’t really know any better.
Meanwhile, across the country, my very liberal Aunt Sherry was buying my cousin, Emily, toys by Playmobil and Cassidy Bros. Even as a child, I recognized the difference in quality and craftsmanship immediately when I travelled to Arizona to stay with them for the first time. Her Playmobil figures were more realistic and expressive than my Fisher Price Little People, which were essentially cylinders with a spherical plastic head back then. My Fisher Price kitchen wasn’t horrible, but her Cassidy Bros. set was more detailed, and branded with the same names that our parents had on their real appliances.
As a kid, I didn’t really understand where the difference came from. Now, as an adult, I realize that what separates these companies, aside from an ocean, is a huge difference in philosophy- not just on how we make our toys, but on education, politics, business ethics, and life in general.
The toy industry here in America has, in my opinion, three inherent flaws that cause them to produce sub-par products when compared to the rest of the toys available on the world market.
First of all, we’re cheap. Why produce something ourselves on American soil when we can outsource to another country and have things made cheaply by underpaid and overworked labourers using inferior materials? Make things as inexpensively as possible to turn the largest profit you can, right? And then we wonder why our companies’ toys break the day you bring them home. Oh, and by the way, those “American” toys are coated in lead paint. Enjoy! We also conveniently ignore the fact that all those jobs are being taken away from Americans, contributing to the unemployment crisis and making it so that nobody has the money to buy toys for their kids.
Secondly, our toys limit children’s imaginations. Have you got a daughter? Give her a fashion doll and a pretend purse. Make sure it’s got a tube of fake lipstick so we can get her interested in cosmetics as early as possible. Playmobil women are doctors, pilots, and engineers – productive citizens and pillars of their tiny plastic communities. Barbie, on the other hand, is currently filling the much-needed role of Princess-With-Butterfly-Wings.
If you have a son, he’ll need a G.I Joe action figure, dressed in the fatigues being used in our current military conflict. Be sure he’s got some play guns, as well, so he can learn to solve problems with violence. Do Playmobil toys engage in warfare? Certainly, but theirs are old wars, like battles between knights, or the American Civil War. Modern war, says Playmobil chief executive Andrea Schauer, is “really horror.”
Lastly, we act like we don’t care about our children’s safety or the planet we’ll be leaving behind for them. The U.S. Federal Government has consistently rejected the requests from concerned parents to institute standards for toys to ensure that our kids aren’t playing with things that contain harmful agents like lead, bisphenol-A, and phthalates. Recalls from American companies have been scaring the daylights out of us over here, but I can’t remember seeing a single one from a European company. Cassidy Brothers toys, according to their corporate site, meet current EN-71 European and BS 5665 UK toy safety regulations, as well as being accredited by the British Toy and Hobby Association. They also carry Der Grüne Punkt on their packaging, a sign that they are environmentally conscious, as well. Can Mattel say the same? Methinks not.
And so, my dear friends across the lake, I salute you and your superior toy industry. I salute you for encouraging children to use their imaginations, break out of the molds our jaded society may try to stuff them into, and push their limits to achieve greatness. I salute you for demanding toys of high quality that your children can enjoy for years. Most of all, I salute you for adopting standards to keep your children safe and healthy, and to keep our planet beautiful for them and the generations that follow. Hopefully, by the time my children have children, the U.S. will have taken a leaf out of your book and brought their standards on toy manufacturing up to the level that you have achieved.
Be proud of your cheese, Europe. Be proud of your beer. And be very, very proud of your toys.
Read Christina’s posts every day at www.toygeekblog.com.
