No injuries have been reported, and yet the toy was pulled after only three accounts of the magnets becoming loose, which shows excellent response time by the manufacturer, so I want to give them credit.
But the toy--well, the toy creeped me out before the recall ever happened. It's called Barbie and Tanner, and here's a picture of it:
On the surface, it looks like a cute child's toy. Here's Barbie, with her cute dog, Tanner (not a tanning bed like I worried it might be, from the name). See how happy Tanner is? And Barbie can even feed Tanner pet treats! And when Tanner poos, conscientious Barbie cleans the mess up with her pooper scooper, thus exercising responsible pet ownership and concern for the environment.
So, what's creepy about the Barbie and Tanner toy? I'll tell you. The treat dispenser has little brown pet treats. And Tanner the dog "eats" them. And then the treats become...um, well, they still look the same, only now they are poo instead of dog treats. And Tanner...poos. And Barbie scoops up the brown poo and deposits it in the trash receptacle, which is also the pet treat dispenser!
EWWWWW!
There goes the magic.
Hello, disillusionment! I'm a young child who just learned that dogs eat poo!
5 comments:
When this doll first came out, I worote a post about it - http://ktjrdn.tripod.com/whats_new/index.blog/1655931/im-speechless/. It disturbed me way back then. I'm kinda glad it got recalled. I hope they quit making it. It's just wrong on so many levels.
Hi! I must have met you at BlogHer because I have your card here on my desk.
Well, dogs do eat poo, but you're right in that it's not one of the top things that we want our kids to learn in the world. I vividly recall when on a trip to Tibet finding out that the monastery dogs hung around the latrine because it was their ONLY SOURCE OF FOOD.
About the manufacturer's speedy response -- there may not have been any injuries from Polly Pocket and the other Mattel toys recalled, but there was a death and at least one near death from other toys with strong magnets, as reported in a recent series in the Chicago Tribune.
Hi there! Great post. I've recently written about Magnetix and how scary they are as toys for young kids. It really gets me how toy manufacturers have pounced on these rare earth magnets and incorporated them into toys. It doesn't take a heck of a lot of common sense to know that they're dangerous on several different levels. Makes me wish we could go back to the good old days of wooden blocks.....
Oh, I just giggled myself silly. At least it teaches kids recycling.
Oh, I just think its scary that they even thought to make little dog poo for Barbie to pick up - who really needs that!
I'm sure lots of moms threw that literal crap in the trash the day they bought it - I'll bet that 99% of Barbie and Tanner owners lost the little stick and poo within 24 hours, if they're like my kids.
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