The black part of the wheel on this tricycle by Parents tested at more than 1500 ppm lead.

Because of the high lead content, this tricycle, found at Target, is added to our list of Unofficial Recalls.

The mouth on this Go Diego Go Card Game backpack was several thousand parts per million lead.

This is another product added to our Unofficial Recalls due to high lead content.

While at Target tonight, I noticed a recall notice posted about Curious George plush dolls.

I picked one of the Curious George plush toys up and tested it in the store.  The yellow jacket instantly lit up with more than 10,000 parts per million lead.

This particular model was not included in the recall so I will add it to my Unofficial Recalls.  A yellow jacket with more than 10,000 ppm is ridiculous.

Responding to recent inquiries for testing toys at home for lead, we have decided to offer in home lead paint testing for a fee.  We will always offer free testing for products brought into our store.  For travel expense and 15 minutes of testing, we will travel up to 10 miles from LaFayette for $25, up to 25 miles for $50, 50 miles for $100.  Testing fees beyond the first 15 minutes are $75 per hour.  For any location farther than 50 miles away, special arrangements may need to be made.  For any questions, call 315-677-9070 or 1-877-522-TOYS.

We are always happy to test your toys or other household goods for unsafe levels of lead for free in our store.  We recommend that you call ahead of time to make sure that we can accomodate you before you come in.

After finding toys with lead at a local church, we decided that we would travel to preschools, daycares and churches to test toys for lead.  We would even go to waiting rooms at doctor and dentist offices to test toys in waiting rooms.  Parents are able to keep safe toys at home, but they don’t have much control once outside the home.  In an effort to rid the area of lead tainted toys, we will test as many toys as possible in the community.  We will bring our portable X-Ray Fluorescence equipment to these organizations and businesses.  Parents, patients, and customers will have peace of mind, knowing that their children are only exposed to lead safe toys while at daycare, preschool, or in waiting rooms.

This lead testing service is offered for free within the Syracuse area for up to 30 minutes of testing.  For large quantities of toys requiring more than 30 minutes to test or for distances greater than 25 miles from LaFayette, we will have to charge for travel and testing time.  To schedule this service or for additional information, send us an email or call us at 315-677-9070 or 1-877-522-TOYS.

We purchased this Go Diego Go Backpack from Target in November.  When we tested it in the store, we found that virtually every component tested positive for lead.  Even the yellow canvas tested very high for lead content.  For this reason we are adding this to our Unofficial Recalls.

The vinyl material throughout has between 4,000 and 5,000 parts per million lead in it.  Different parts of the canvas material test between 1% and 2% lead (10,000 - 20,000 ppm).  This is far beyond the 600 ppm (.06%) allowable lead content.  Even the black plastic contains more than 1000 ppm lead.  We are requesting that the manufacturer, Global Design Concepts and Target stop selling this product immediately until it can be manufactured without lead.  Since the lead content is part of the material and not part of surface paint it may not technically fail federal safety standards but that certainly doesn’t mean that it should be allowed to remain on the shelves.

Test results are from a portable X-Ray Fluorescence device.

This piggy bank was brought into the store after Christmas to be lead tested as part of our free lead paint testing.  This pig not only tested positive for lead, it was extremely leaded.

It measured more than 1% lead when we tested the pig.  Then today I retested the pig and found that the yellow paint tested in excess of 22,000 ppm lead (2.2%).  Even the black stopper on the bottom was more than 1000 ppm lead.  I couldn’t find a single square inch that passed our lead test.  There is no labeling or other information to help find out where it came from so if you have a pig that looks like this one, don’t chew on it and wash your hands after touching it.  The only safe place for this toy is on top of my wall of shame in the land of misfit toys.  If you want a great piggy bank, try the decorate your own piggy bank that we sell in our store.

Are you wondering if Santa and his elves used unleaded paint on your toys this year?  Bring them into the store to be tested December 26 - 29 from 10 am - 6 pm to find out.  Free lead testing is always available at No Strings Attached Toys.  For directions to our store in LaFayette, NY click here.

Better yet, stop by before Christmas to pick up your last minute lead safe toys and stocking stuffers.  We will be open Monday - Saturday 10 am - 6 pm and Christmas Eve 10 am - 3 pm. 

Through the course of our free lead testing, we love to see all the toys that have no measurable amounts of lead. But then there are the toys that just surprise us that have ridiculous amounts of lead in them but haven’t been recalled yet.  So this will be the first of our unofficial recalls where we will post toys that fail our tests.

Just today we tested a Radio Flyer Fold 2 Go Tricycle. 

The black wheels tested at several thousand parts per million, far above the safety standard of 600 enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  We were shocked by the results.  While I don’t expect the wheels get chewed on much, it seems really bad for that much lead to be present in the wheels.

We also tested the numbers on a book about calling 9-1-1 in an emergency.

The numbers tested at 1500 ppm, also beyond the federal standards.

We will alert the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the manufacturers, and the retailers that sell these products.  We will also regularly add products that fail lead tests.  More importantly, we will begin a database of toys that successfully pass lead tests.  We hope this database will eventually list every safe toy that exists.  Until then, we will just continue to test every toy brought into our store.

A familiar, dreaded event on Christmas morning for parents is extracting toys from their packaging after they have been unwrapped. The name No Strings Attached Toys comes from the splendid idea of toys without twist ties and that horrible impenetrable plastic packaging. After gifts were opened in our household on Christmas 2006, our daughter took matters into her own hands and tried to rescue her toys as illustrated in our home movie.

We still have toys at home with embedded twist ties and zip ties or permanent scars from where those ties were originally attached. What a ridiculous feature. It’s an outrage that’s almost as offensive as using lead paint (which we also vigorously oppose). Why is this becoming the packaging standard? We will only sell toys not restrained unnecessarily or sewn, welded, superglued or otherwise fastened in a way that cannot be quickly opened without tools.

Our toys are so easy, a toddler could open it. No chainsaw required. Shouldn’t all toys be made this way?