Fisher Price Toys

Toy maker Fisher-Price Inc. is recalling 83 types of toys -- including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters -- because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead. The worldwide recall involves 967,000 plastic preschool toys made by a Chinese vendor and sold in the United States since May. It is the latest in a wave of recalls that has heightened global concern about the safety of Chinese-made products. The recall is the first for Fisher-Price and parent company Mattel Inc.

Diane Brahams was flummoxed as she stood near the toy-car aisle at a Culver City Toys R Us on Thursday. What would be a safe present for her grandnephew who is almost 3 and loves cars? Not long ago, Brahams wouldn't have thought the paint on a modern, name-brand toy would be a threat. But with this week's recall of nearly 1 million playthings from Mattel Inc.'

Mattel Inc. identified the Chinese vendor that made nearly 1 million Fisher-Price toys that were recalled last week because they might contain lead. El Segundo-based Mattel said Lee Der Industrial Co. in Guangdong province made the 967,000 toys sold in the U.S. between May and this month. Mattel last week recalled the plastic preschool toys, including popular Big Bird, Elmo and Dora characters, because they were made with paint found to have excessive amounts of lead.

Many children's products still on store shelves test positive for lead, and one brand-name toy made in China yielded such high levels that Consumer Reports has called for a federal investigation, the magazine said Monday. In its December issue, Consumer Reports advises parents not to let children use the blood pressure cuff that is part of some Fisher-Price Medical Kit toys.

Mattel Inc. didn't violate a LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. patent, a federal district court in Delaware ruled Thursday. LeapFrog had sued Mattel unit Fisher-Price in October 2003, alleging that its PowerTouch toy infringed a patent related to LeapPad electronic books. U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet said Fisher-Price hadn't violated the patent. The ruling comes after sales slumped 48% in LeapFrog's education and training unit and 29% in the international division in the fourth quarter of 2005.

El Segundo-based Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price unit won $1.32 million in damages from the Safety 1st unit of Canadian Dorel Industries Inc., bringing to $2.32 million its court awards for infringement of patents on baby bassinets and bouncers. A jury in federal court in Wilmington, Del., added the damages to a $1-million award levied by another panel in 2003. The jury said Safety 1st's infringement was intentional, giving U.S.

Amber LaPointe's introduction to one of the country's greatest tourist attractions came from small square pictures on a white wheel. "It was like you could look into a world away," said the 28-year-old from Toledo, Ohio. "My only image of the Grand Canyon was from the View-Master." The iconic reels of tourist attractions, often packaged with a clunky plastic viewer and first sold to promote 3-D photography, are ending their 70-year run after years of diminishing sales.

A federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in LeapFrog Enterprises Inc.'s lawsuit seeking $58 million from Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price unit over a patent for interactive books that help children learn to read. U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet in Wilmington, Del., issued the ruling after jurors reported that they were deadlocked. Lawyers for both companies told Sleet that they agreed he should decide the case on his own. The judge did not say when he would rule.

Has Tickle Me Elmo been replaced by Bait-and-Switch Elmo? Where most toys for preschoolers are designed to make a racket, Elmo's World Talking Cell Phone doesn't make enough noise, a Pasadena mom contends in a lawsuit. She's accusing Mattel Inc. and subsidiary Fisher-Price, which sells toys based on Sesame Street characters, of rigging the phone so it is audible only when shoppers try it in the store.

Mattel Inc. said goodbye Monday to Barbie's boss and combined its two largest divisions after nearly two years of declining sales of the iconic doll line. The El Segundo toy maker joined its Mattel and Fisher-Price units and named Neil B. Friedman, 58, to head the combined operations, a promotion from his position as head of the improving Fisher-Price division.