Toys

President Bush has signed consumer safety legislation that bans lead from children's toys, imposing the toughest standard in the world. The new law prohibits lead, beyond minute levels, in products for children 12 or younger. Lead paint was a major factor in the recall of 45 million toys and children's items last year, many from China. The bill also bans a chemical called phthalates that is widely used to make plastic products more flexible.

Re "5-year-old shoots sister," May 2 Firearms responsibility it one of the top issues of our time. The Times' article on the 5-year-old Kentucky boy "accidentally" killing his 2-year-old sister with a rifle he received as a birthday gift included the recap of a 6-year-old New Jersey boy killed by a 4-year-old playmate. The article was relegated to Page A-13. These "accidents" are inexcusable, and it is your responsibility to be bold and advertise them as such on the front page.

If American worker productivity drops in the third quarter of 2012, I'm fairly certain the cause will be traced back to this: iPet Companion, a "virtual play room" that allows anyone, anywhere, to play with criminally cute, reprehensibly distracting orphan cats waiting to be adopted in city shelters. The Los Angeles Best Friends Pet Adoption & Spay Neuter Center, a Mission Hills facility owned by the city of Los Angeles and operated by the nonprofit animal welfare organization Best Friends, launched its iPet Companion virtual play room Wednesday.

Barbie is vacating her pink Malibu mansion and hunting for international digs. Thomas the Tank Engine is being revamped as an even livelier locomotive. Max Steel, the new kid on the block, is marketed as a "modern day tech superhero. " The toy brands, all properties of Mattel Inc., represent an evolution at the El Segundo company. At age 68, the company is incorporating more digital elements into its toys, embracing more Hollywood partnerships, pushing into foreign markets - whatever it takes to keep its status as the world's largest toy maker.

Kids with autism spectrum disorder could have a new ally in the classroom: animals. Autistic children who played with guinea pigs rather than toys were more talkative, made more eye contact and displayed a more positive attitude, according to a study in the journal PLoS ONE. The experiment, which tested 99 children in 15 classrooms with guinea pigs, found that animals could help students with autism improve relationships with their peers and teachers,...

Last year there were more online toy stores than you could shake a mouse at, meaning tough competition and decent deals. This year, expect less of both as the "dot-com" shakeout has claimed many victims. But a savvy shopper still will be able to find a free shipping promise or a discount coupon. Among the best sites is Rightstart.com (http://www.rightstart.

Navigating the American International Toy Fair is like plummeting headfirst at warp speed into a kaleidoscopic netherworld designed by a hyperactive 6-year-old Jackson Pollock. There's hardly a muted color in sight. Giant, voiceless plush mascots roam the halls, veering toward photo-seeking fans. The sounds of squealing robots, jingly children's music, whirring motors and beeping buttons waft through the aisles. Stacks upon shelves upon piles upon hangers of toys - spinning tops, dolls with artificial intelligence, computer puzzles turned board games, spa kits for 6-year-olds - crowd the hundreds of booths.

David Snow didn't even want lawn darts when he went shopping last April. He wanted a volleyball set, but all the department store had was volleyball in a combo pack with two other games. Fine. He took it. The darts would stay in the box.

I am so grateful to every single person involved with donating toys to the children of Boyle Heights ("Response to Theft Turns Giveaway Into 'Miracle on 1st St.' " Dec. 22) and can't thank them enough for their kindness and generosity to these people. When I came to this country many years ago from Chihuahua, Mexico, I was the youngest of five children with a single parent and we were very poor. We lived in a garage with no electricity, heat or indoor plumbing and when Christmas arrived my mother barely had enough money for us to live on, not to mention anything left over for Christmas items.

Mattel Inc. says it has reached an agreement to settle "virtually all" U.S. claims related to its 2007 toy recalls. The world's largest toy maker recalled millions of toys that year because they contained excessive levels of lead or had design problems, such as hazardous magnets. Mattel said the class-action settlement was subject to court approval. "Safety of our products remains Mattel's top priority," the El Segundo-based company said in a statement Tuesday. According to a statement by plaintiff law firm Whatley Drake & Kallas, the settlement "provides tens of millions of dollars in monetary relief as well as significant injunctive relief."

At Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills, every student has an iPad. That's 1,200 iPads, and if L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy can figure out how to pay for 660,000 more of them, every student in the district will have a tablet in the next few years. A good idea? "It's magical," declared a student at Valley Academy who loves his iPad. Maybe. But I've got lots of questions. Like many parents, my wife and I have tried to make sure our daughter reads real books and doesn't get addicted to everything digital.

WASHINGTON -- Investigators believe that the two homemade bombs used in the Boston Marathon blasts were triggered by long-range remote controls for toy cars. A joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin sent to state and local law enforcement Tuesday night said the bombs likely included components taken from remote-controlled toy cars, and were more sophisticated than previously believed. After combing the blast sites on Boylston Street for evidence, investigators have finished a preliminary reconstruction of the bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 runners and bystanders near the finish line of the Patriots Day race on April 15. FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon attack “Based on preliminary analysis of recovered evidence, each device likely incorporated an electrical fusing system using components from remote control toy cars such as a transmitter and receiver pair operating at 2.4 GHz, an electronic speed control used as the switch mechanism and sub-C rechargeable battery packs at the power source,” read the bulletin, according to an official.

Toy maker Hasbro Inc. reported modest revenue growth in the first quarter, backed by solid sales of Furby, My Little Pony and Transformers games. The Pawtucket, R.I., company also said Monday that an online contest to create a new token for its iconic Monopoly game was "tremendously successful. " Fans voted to eliminate one of the eight game tokens that players use and create a new one. A cat token beat out a toy robot and a guitar to replace the iron, which had been a staple of the board game since the 1930s.

Harkham will appear at the Festival of Books Saturday at 2 p.m. on the panel "Drawing the Story" with Leela Corman and Derek Kirk Kim. More information:  latimes.com/festivalofbooks Sammy Harkham is like a lot of comics fans: He's cared deeply about the genre since adolescence and feels both joy and pain as it continues to soar and occasionally stumble from the cultural backwater. He also wants it to be art, to aim high (and low) without ever losing its raw, unpredictable energy.

A jury has awarded $1.1 million to a Palmdale teenager who, while holding a toy gun, was shot in the back by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Deputy Scott Sorrow used excessive force when he shot William Fetters on May 10, 2009, a jury found Wednesday. Fetters was 15 at the time of the shooting. "He's had a lot of emotional distress being the victim of a wrongful shooting," said Fetters' attorney, Bradley Gage. "He's hopeful that the verdict will send a message to the Sheriff's Department that it needs to protect the community better.

Pink stopped her concert mid-song Sunday in her hometown, Philadelphia, to check in on a little girl who was crying in the audience. Rock star as mama bear - who knew? It was midway through an acoustic version of just that tune, "Who Knew," when Pink's attention went to the girl in the crowd. PHOTOS: Pink on stage "OK, hold on," she said to her guitarist, "one second. Is everything OK right here? Is this little girl all right? ... Why is she crying? Why is she upset?"

After a bad holiday season, shares of Jakks Pacific Inc. rose on rumors that the toy maker will receive another takeover bid from Oaktree Capital Management after rejecting an earlier offer from the Los Angeles investment company. Oaktree had previously offered to take the Malibu toy company private last October in a $670-million hostile bid that offered shareholders $20 a share in cash. At the time, analysts speculated that the offer was too low. But after a poor fourth quarter, Jakks recently slashed its full-year outlook to earnings of 37 to 40 cents a share on annual sales of about $660 million.

Toys R Us Inc. will open FAO Schwarz boutiques in 585 of the retailing giant's stores in time for the holidays. The company, which bought FAO Schwarz in May, also is relaunching the high-end brand's website. FAO Schwarz has two stand-alone stores, one each in New York and Las Vegas. The boutiques, which are to open starting Sunday, will offer toys ranging in price from $2.99 to $64.99, including FAO Schwarz's annual holiday ornament and collectible stuffed teddy bear. Privately held Toys R Us also is publishing FAO Schwarz's holiday catalog, featuring such exclusive toys as a Steiff Karl Lagerfeld Teddy Bear, which wears designer clothing, for $1,499.

On a cruise Don't eat lunch the day you board a cruise. A lengthy lunch usually is available as a buffet on the first day. Also, check out your dinner seating arrangements early on the first day as you tour the ship. If you are not happy with the assigned table location or time, change it immediately for the best chance of getting what you want. Donna Mollan Anderson Island, Wash. When packing for the return flight, keep in mind any objects that might attract the attention of security screeners.

Kids with autism spectrum disorder could have a new ally in the classroom: animals. Autistic children who played with guinea pigs rather than toys were more talkative, made more eye contact and displayed a more positive attitude, according to a study in the journal PLoS ONE. The experiment, which tested 99 children in 15 classrooms with guinea pigs, found that animals could help students with autism improve relationships with their peers and teachers,...