Toys

A safety scare involving the holiday season's hottest toy cooled off Monday after federal safety regulators quickly put to rest claims that one model of the bestselling Zhu Zhu Pets contained toxic levels of the element antimony. "The Consumer Product Safety Commission confirmed today that the popular Zhu Zhu toy is not out of compliance with the antimony or other heavy-metal limits of the new U.S. mandatory toy standard," agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said. "We will still do our own independent testing at CPSC.

The concrete Indian on the forklift struck a precarious pose as he moved through a crowd of rummagers scouting the remains of Bud Hurlbut's workshop in Buena Park . From behind the wheel, Lonnie Lloyd waved everyone aside as he guided the 6-foot, 6-inch statue into a U-Haul van. Its new owners shimmied it against a wall. Toys, props, tools and memorabilia at Hurlbut Amusement Co. moved fast during the recent three-day sale, and Lloyd tried not to be sentimental.

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.

While revelers shuffle into every Mexican restaurant and bar in town to shoot Patron and shovel in enchiladas this Saturday, the following alternatives - all happening May 5 - promise to be just as festive and maybe even more feliz ! Beastie Boy Mike D's Transmission LA: AV exhibition and festival at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary has been getting tons of buzz both for its vibrant art and for its music offerings (opening night with Santigold, last week's DJ set by Thom Yorke)

"Battleship"is not the first major motion picture to be based on a board game - who could forget 1985's benighted "Clue"? - but it is surely the most expensive. With every superhero more celebrated than Amazing-Man or the Chameleon already spoken for (ditto for hot toys like Transformers), Hollywood has fallen back on popular games as likely fodder for action epics. If "Scrabble: The Movie" or "Qwirkle or Death" appears on a future marquee, don't say you weren't warned. As its north-of-$200-million budget indicates, "Battleship" has been expanded considerably from its origins as a pre-World War I pencil and paper game to include a major alien invasion that puts the very fate of the human race at stake.

Colorful latex balloons are a great joy for people of all ages, but for small children, they pose a great risk. Toddlers not only play with balloons, they like to bite them too. And when balloons pop, as they often do, some children put pieces of the latex in their mouths and choke. In fact, safety experts say, latex balloons kill more small children than any other toy. Dr.

A prolific inventor who has spent more than a decade proving toys aren't all fun and games has been awarded millions of dollars by a federal jury, which said toy giant Mattel Inc. infringed on his patent with its popular "Hot Wheels." "I am floating on cloud nine," 66-year-old Jerome Lemelson said Friday, a day after the judgment. "My hope is that as a result of it, toy inventors will get a fair shake from the industry." The jury awarded Lemelson $24.

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.

McDonald's Corp. can keep selling Happy Meals with toys to California children after a San Francisco judge threw out a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking to ban the practice in the state. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said it will discuss with its co-plaintiff - a California mother - whether to appeal. The group did not seek damages for its fellow plaintiff, though it alleged that she “suffered a monetary loss” because of McDonald's toy-marketing ways.

With summer ending, local television news stations recently rolled out their back-to-school features. In 10 big cities, that meant an appearance by a young mother and "toy expert" named Elizabeth Werner. Werner whipped through pitches for seven toys in just a few minutes. Perky and positive-plus, Werner seemed to wow morning news people in towns like Detroit, Atlanta and Phoenix. They oohed and aahed as they smelled Play-Doh, poked at mechanical bugs and strummed an electronic guitar she brought to the studio.

You can keep the kiddies occupied while they keep the kitties occupied with Playmobil's Take Along Pet Clinic . The company's popular play sets open on hinges, revealing a kind of stage set on the particular theme. In this case there's a fully furnished and decorated two-story doll-house-like pet clinic, complete with an exam room, toy surgical equipment and monitors, recovery cages and medicine holders. “Patients” include puppies, kittens and a bunny. The set includes a uniformed vet and lab technician and a mom and kid visiting with their injured kitty.

The Pirate Captain, the lead swashbuckler voiced by Hugh Grant in the new stop-motion animated film"The Pirates! Band of Misfits," possesses an overweening sense of optimism and some spectacular facial hair. It was the latter - a dense nest of curlicues that the character repeatedly refers to as his "luxuriant beard" - that kept the filmmakers up at night. Model makers labored for months to find a natural way to animate the rubber whiskers, eventually fashioning a mechanism out of the tuning head of a guitar to make the beard spring to life.

A long-running takeover bid for Malibu toy maker Jakks Pacific Inc. took a turn toward conciliation with the Los Angeles investment management firm that wants to buy it. After fending off an unsolicited takeover bid from Oaktree Capital Management, Jakks agreed to give the management firm detailed financial information about the company, setting the stage for another bid. But a sale of Jakks, one of the nation's largest makers of action figures,...

Big summer movies such as “Battleship,” “The Avengers,” “Amazing Spiderman” and “G.I. Joe” - and the packaged toys that will be sold with them - can't come soon enough forHasbro Inc., whose financial situation soured in the first quarter. Hasbro fell to a loss of $2.6 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with profit of $17.2 million, or 12 cents a share, during the first quarter of 2011. Excluding $11.1 million in severance costs following some  layoffs during the quarter, the toymaker's net earnings were $5.1 million, or 4 cents a share.

Toy giant Mattel Inc.reported a 53% decline in profit in the first quarter, sending its stock down more than 9%, after higher production costs, slower sales of Barbie and Hot Wheels and a recent acquisition affected its bottom line. For the three months ended March 31, sales totaled $928.4 million, down 2% compared with $951.9 million in the same quarter last year, the company said Monday. Profit dropped to $7.8 million, or 2 cents a share, from $16.6 million, or 5 cents. The results fell below analyst expectations of a profit of 7 cents a share.

They were sellers of pastel-toned huggable plush toys with names like "Baby Frenz Forever" and "Jungle Pals. " At the same time, authorities say, they were receiving bricks of U.S. dollars wrapped in cellophane that were drug proceeds to be laundered into clean pesos for drug lords in Mexico and Colombia. On Monday, authorities announced charges against the City of Industry-based Woody Toys Inc. and seven owners, employees and customers in what marks the second case in two years involving toy exporters allegedly acting as conduits for the drug trade.

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.

Lego toys have always seemed pleasantly gender-neutral. Perhaps that's why the new Lego Friends line for girls has triggered a fair bit of protest from some health and equal-rights organizations. The new line, whose characters sport slim figures and stylish clothes, will contribute to gender stereotyping that promotes body dissatisfaction in girls, said Carolyn Costin, an eating disorders specialist and founder of the Monte Nido Treatment Center in Malibu. Online  petitions  have been started to protest the line, which includes a Butterfly Beauty Shop and a Your Fashion Designer Workshop. The International Assn.

McDonald's Corp.can keep including toys in Happy Meals in most parts of California after a San Francisco judge threw out a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking to ban the practice in the state. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer did not give a reason in his decision for dismissing the suit, initially filed in 2010 by the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest and Monet Parham, listed in the suit as a California mother. Michael F. Jacobson, the group's executive director, said in a strongly worded statement Thursday that using toys to lure kids to unhealthy fast food was "a predatory practice" that involves "unscrupulous marketing techniques.

A dog that killed an infant after the child's mother left him alone with the large canine is at the center of a court battle as the animal's new owner fights city officials who say it should be seized and put to death. On Thursday, the first day of a Pittsburgh court hearing on the dog's fate, a former animal control officer and expert on dog behavior came to the defense of Helo, the husky who fatally mauled Howard Nicholson at the infant's home in McKeesport, Pa., in February.