After several Chinese toy recalls, will American makers come back?
Sussex manufacturer hopes consumers will make new choice

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By LAWRENCE SILVER - GM Today Staff
October 20, 2007

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SUSSEX - Greg Stromberg believes in American toy makers.

For more than 30 years, he has locally manufactured the Toobee, a hollow half-soda can that’s thrown like a football and flies like a Frisbee.

Stromberg said he’s resisted the urge to have his product made in China, even though he estimates doing so would reduce the cost of each toy, which sells for $14.95, by up to 50 percent.

Stromberg said the recent spat of recalls of Chinese-made toys has been a long time coming and he hopes American consumers will spend their dollar on American-made toys.

"I definitely think consumers are going to change their buying pattern," Stromberg said. "It’s all based on trust and value and when the trust breaks down, so does the business."

A wave of Chinese toy recalls this summer related to lead paint, including 1.5 million various Thomas & Friends wooden railway cars distributed by Oak Brook Ill.-based RC2 Corp., has some in the toy industry predicting a boon this holiday season for American toy makers.


Rhonda Nelson, owner of Think, Play, Learn in the town of Oconomowoc, said a shortage is starting as many toy stores are stocking up on American-made and speciality toys for the holiday season.

"The problem is people are looking more for specialty toys and we are going to run out," Nelson said. "People are flocking more to these toys because they don’t have to worry about them."

But Frank Clark, a spokesman for Toy Industry Association Inc., a trade group that represents toy makers, said the actual effect the Chinese-made toy recalls will have on the consumer is still unknown.

The Associated Press reports 80 percent of all toys sold in the United States are made in China. Clark said consumers will have few choices if they choose to only buy American.

"It’s likely that people are going to look for the quality brand names they trust," Clark said. "Countries don’t make products, companies do."


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