The Warlord CCG got canned today. I just shipped out the last of it to an eBay customer this week, so I feel like I dodged a small bullet. I still lost money on the final sale, of course. Selling cards on eBay is a last resort. We had a group that used to play in our store after their store closed. I paid an employee to stay late for them so they could play once a week. Then when their original store re-opened, they abruptly left without giving any notice. Let me just be the first to say, "Ha Ha!"I got hit with my second recall notice ever this week. The first one was a Thomas recall in October. This time it's Cranium Cadoo with lead painted dice. Lead painted dice; talk about cheaping out. Exposure should be limited as nobody ever plays this game. Boardgamegeek has a discussion thread for really bad games called "If You Can't Say Something Nice...." For Cadoo we've got:
The playdough is almost entirely non-toxic.
The 'spell backwards' task makes everyone realize that they should've studied more in school to be able to spell words frontways.
I get a little bitter over this one because I had to buy a case to try it out.... and I still have a case. Cranium used to be a huge seller in game stores until they started dumping their product in the mass market, including selling them at near cost at Starbucks (the CEO's of both companies are climbing buddies). Hasbro is attempting to buy them for $77 million which will mostly go to paying off their enormous debts and acquiring their only good game, the base Cranium. This will likely mean I will be able to buy Cranium through distributors in less than case quantities but twice the price. That's how it works with Hasborg, I mean Hasbro.
Oh, did anyone read the Jammin Jenna story? Ty Inc., the maker of Beanie Babies, decided to fight the recall of their lead laced Jammin Jenna doll (I still think Jenna Jameson). They think their lead levels are just fine, since they're less than federal standards but exceed Illinois lead standards. Man, talk about putting a gun to your own head. Lets have a states rights discussion while the kids poison themselves. I'll be watching to see the backlash build for this one.
About 16 years ago, there was a major reformulation of metal alloys used in miniatures because New York state decided to regulate miniature figures as children's toys. I guess that it was shocking to find that "lead figures" contained lead.
ReplyDeleteThis resulted in the New York state standards becoming the de-facto standards for the entire U.S. - without any of the rest of us getting to vote.
You know what's wierd?
ReplyDeleteThere's a ton of lead in fishing gear. And my guess is many more millions of Dad's take their kids fishing than paint minis with them. But no one complains, or ever mentions it.
Strange I say.
Not really that strange. Fishing is far more mainstream and politicians understand what it is and who does it. All they knew about miniatures were that they were these weird little metal toys, and toys have to be safe for kids!
ReplyDeleteIt's similar to the way that video games have been handled by politicians up to now. They're games, so they must be safe for kids!
There seems to be zero comprehension that these things could ever be aimed at and used by adults. Video games are now mainstream enough that eventually this will fix itself as the younger generation moves into positions of power, but miniatures are unlikely to ever be that mainstream.