After my 'shoddy toys' complaint, an expensive toy from a compay that prides itself on safety has left DS injured and hysterically upset

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

I bought these for DS for Christmas and they fast became his favourite toy.

They are for recommended age 3+, DS is 5 and ASD .They came with no safety instructions or similar so I allowed him to play with them unsupervised, especially as he loved looking at his nightlight 'through them' if he woke up in the night.

This morning DD came dashing into my room saying 'Ds is hurt mummy'. I ran in and found him in bed, it was soaked with different colours of water, and covered in shards of what is supposedly acrylic, but feels and had shattered like glass. It was all over his pillow and duvet and his face is badly scratched, I assume from where he was sleeping on the shards.

I have no idea how but every last one of the blocks was smashed, he must have been banging them together as all his other toys are out of reach at night. It must have happened in the middle of the night as it has soaked right through to the other side of his mattress.

He's also stained in lovely hues of yellow red and blue which have only slightly faded after a bath. He has also refused to go into school as he is devastated .

I am furious about this.

Is it my fault, do I have grounds to complain? How do I complain if so?

I see from a US website that the Toy Plan water blocks have been discontinued - wonder why?

www.uncommongoods.com/item/item.jsp?itemId=16606

We have these which look a bit similar - they are smaller and they have no water, it's coloured perspex on one side.

Good luck with your email, it sounded spot on for tone. Def follow up with trading standards if you get nowhere with plan toys.

www.specialdirect.com/Product.aspx?cref=TTSPR1365536&rid=174&cid=19

Not OTT at all. Only thing I would change is to send it with photos of the broken pieces and your sons bed/face instead of offering them.

www.specialdirect.com/Product.aspx?cref=TTSPR1103414&rid=174&cid=19

Wow, sorry to hear about your DS.

I hope you get somewhere.

My DS has some very similar - they have small beads rather than liquid in them.

He is 18MO and likes to bang them like drums.

I shant be letting him play with them anymore!!!

oooh thanks, those light balls are amazing, he'll love them.

Thanks again everyone. This isn't one I'll let lie.

Might it be a good idea to post a review of the toy on Amazon? I was looking at some other blocks by this company and would love to have a review from a fellow parent to say that they might not be too safe.

I'm banned from Amazon reviews- haha. But yes I think it's a good idea.

Can I just set up a new account and review without having bought it?

why did you get banned

I ended up in a bit of a row about a book, it got a bit nasty (from the other person) and so our reviewing rights were withdrawn.

oh!

btw if you put in the product no on this page, they send the report straight away

I didn't even know you could get banned!

Personally, I would try to get a review on there if you can. Nothing explosive, just simple saying that whilst they were a much enjoyed toy they broke very easily and due to the nature of the toy that meant liquid and sharp acrylic on child and whilst it doesn't say on the packaging you would strongly recommend parent supervision.

If I read that, I would read between the lines and know not to buy it!

DWP what about small pop bottles (panda pops) filled with coloured water and the lids screwed on tightly and taped?

nickschick - thanks for the idea but would never work

DS will break into anything, within 10 mins he'd have it open and be dribbling it down the walls to see the drops. He once 'bled' the radiators in his room for me. Hence I had to get it removed and put underfloor heating in.

What about those clear perspex boxes from muji? If you filled them with coloured water and superglued the lids on, surely it would be pretty hard to break them (unless he stamped on them of course)

I'm not sure if trading standards would be able to do anything for sellers outside the UK
I can't help thinking that it would be very difficult for those rounded wood corners to shatter a bit of acrylic like that .Acrylic is flexible and 'shatterproof'. tai

Are you sure they were genuine?

ie, on places such as Amazon or Ebay, you often find branded toys being sold that are in actual fact fakes/copies. Just the same as copy designer clothes. It's a huge problem. The toys look the same but are made with lesser quality materials that result in dangerous defects.

It just sounds really odd that the blocks broke and shattered in that way, Acrylic doesn't tend to behave that way (ie brittle) unless subjected to certain conditions such as extreme cold. Am assuming your sons bedroom is not in the arctic tundra.....

I assume so they came in a plan toys box, have plan toys engraved in the wood.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Pantomimecow - Well, maybe, but all the more reason to speak to trading standards to find out what they can and can't do in this situation. I'm sure I've seen this company's toys in UK toyshops, so I'd be surprised if trading standards couldn't act, even if TDWP did buy hers online.

Packaging is normally faked too, Fisher Price was targetted this Christmas. Packaged in what looked like the right packaging but definitely not genuine. A lot of my clients are toy manufacturers so have had many many lectures on this type of thing.
Unfortunately, if they are not genuine there won't be much you can do other than get the Amazon shop shut down.

Agree with the other poster who said to send photos now not to just offer.

Hope your son is feeling better soon.

You find lots of Plan toys in independent type toyshops in the UK, they are supposed to be quite upmarket so I would definatley contact trading standards.

I have seen fake toys before, but very much doubt fakes would have the plan toys logo carved into the (obviously solid) wood!?

I'll take some photos now and post them so you can tell me what you think.

Its not about whether or not they have a loge on etc, its about the standard of materials used.

So, the acrylic has to be a certain standard for safety accreditation. If a substandard material is used then it can cause an accident such as the one your ds had.

The wood is not really an indicator unless you look at type of wood used.

For now, I would do what you have done and email the seller with photos. Make sure you give them a set time limit to respond by.

Also, try and do some digging around why the toys were discontinued, that may show there have been similar incidents.

I'm going to sign off now, work beckons but I'll have a look at your photos later if you wish. It would be really difficult to tell if they are genuine from photos though. You generally need to touch/manipulate the items to get a good idea.