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Original poster

Toys and magnets - what do you think? Are you put off?

27 replies

chloesmumtoo · 09/01/2008 10:18

I am! All this stick and they are still putting the dreaded things in toys. I swapped all our mattel polly pockets and what did we swap them for but the Island princess elephant and lil dolls set. To dicover at christmas the little dolls have uncovered magnets in there blasted feet! Didnt realize as they had shoes on but plain as day they are there when the shoes are taken off! Had anyone else noticed this or are bothered by it. I am so surprised with the amount of magnets in things and felt I was getting rid. Now I have more! I am temped to stick the dam shoes on so I atleast know they wont drop out

OP posts:
Hulababy · 09/01/2008 10:31

Depend on age of child I think. DD is 5y and she still has magnetix. I keep them out of reach of smaller children, and have spoken with DD about the dangers of putting them in her mouth. We also put them away after use into proper box, so we can see if any are missig.

DD did have some of the affected PP toys, but we sent them back in the last recall.

Get some superglue out

Original poster
chloesmumtoo · 09/01/2008 12:08

Yeah lol. Just seems so stupid that they altered pp by covering with plastic recently and yet have made these new designs of island princess with uncovered magnets,that is once the shoes are taken off. Seen some scary programs about it all and the dangers. Surprising how old some kids were that swallowed them though. On the other extreme, they showed x rays of some children that had swallowed numerous rods of magnetix!!!! Very strange thought!!!!!!!!

OP posts:
nannyL · 09/01/2008 19:18

i am completetly against magnets....

its all very well saying my child is 5 / 7 / 10....

hoever ultimately if they make a mistake and do swallow one (not unherd of, i accidently swallowed a coin (5p) when i was 12 and never told my mum, but anyway) this mistake could kill them, and i dont think its a risk worth taking.

you wouldnt give a 5 year old matched to play with or fireworks etc just cause you 'trust them to be sensible' and i wouldnt let them play with magnets for the same reason

I just dont think it is a risk worth taking tbh, because the rsik of death, however unlikely, is far too higher price to pay IMO

Hulababy · 09/01/2008 19:24

nannyL - when I escribe DDs use of them, when I saw we - I mean me and her. Magnetix is currently supervised play.

nannyL · 09/01/2008 19:33

Hulababy.... what you do is up to you

sounds like you are very very careful with them, which is obviously good.

Howver i cant get my head round the idea of letting children, even teenagers play with thinsg that could kill them

I remember swallowing that coin when i was old enough to know better and i didnt mean to! I mean lieing in bed just playing with it,(i think iwas throuwing it while lieing in bed and it landed in my mouth and was gone lol) and the next minute i had completely accidently swallowed it

wheresthehamster · 09/01/2008 19:56

Have I missed something because I thought you had to swallow two magnets for it to be dangerous.

Older children wouldn't do that by accident - would they?

nannyL · 09/01/2008 22:08

yes yo do need to swallow 2 magnets....

but it could happen

moljam · 09/01/2008 22:12

so your worried about safety of polly pocket because of magnets so you gave them to someone elses child??
we had couple of bits this xmas that just 'got lost' under settee and went in bin.

Hulababy · 10/01/2008 08:57

"so your worried about safety of polly pocket because of magnets so you gave them to someone elses child??"

Where does it say that?

Original poster
chloesmumtoo · 10/01/2008 09:36

That just confused me too reading that. No I would not give them to anyone, thats why I made sure all the recall stuff went back. I dont like the use of magnets at all now and thats why I am kicking myself for asking for that dam elephant set. Also made a mistake on pp and brought a magnet one by mistake before xmas. Opened it and then realized, I know they are corrected now by being covered by plastic but I still was frustrated to have had another magnet toy. Watching the program I saw, swallowing the actual object with the magnet in is just as bad. Why do we need them if poor kids can get seriously hurt by them. Where are the safty standards these days.

OP posts:
dividedselfridgesxmaswindow · 10/01/2008 09:40

What happens if you swallow two manets please? I have clearly missed something here.

Hulababy · 10/01/2008 11:10

dividedselfridgesxmaswindow - was on a TV programme just before Christmas - How safe are your children's presents? or something similat. There was a thread about it at the time - probably in TV section.

Think the problem is if 2 bits are swalled and the two magnets then try to stick together inside. As so powerful can lead to holes on internal organs or something similar.

The PP toys with exposed magnets were recalled last summer.

Magnetix not been recalled.

FioFio · 10/01/2008 11:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

dividedselfridgesxmaswindow · 10/01/2008 11:56

Ewww! Sounds scary indeed. Don't magnets repel one another though?

We only have Magnetix to worry about. Hawking had big magnet set things with different sized magnets in which my boys would have loved but I didn't buy for fear that they would have buggered my laptop with them. At the time I didn't know bout holes in organs, you understand.

OrmIrian · 10/01/2008 12:05

Magnets? What's wrong with magnets?

DS#1 has loads of those geomag things and they are great.

Oh do on tell me I have to get rid of them now....

Oh... just read why. Seems a little unlikely. DS#1 is 11 . And my youngest is 4 and has never in his life put anything is his mouth that wasn't edible. DS had a magnet in her christmas cracker.

Flllightattendant · 10/01/2008 12:16

I was concerned as tidiness not our forte, and baby in the house. But magnetix are hard to swallow, the balls are not magnetised, only the bars. Kids have been known to swallow the bars but it'd be hard. I mde a list of how many of each bit we have, so I can tick them off at tidyup time.

Also made magnetix a 'supervised' and 'permission only' toy. It has to be asked for and only played with when everything else is put away first iyswim.

That was the plan, anyway

Original poster
chloesmumtoo · 10/01/2008 17:10

Yes its not good if swallowed with another magnet. They were showing how strong some magnets are on the programme even though small. shocking, and although you feel your kids wont swallow anything, it does happen. We exchanged our old magnetix in argos just before christmas around the time of all the pp being recalled. Also the risk to other children whom may come to play is a worry if they are a little more likely to put things in there mouth. Kids have already died through it.

OP posts:
Original poster
chloesmumtoo · 10/01/2008 17:15

On TV they had two balloons to act as bowels and inserted a magnet in each then let them attracted and then just holding the ballons tried to pull them apart. It proved the point

OP posts:
Flllightattendant · 10/01/2008 17:49

Chloesmum, can I ask you if there was a recall? You say you exchanged your old magnetix, does that mean the newer ones are safe and the old ones aren't?
Thanks x

moljam · 10/01/2008 20:28

sorry when you said
'I swapped all our mattel polly pockets and what did we swap them for '
i didnt think about recall i thought youd swapped with another parent. my apologies.

Original poster
chloesmumtoo · 11/01/2008 11:12

I thought at the time some had been recalled but wasnt sure which so took them back to argos. They offered me to exchange them for the newer ones if I wanted but I choose not to have a replacement at the time and had either vouchers or cash, I cant remember. We studied the newer ones and yes they were improved and held in better by a cap type end with a smaller hole in so the magnet could not drop out. However we just worried incase the cap could come off. Looking now online washington difinately done recalls. Type in: magnetix magnetic building set recall expanded. Can get up quite alot if you have a look around online about recall on magnetix ect . Moljam, dont worry, see how you thought that now lol. Na they all got packed up to mattel!I wondered how you thought that.

OP posts:
moljam · 11/01/2008 11:19
Grin
FlllightAttendant · 14/01/2008 06:55

Thankyou xx

dippydeedoo · 14/01/2008 07:03

going off topic(sorry) my big boys aged 12 and 14 bought silly supa strong magnets you throw in the air they hum and stick together-hope you know what i mean well after 2-3 days and big black splodges over the tvs and dints in the fridge door we realised it was these magnets!!! yes these got lost under the settee too it took ages for the marks to disappear.

laura032004 · 14/01/2008 07:04

DS2 got some magnetix for Christmas. They have big warnings on the outside of the box, and a big safety leaflet inside.

They're really good fun, so I'm glad we got them, but whilst DS2 is small (18m) they will stay on a high shelf and only be played with under supervision when DS2 is out of the way.

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