Thomas & Friends Train Cars Recalled

If your kids are whatever like my three boys, at some point in their life, they will actually fall under the spell of a small wooden tank machine by the name of Thomas. For those parents who are in the know, Thomas & Friends needs no introduction. Endless lengths of overpriced wooden train track and a painted wooden table designed to replicate the "countryside" is a staple in any respectable child-rearer's home.

For the uninitiated, Thomas the Tank machine is a blue smiling train machine who is endowed with a set of stunningly anthromorphic features, including rosy cheeks, a big smile, and (oddly enough) eyebrows. Thomas and his many friends, who comprise a litany of other tank engines, train cars, and a center master named Sir Topem Hat) spend their days engaging in a collection of adventures. Whether a child follows the video productions of Thomas & Friends, or just follows his/her own imagination, Thomas commonly finds himself learning a good lesson or two by the end of the day.

Train Table For Kids

Although the world of Thomas & Friends is commonly an idyllic one, there has recently been a negative side ensue of its heavy popularity. The fact of the matter is that Thomas appeals in general to very young children. Unfortunately, children of that age also tend to put small items in their mouth on a quarterly basis. It is for this imagine that the recent recall of Thomas & Friends was necessary.

In June, 2007, Illinios based Rc2 Corporation recalled 1.5 million units of the favorite Thomas & Friends railway toys. These Thomas & Friends toys were assertedly covered with lead paint.

This month, July, 2007, Rc2 Corporation was hit with a federal class-action lawsuit in Chicago on Tuesday that is seeking an injunction against the sale of its metal train toys.

The lawsuit is seeking a court order requiring Rc2 to "cease yield and distribution of all metal toys" reported to the buyer goods safety Commission or reported in the media "to have perhaps been contaminated with lead paint."

The lawsuit, filed on profit of consumers who have purchased the toys or received them as gifts, also is seeking a court order to clue all sellers and distributors of metal toys "to remove such toys from their shelves and to cease sale and distribution ... Until their safety can be established."

A spokeswoman for Rc2 issued a statement in response to the lawsuit saying, "The only items branch to our previously announced voluntary recall are the 26 wooden products listed and pictured on our Web site. They describe about four percent of total wooden railway units sold by the firm domestically while recall period."

"Though some products in our metal train toy line are similar in appearance to products in the wooden line, they are smaller in scale. None of the metal products is branch to recall. They were produced using distinct manufacturing and painting processes in distinct compact manufacturing facilities."

The firm said in addition to replacing all recalled products returned by consumers and reimbursing them for return postage, "we are providing them with a bonus train car as a thank you for returning the recalled items."

The lawsuit filed Tuesday is the seventh federal class-action case brought against Rc2, agreeing to a hunt of the federal electronic filing database. The suit also named as defendants Hit Entertainment, the London-based children's entertainment firm that licenses the Thomas & Friends railway toys; Apax Partners, the private-equity group that owns Hit; and learning Curve Brands, Inc., the subsidiary of Rc2 that markets the railway toys.

Thomas & Friends Train Cars Recalled