Zhu Zhu Pooh-Poohed

December 10th, 2009. By Hunter West

They’re easily the hottest item on children’s wish list this year: The Zhu Zhu Hamsters. Every kid wants ‘Chunk,’ or ‘Pipsqueek,’ or ‘Num Nums’ under the tree this year. They are the 2009 version of Tickle-Me-Elmo, or the Cabbage Patch Dolls of years gone by. They’re not expensive, retailing for $8 to $10 each. But that’s if you can find them. There’s been a rush to buy them, the US-based manufacturer has cranked up production in China and opportunists—sensing a wave—have bought them up by the box load and have put them up on eBay selling for up to four or five times what they’re worth at retail. 

Little wonder. Did I mention Tickle-Me-Elmo? When your kid wants something sooooooooo badly, and between you and Santa nary a Zhu Zhu can be found, the internet may be your only savior. And there’s no price too high to delight your little girl, or boy Christmas morning. 

The big difference between the Tickle-Me-Elmo phenomenon and this time was the allegation from a consumer watchdog that the Zhu Zhu hamsters are unsafe. GoodGuide, a not-for-profit group with ties to the University of California at Berkeley, rocked the must-have toy world last Friday with allegations that testing done on ‘Mr. Squiggles,’ the light-brown member of the Zhu Zhu quartet, tested with levels for antimony than are higher than that considered safe. 

Since the initial report at GoodGuide, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has stated that based on an expedited review of the Zhu Zhu hamster toys, there is no need for a squeaking hamster wheel at 3 a.m. each night. But the Zhu Zhu uproar—if only brief—raises some questions and should give us pause to reflect on some other manufactured imports. But let’s start with Zhu Zhu…

The manufacturer of Zhu Zhu Pets is a small outfit based in St. Louis, Missouri called Cepia. How small? “In our world-wide network we have 16 people here in St. Louis, Missouri,” said Natalie Hornsby, director of brand development and marketing strategies. “We have about 25 people in Shenzhen, China,” she told CBS News. 

There it is. 

China. 

“All our products are subjected to several levels of rigorous safety testing conducted by our own internal teams, as well as the world’s leading independent quality assurance testing organization, and also by independent labs engaged by our retail partners,” Russ Hornsby, CEO of Cepia, said to CNN in a written statement. “The results of every test prove that our products are in compliance with all government and industry safety standards.” 

The toys are popular in Europe as well as in the United States. Their British distributor, Character Options, said the products, sold there as ‘Go Go Pets,’ are “fully compliant” with US and European Union standards. 

“In addition, as part of Character Options’ standard due diligence, the toy has been further tested on three separate occasions by the company’s own safety experts and found to fully comply with all EU standards,” the company said in a statement issued Sunday. 

Cepia said that it is forwarding all of its testing data to GoodGuide in an effort to be fully transparent and to try to understand how GoodGuide’s findings differ from their own. 

There was a lot at stake. Imagine the joy felt by a small, independent toy company suddenly having the hottest, must-have toy for the Christmas season? According to CBS News, Cepia came up with the idea for the hamsters only a year ago and did some test marketing in Phoenix with the help of Toys R Us. 

“We couldn’t believe the numbers,” Jerry Storch, CEO of Toys R Us told CBS. “When we first looked at them we thought there was something wrong with the computer.” 

Fans have been filling YouTube with Zhu Zhu videos and one analyst projects holiday sales of $50,000,000. Cepia has cranked up three more factories in China to try to keep up with demand. 

Ah, China. 

This story may indeed have a happy ending—but had it not, it wouldn’t exactly have been an anomaly.

And why is it that so many allegedly substandard products originate from China? There is little doubt as to why China has been a manufacturing Mecca and why its post-communism economy is the envy of many…cheap labor. 

But at what cost? A small manufacturer will turn to offshore assembly in an effort to reduce costs—although the way in which the Zhu Zhu hamster has captured the imagination of the nation’s children, they could have been manufactured on American soil and retail for a lot more, and people would have snapped them up anyway. 

But no one can predict what will be the hot toy. It just happened to be this one. And the fact that it was this one that garnered the attention of GoodGuide and countless news stories only spurs on the raised eyebrow effect one is left with when hearing the words “made in China”. Surely there are quality imports from China—but it’s the frequency with which we hear the phrase “an alleged hazard” trailing alongside “made in China” that makes one wonder what’s going on.

We’re only thankful this one seems to have been a false alarm. But the track records seems to point to the fact that we may be seeing more of this. More countries, including Canada, are courting China. The US already has a huge amount of foreign debt held in that country. How hard will the US come down on a country that holds a bunch of US debt? 

It’s hard to imagine a country that relies so heavily on exports could allow tainted heparin, or toothpaste, or cough medicine, baby formula or lead-laced toys to keep coming like a collection of despised floats in an unwelcome parade. 

It should be noted that there are families who won’t be enjoying the holidays in their own homes this year, due to toxic Chinese drywall. 

So the Zhu Zhu Hamsters debacle is apparently an over-reaction. A misunderstanding. A mea culpa for GoodGuide. And maybe we can say, for once, that China got it right and a small, independent toy company managed to do what a lot of multinationals have not been able to do: 

Have a toy manufactured in China that is safe and beyond reproach. 

And so there will be joy in the living rooms of million of kids Christmas morning, and joy in the boardroom of Cepia for having THE hot toy for 2009. 

Unfortunately, as we all know, the joy of Christmas morn’ tends to wear off…and then what?

Tags: China, Defective Product, Zhu Zhu

This was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Defective Products . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.