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Buckyballs Throws In the Towel
RenderSeven writes "As previously reported the immensely popular Buckyballs office toys have been targeted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Last week Maxfield and Oberton, the maker of Buckyballs gave up the battle and announced they would discontinue sales and close. However, being driven out of business is not enough for R Buckminster Fuller's estate, who has filed yet another lawsuit that they own all rights to the name "buckyballs" despite widespread use of the term. If you still haven't bought your own yet, a few thousand sets in stock are still available."
... on eBay, and you will find multiple vendors selling exactly the same thing, but not called buckyballs. They still exist - just not under that stupid name.
Zen Magnets hasn't yet caved to the CPSC.
Well I learn a couple of things today because of this post. 1) A dragée is the name for that metallic decorative ball thing they put on cakes. 2) never accept candy from skipkent.
They do not market them to children. The products have extensive warnings on them.
WARNING
Keep Away From All Children!
Do not put in nose or mouth.
Swallowed magnets can stick to
intestines causing serious injury or death.
Seek immediate medical attention if
magnets are swallowed or inhaled.
It says right on the little plastic container that this isn't for children. The cardboard retail box gets torn up and thrown away, so I can understand a label on that *possibly* not being enough. The inner plastic cube is pretty explicit too, though.
There are a handful of stupid people somewhere out there, so bureaucrats close down a business that I like and decide that I can't have something that is of no risk to me or anyone around me. Gotta love this world we live in.
It's not the fault of the product when parents don't supervise their children and allow them to eat random household objects.
And I realize its not easy. Parenting is hard. If you're not up for it, don't have kids.
This is an adult product. It says it on the box. It shouldn't be required to meet child toy standards.
They do not market them to children. The products have extensive warnings on them.
Here's the package that was sold at my mall. I see no warnings. In fact if you can read that scribbling on the front in a playful font it says "The amazing magnetic toy you can't put down." Is that how you market to adults?
Jesus Christ, who's lying to who here? This company seems to not want to properly label their product and just throw their hands up and rage quit when a consumer protection agency makes them!
Oh, wait, now you say 'I meant injuries not deaths'. OK lets play that one:
There are approximately 2.2 million Buckyball magnet sets in circulation, and as each set has 216 magnets, there is a grand total of 475.2 million individual magnet pieces. This equals to approximately 1 injury per 100,000 Buckyball sets and less than 1 injury per 21.5 million individual magnet pieces.
Dogs are statistically over 120 times more dangerous
Tennis injuries are 1,228 times more dangerous
Soccer, Cheerleading, poisoning through common household chemicals are all over 1,000 times more dangerous.
Skateboarding is 890 times more dangerous.
Pools, cars, kitchen knives, firearms, balloons, snowblowers are all statistically more dangerous than Buckyball magnets.
That is a LOT of fails by your criteria. Yet where is the CPSC outrage on dogs, racquets, soccer balls, draino, skateboards, pool life jackets, ginsu knifes, and so on?
I take it you didn't watch the video which included correspondence between zen magnets and buckyballs? The relevant part as to why they're jerks is in the first few minutes...
The fact that this is modded "Insightful" instead of "Funny" is a hilarious indicator of Slashdot moderators' poor understanding of the finer points of confectionery.
I didn't say 100% of the time, though we are talking about babies and toddlers here, and they do require considerably more supervision than older children. If the kid's in an environment with things he's not ready to handle -say, small shiny objects- then you watch, or else you don't bring him into that environment. This is what it means to have a kid.