Is it time to start selling your Mattel, Inc., (NYSE: MAT) stock? In Yet Another incidence of Fisher Price toys being tainted (figuratively and literally) with lead, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has pulled the Fisher Price Medical Kit from its web site after a Consumer Reports article that questioned the lead content in the kit's toy blood pressure cuff. Mattel has insisted that children can play doctor safely because the toy "meets the requirements set forth in the federal regulations and international consumer product safety standards, including the existing standards for lead content." Note Mattel did not claim that the toy was free from lead.

As I've mentioned before, these toy recalls have lead (har!) me to the conclusion that it's just not worth buying plastic toys for my children any more. I've been flipping through the Nova Natural catalog to plan for holiday buying and regularly carting off boxes of my boys' plastic toys to Goodwill.

Judging by the excitement over leaked Black Friday ads, it seems as if I'm a rarity. This news does bring out a couple of questions, however:

• Will we soon start seeing vigilante recalls like this one from Amazon.com as retailers work to minimize their risk in toy recalls?
• Does it cost enough to effect a recall that it might make sense to anger a major supplier like Mattel?
• Isn't this recall just a little bit too ironic? My blood pressure is rising, too!

Answers would be appreciated; though of course my biggest question will remain unanswered for some time, ergo, how long will consumers continue to put up with unsafe products?

The toy recall that is still gripping the attention of parents inside and outside the U.S. has brought even more scrutiny onto the problem of quality control on products made in China. Due to several high-profile food-related recalls this year (including a toothpaste and pet food recall) the Chinese supply chain was already well under fire. Additionally, some parents have indicated that they blame the companies that distributed the toys as much as they blame the Chinese manufacturers who made them.

Who is stepping in to provide damage control? Why, retailers of course. The stores that are most directly affected by parents' disinclination to buy toys right now are already deep in the game this week. Companies such as Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), eToys.com and the online division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) -- Walmart.com -- have all been communicating with online customers via email about how to take the guesswork out of product recalls. In other words, providing lists of what is and isn't on the recall list, and how to properly dispose of those toys that are being recalled. It's a great strategy to retain customers and put yourself ahead of the perceived "non-caring" retailers.

Go to leading toy designer, manufacturer and marketer Mattel Inc.'s (NYSE: MAT) website, and you're greeted with its slogan in bold letters: "The World's Mattel: Premier Toy Brands, Today and Tomorrow." With popular name brand toys ranging from Barbie and Hot Wheels to American Girl and Barney, that claim is no exaggeration.

But the behemoth brand has taken a hit this past week. If you've been reading headlines, you likely have seen the bad news for Mattel -- it is recalling 1.5 million of its Fisher-Price toys due to lead paint concerns. With this, Mattel joins a long list of big businesses being burnt by shoddy manufacturing and factory oversight problems in China.

Certainly, it isn't just a case of tainted toys, but now a tainted brand. If you're a parent, you pay special notice to
news like this, and it is not something you take lightly. As a parent myself, I know that with everything involving my child, I err on the side of safety and caution. Mattel knows this, and it has announced that it is immediately addressing the problem and will go overboard to ensure it doesn't happen again, but I still might think twice when I am at the toy store next time.

Maybe it's time to look under your kids' beds.

Fisher-Price, a division of toy-maker Mattel, Inc. (NYSE: MAT), is recalling nearly one million plastic pre-school toys because of unsafe levels of lead paint. The toys were painted by a Chinese vendor with whom the company has a long association.

The recall, the second-largest this year involving toys, involves 83 different products made from April 19 through July 6. Toy characters parents (and their pre-school children) will certainly recognize include Elmo, Dora the Explorer, and her pal Diego.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has a full list of the recalled toys here.

A few weeks ago, I ranted and raved about the danger in which I put myself and my children when I struggle to open their toys' packages. I received a lot of comments from like-minded individuals. My favorite: "I am a service tech (HVAC)and a father of three, and the first thing I do when it is time to open the holiday gifts is make my way out to my service van and grab my tool bag ... The best tool for you to have is a set of wire cutters, linemans pliers, needle nose pliers, dikes or some form of plier with a wire cutter on it." Great! So all we need is a fully-equipped industrial-strength tool box.

My children, as they're quite cute and I can't resist them, received several new toys this year, nearly all from Mattel, Inc. (NYSE:MAT)'s Fisher Price unit. I thought I was exaggerating, just a little bit, when I mentioned hunting knives and threat of bodily harm when I wrote my original piece. But no.

One package, that holding the Diego Talking Rescue 4x4 (for which I paid $15.99 at Fred Meyer), took three adults about 15 minutes to open. One metal-reinforced twisty in particular was so well-wrapped that both my dad and I worked on it. Dad got out his new utility hunting knife, bought at Baker's General Store by my mom for a stocking stuffer. The twisty tie broke his knife. To quote Dave Barry, I am not making this up.

Another toy, the Little People Lil' Movers Dump Trucks (suggested ages: one year old), took me over 20 minutes to untwist from its packaging. It only has three pieces, but yet it must have had six or eight twisties, all tied and bent and threaded so securely that I almost gave up and returned the darned thing.

Mattel! What are you thinking? What good could possibly come of this ultra-secure packaging?