USA Today is reporting how even after multiple toys recall, you may find it difficult to buy US made toys. Reasons being 80% toys sold in US are made in China, most of the toy recalls in last 20 years have been because of design problems by US toy makers and US toys being very old-fashioned.

After recent high-profile recalls of some Barbie, Polly Pocket and Thomas & Friends products, you've vowed not to buy Chinese-made toys this Christmas.

Good luck.

Even though it's shaping up to be the "anti-China Christmas," your kid's stocking likely will be stuffed with Chinese-made toys — unless you put oranges in it. That's because 80% of all toys sold in the USA are made in China. Some internal toy-industry estimates show only about 10% are actually made here.

More important, there's mounting evidence that avoiding Chinese-made toys may not be worth it. New research shows that most of the toy recalls in the last 20 years were due to design problems by the U.S. toymakers, not manufacturing problems that were the fault of Chinese or other foreign plants. U.S. toymakers also are far from immune to safety problems and may have at least as high a percentage of recalls as China when the USA's small market share is considered.

And if you do go the U.S.-made route, be ready for limited choices and, perhaps, a tough sell to the kids. Most U.S.-made toys are wooden, old-fashioned "nostalgia" toys, such as blocks or puzzles, that may not hold the interest of kids older than toddlers. There's Slinky, the twisty-wire-walking toy from the 1950s, and some plastic toys like K'Nex construction sets.

All these reasons will make it difficult for US Retailers to sell toys this season. With around $22.3 billion at stakes, it remains to be seen how Retailers fare on this front this holiday season.

Retail sales in the U.S. toy industry declined less than four percent in 2005 to just over $21.3 billion compared to $22.1 billion generated the prior year, according to The NPD Group.

Taken from <http://retailindustry.about.com/od/seg_toys/a/toy_sales.htm>

U.S. toy sales made a slight comeback in 2006 and are poised for a sharper rise this year, according to data released on Tuesday by market research firm NPD Group.

U.S. toy sales crept up to $22.3 billion in 2006 from $22.2 billion in 2005, helped in part by a 22 percent increase in the youth electronics category.

Taken from <http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN0623443620070206>

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