FUNCTION, SAFETY AND SELECTION OF TOYS FOR CHILDREN

Abstract

Toys are prehistoric and they were initially domestically produced until the early sixteenth century whereby specialised toy-making centres in Europe emerged as cottage industry and later spread to America and Japan (Cross and Smits, 2005). In the 1960s, one of the leading toy manufacturer and marketing companies in the world, Mattel Inc. of the United States of America began manufacturing toys offshore to reduce manufacturing costs in response to competitive pressures (Teagarden, 2009). Thereafter, the market is inundated with mass produced toys that are manufactured through contracted offshore manufacturing. Total sales of toy in the global market have been steadily increasing annually. Statistics from the World Outlook Report (Parker, 2006) shows that the toy market was valued at USD17,293 million in 2001 and is predicted to be worth USD26,802 million in 2011. In 2006, China ranked first in toy export (children’s toys and indoor games) as she supplies about 74 percent of the world’s demand while Malaysia ranked
18 place (Parker, 2006). Although Malaysia exports toys, toys sold in the
thMalaysian market are mainly imported from China and Hong Kong. Data in 2006 indicated that the total value of toy imports into Malaysia was valued at about USD 45 million and 67.45 percent and 17.52 percent were imported from China and Hong Kong respectively (Parker, 2006).