Hugg-A-Planet: The Newest Addition to the International Space Station

In many cultures around the world, a hug is a sign of affection. This was the sentiment behind the name Hugg-A-Planet for the soft globes produced by the company with the same name, whose spheres are now orbiting the Earth.

On this year’s anniversary of the brutal destruction of the Twin Towers, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched a resupply rocket to the International Space Station, which included among its contents a Hugg-A-Planet Earth, Moon, and Mars.

“I was actually in New York City for a vigil for peace that was run by the United Nations in Central Park during the same weekend that the Hugg-A-Planets docked at the space station,” said Robert Forenza, the company’s president.

“We were selected by NASA because our Hugg-A-Planets would survive the flight and because they have so much detail. Mars has 400 places labeled on it, which makes it the most detailed Mars commercially available,” continued Mr. Forenza, also adding that, “All of the planets will be there for the duration of the space station’s life until 2016, but I imagine they will extend it to 2020.”

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Choking Incidents Forcing a Hazard Notice for Two Popular Toddler Toy Products in Aug. '09

After one incident that required hospitalization and another that thankfully didn’t reach the need for medical assistance, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has initiated, with the cooperation of the manufacturers, the voluntary “recall” of the following to products:

• Little Tikes Workshops and Trucks
• Jump ‘n Jive Doorway Jumpers

Photo courtesy of the CPSC.

Product recall isn’t a completely accurate description because none of the products are being taken back in their entirety by the manufacturers. In all cases, only components of the products will be replaced by consumer request.

The hazard point for the Little Tikes products are the oversized plastic toy nails. The manufacturer, Little Tikes Co., reported one incident where an 11-month old boy from Goose Creek, S.C., choked when a toy nail became lodged in his throat. The child was hospitalized, but made a full recovery, according to the company.

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Mom’s Inspiration Launches Imagination Building Blocks

Photo courtesy of CitiBlocs.

Sometimes the greatest inspirations comes just by watching kids play. This was Marjorie Chayette’s flash of insight a little while back, when watching one of her young sons playing with blocks at a birthday one day.

“They were playing with the blocks at a birthday party and I was fascinated to see what they did with them. They did a lot of group things with the blocks, and I liked how they used their imaginations,” said Ms. Chayette, who used this inspiration to go on to create CitiBlocs, a company producing sets of uniform length natural wooden construction plank blocks, with measurements of 4.5 x .75 x .25 inches.

Ms. Chayette, the owner and principal of CitiBlocs, said, “What I really like about the size is that it just really grows with the kids and they can make more versatile, complicated, and taller structures as they get older. It’s not like a square unit block that they can outgrow.”

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Toymaker Getting Ready to Unveil New All Natural Rubber-Based Educational Toys

Toddler developing cognitive and motor skills as she plays. Photo courtesy of ImagAbility.

EL DORADO, Calif.- ImagAbility, a developer and distributor of developmental toys and educational resources, will be launching a new line of products geared specifically for ages one to three. The new products called Weebabus will be stacking and rolling toys designed to help toddlers develop their vertical and horizontal cognitive and motor skills.

The Weebabu product lines will be introduced to the public at the American Specialty Toy Retailers Marketplace this June 14 through June 18 in Minneapolis.

“The forms and functions of the Weebabu products are similar to our WEDGiTS (stacking and building toys, designed for ages three and up), just the materials are different. Our standard WEDGiTS lines of products are made of hard plastic using high impact polystyrene. The Weebabu lines that we are talking about are made of a natural rubber and covered in a non-toxic nylon flocking,” said Rock McKinley, vice president of sales and marketing at ImagAbility.

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Toy Industry Leaders Unite in Oversight Council for Toy Safety Certification Program

Official logo.

NEW YORK- An oversight council has been appointed to the Toy Industry Association’s newly created Toy Safety Certification Program.

Developed as part of a partnership with the American National Standards Institute, the program is being designed to act as a verification system to ensure that toys entering the United States market comply with all relevant safety standards and regulations.

Applicants for toy safety certification will be responsible for meeting the basic requirements of the program, which are:

• Hazard and risk assessment for toy product design.
• Factory process control audits by an independent audit body.
• Production sample testing by an accredited laboratory to validate that the factory is producing toys that meet U.S. safety standards.

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