Few choices for shoppers after toy recalls

By Aarthi Sivaraman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A major toy recall by Mattel Inc on Tuesday -- its second in two weeks -- offers little relief to frustrated shoppers faced with few choices ahead of the crucial holiday season: almost everything, it seems, is "Made in China" nowadays.

Watching over her children at a Toys "R" Us store in New York City's Times Square, shopper Genia Seibold said she'd try to find U.S.-made toys in smaller stores, especially for Christmas, to avoid giving unsafe toys as gifts.

"Almost every toy in the store is from China .... Where do you go if you reject (them)? You'd be stuck," she said.

Mattel, the largest U.S. toy company, recalled of millions of toys on Tuesday, citing health hazards from small powerful magnets in some toys and lead paint in others. This followed its August 1 recall of about 1.5 million toys whose paint may contain excessive amounts of lead.

In June, RC2 Corp recalled wooden Thomas & Friends toy trains, citing similar concerns.

Seibold is among a growing number of U.S. consumers who say they feel cornered as so much of what they use, from clothes to appliances, are made in China, whose exports have recently raised safety alarms. And with the key U.S. holiday season around the corner, shoppers may be starting to look for labels that say anything other than "Made in China."

Though Seibold has saved her older children's toys for her third child, who is due to be born soon, she said that after the recent recalls, "I'd pick up each one (of those toys) and make sure they are not the ones causing concern."

TUESDAY'S RECALL NEWS TO SOME