Mr. Squiggles Is Here to Stay

Cepia LLC, the Clayton, Missouri-based maker of the wildly popular Zhu Zhu Pets, has not seen a drop in sales since a report published Saturday questioned the safety of the hamsters.

“The company has not seen any decrease in sales and we expect that once the facts are known, that will relieve all concerns,” said Philip Kaplan, a lawyer for Cepia and a partner at Stinson Morrison Hecker.

GoodGuide said it found high levels of tin and antimony, a flame retardant, in Mr. Squiggles, one of Cepia’s robotic toy hamsters. Prolonged exposure to antimony can cause lung and heart problems, ulcers and diarrhea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst from Needham & Co. in New York, said he doesn't think the report will hamper sales, which he projected to hit $70 million this year. "Antimony doesn't quite evoke the same reaction as lead," he said. "Nobody knows what 'antimony' means, and they'd rather take the certainty of pleasing their child over the uncertainty of whether or not antimony is a bad thing."

"It reminds me of a line from the movie Jaws, when the mayor of Amity Island tells the police chief, 'You yell 'baracuda!' and people say. 'What, huh?' But you yell 'shark!' and you've got a panic on your hands on the Fourth of July.'"

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Monday it was reviewing Zhu Zhu Pets, said Arlene Flecha, a commission spokeswoman.

Natalie Hornsby, Cepia’s director of brand development and marketing strategies, said she didn't think the consumer report would hurt the brand, particularly because GoodGuide issued a clarification for its findings Monday.

Dara O’Rourke, co-founder of GoodGuide, said his California-based organization has been flooded with phone calls from reporters about its examination of Zhu Zhu Pets. O’Rourke, a professor in the department of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California Berkeley, clarified on his blog Monday that the study’s methodology did not follow federal government standards. “While GoodGuide considers the presence of any antimony on the surface of a toy to be a concern, we want to clarify that we used a testing methodology to evaluate the toys that is different from the testing methodology incorporated into federal standards," he wrote.

Cepia Chief Executive Russ Hornsby disputed GoodGuide’s findings.

“We are 100 percent confident that Mr. Squiggles, and all other Zhu Zhu Toys, are safe and compliant with all U.S. and European standards for consumer health and safety in toys,” Hornsby said in a statement Saturday. “All our products are subjected to several levels of rigorous safety testing conducted by our own internal teams, as well as the world’s leading independent quality assurance testing organization and also by independent labs engaged by our retail partners. The results of every test prove that our products are in compliance with all government and industry safety standards.”

Zhu Zhu Pets are tested in laboratories several times during production, and again before they ship from the factory, Cepia said.

“I have been in the toy industry for more than 35 years, and being a father of children myself, I would never allow any substandard or unsafe product to hit the shelves,” Hornsby said. “That’s why we always test to not only meet but also exceed safety standards.”

---

Kelsey Volkmann writes for the St. Louis Business Journal.