The latest installment in the Toy Story cinematic universe is highly anticipated by kids and adults alike who have grown up watching the series. Recently, Disney has sought to profit further from the latest Pixar movie by producing toys of the main characters seen in the movie. “Forky,” a plastic fork made into a toy by no fault of his own is one of the new additions to the line of characters. Ironically, Forky feels like he was never meant to be a toy. He is meant to be used and then thrown away like any other piece of plastic dinnerware. Disney disagrees with the misunderstood character and contracted the Chinese manufacturer, Dream International Limited, Co., of Hong Kong, to mass-produce the 11” toy for Disney to sell at its resorts and theme parks.
The Issue.
So, it turns out that Forky was right. He is not meant to be a toy. Why? Because the plush toy is a major choking hazard to children. Luckily, there have been no reports of any incidents or injuries so far, and Disney voluntarily recalled the toy in July 2019. It is great that no one was hurt due to this defective toy. The situation had the potential to been devastating. What companies fail to realize in their pursuit of profit, is they are responsible for the safety of their consumers. The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission indicates that defective products result in 29.4 million personal injuries every year. On top of this, there are 21,400 wrongful deaths.
Here is the label that you can find at the base of the toy
The toy’s tracking number can be found on the back of the tag
What can you do?
Whether the manufacturer passed the legal requirements to sell the toy in North America in the first place is a moot point. The real issue is that manufacturers are not regulated well enough. They need to be able to stop innocent children from being harmed by their products in the first place. The best thing to do if you find yourself in this situation is to contact a lawyer immediately. Getting in touch with a personal injury attorney is the best move you can make in this kind of situation. An injury attorney who specializes in product liability is specifically trained to handle these situations and get you the compensation you deserve. If you happen to have purchased one of these toys, Disney is allowing full refunds at their theme parks and resorts.
The Villarreal & Begum, LAW GUNS dedicates their time and effort towards helping people in Texas find justice for personal negligence encountered while living their normal, everyday lives.