A warning for anyone buying "Bunchems" this Christmas

[Ponyfan]

I still think these toys should be recalled. I know some parents don't supervise their children as they should but a toy like this that can become tangled in hair so easily should be recalled. I don't think every child that has had these stuck in their hair was using them improperly.  Most probably were but what about the kids that were just using them like they were supposed to and their hair got caught.

Ponyfan

[Wardah]

I still think these toys should be recalled. I know some parents don't supervise their children as they should but a toy like this that can become tangled in hair so easily should be recalled. I don't think every child that has had these stuck in their hair was using them improperly.  Most probably were but what about the kids that were just using them like they were supposed to and their hair got caught.

Ponyfan

But plenty of kids played with them fine with no problems. All the horror stories I have heard involve someone either putting them on or near hair. You know the thing they say not to do with them? As for the possibility of them getting into long hair by accident it isn't hard to tie up hair. And most of the incidents also tend to involve younger kids so maybe the youngest recommended age should be higher. My sister got silly putty in her hair once and it was awful. She didn't get silly putty again until she was older.

Gum can be tangled in hair easily too. Should it be banned? Parents just need to be aware that they need to be careful.

[Ponyfan]

Those are all good points. I agree that how the toys are being used is important and that if kids are ignoring warnings on the box and putting them in their hair that's one thing, but still I'm not sure I like the idea of a toy that can get caught in hair so easily especially if it has to be removed through cutting the hair or using oil or some other kind of product to release them from hair.


Ponyfan

[Galactica]

I still think these toys should be recalled. I know some parents don't supervise their children as they should but a toy like this that can become tangled in hair so easily should be recalled. I don't think every child that has had these stuck in their hair was using them improperly.  Most probably were but what about the kids that were just using them like they were supposed to and their hair got caught.

Ponyfan

Yes- but a hairbrush can be tangled in hair, and those aren't recalled.  I think they should just come with a warning maybe.

I remember my sister as a kid wound one of those round hairbrushes into her hair and it was seriously stuck.  Another time we made crowns of these hooked tree seeds and put them in our hair, also stuck.  It is impossible to predict what crazy thing a kid is going to stuff into their hair... 

Post Merge: November 23, 2015, 11:00:32 AM

Gum can be tangled in hair easily too. Should it be banned? Parents just need to be aware that they need to be careful.

Haha, although I don't think the toys should be banned, I think gum probably should be, at least in schools and on buses.  Kids and their parents are not responsible enough... 

[ringwraith10]

The first thing I thought of when I read that Bunchems get caught in hair was about those Snack Time Cabbage Patch Kids that were recalled because hair could get caught in them and be pulled inside the doll. I think Bunchems should also be recalled.


Ponyfan

I was totally going to mention those! I still have nightmares about those dolls.

Man, when I was a kid I had the longest hair of anyone I knew. I would have had those toys and they would have gotten stuck in my hair AND in my poodle's hair. Thanks for the warning! I've never heard of these, but I will definitely avoid them now.

[Seachanger]

We actually have a set of these. We have a shaggy rug and several got tangled in it. It was super easy to get them out. I just pulled them out, no damage on the rug at all. They're really not that bad. One got tangled in hair and it was easy to get out. You'd really have to get a lot of them in there and rub them around to get them stuck. I think probably not the best idea to give them to really young kids unsupervised.

[sailorstitch]

I bought a small set of these because I was curious about them. As a building toy they aren't bad, but I wasn't overly impressed. I was playing with them while I was watching tv. I was sitting in the recliner with a blanket on my lap. I dumped the Bunchems onto the blanket. The cat hair that was on the blanket is now stuck in the Bunchems! Well, I did buy the kit that lets me build a cat. LOL

sailorstitch

[NoPonySpecial]

Yes- but a hairbrush can be tangled in hair, and those aren't recalled.  I think they should just come with a warning maybe.

I just read they are releasing them in the future with warning labels after the eruption of parent complaints. And they released a video tutorial on how to get them out of hair. (It was on one of those Buzzfeed sites.)

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I'm actually laughing really hard at this. 

One, we are all pony and doll collectors so we are used to untangling the abysmal hair of  rejected children's toys.  And two... if you get ANYTHING stuck in your hair, short of a hairbrush, that is what coconut oil is for...  The last time my child got a round brush in my hair, my husband spent 30 minutes gently unraveling me. 

Mostly what removal of these things requires is probably patience, which nobody seems to have anymore!

Sounds like a short parenting tutorial on hair and sticky substances is needed more so than a recall or a boycott.  Really...  I guess the "gum in the hair" isn't a rite of passage anymore?

[Shadoweon]

I saw the commercials for these during the holiday season and thought they were kind of dumb but harmless enough. I didn't know that they could get stuck in your hair like that but when you look at them up close they really are like plastic burrs.  That said,why the heck do they get so many stuck in their hair?

1 to even 5 is one thing but there's like 20-30!? Seems very intentional to me. I don't think they should take them off to market just because someone didn't listen to the label...