This is something i've been thinking about for a while after I got some of the Kaiju for Grown Ups series by Wonderwall and looking at my Touma pieces. The recent recall by Mattel - a company you'd assume has pretty high QC to avoid any law suits - of Chinese-made toys highlights this issue.

After all, do we really know what's in the paint pigments of what's in our homes? David Horvath also has some interesting stuff to say on his blog here regarding samples he recieved from some leading Chinese factories for a new vinyl piece he wants to self-finance. Take a look here: http://davidhorvath.blogspot.com/ to read the story of how he's had to bin samples due to them starting to smell and disintegrating! You can sort of see the issue in the pic of the clear Wedgehead sample (China) and the clear UMA figure (Japan).

I can understand it must be tricky, balancing the quality while also making it affordable for collectors and, let's face it, actually make a bit of money too. China is an obvious place to make toys...but at what cost? Personally, I'd be happy to pay more money if I know the vinyl quality is top notch, because I like my toys and want to keep them for a long time.

What do other people think?