I love you, you love me, but if you get lead poisoning you're dead to me ...

HIT Entertainment built its brand on Barney. The purple protosaurus and his message of sharing, caring and imagining has captivated two decades' worth of small children. Barney also opened up a whole new market for television with its programming specifically aimed at very young audiences.

One could argue that a lot of that was allowed to happen because of trust.  Whatever their relationship to the saccharine song-singing creature, parents found their kids loved him, and so they trusted Barney and his keepers. More importantly, they bought billions of dollars in Barney merchandise over the years, allowing HIT to expand its empire to include other lovable TV characters of somewhat questionable educational value: Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Fraggle Rock … and Thomas the Tank Engine.

This week, a company that HIT Entertainment outsourced the manufacture of Thomas toys to has admitted that the Chinese factory that it outsourced the manufacture of Thomas toys to was  using lead paint in some of its wooden toys that kids love to put in their mouths.

HIT's response has been to issue a "Dear Customer" statement a week ago (which I've reprinted below) that makes the usual British corporate noises about being "very concerned" about the recall. But it doesn't apologize, and HIT has been reluctant to say much more in the press. The overly corporate tone of HIT's non-apology has outraged parents. As one mommy blogger in New York State put it, HIT "lays the blame on the company that licenses from the company that licenses from the company."

Not only that, when a New York Times team visited the Chinese factory where RC2 outsourced manufacturing of the toys, all three — reporter, photographer and translator — were detained for nine hours before police and local officials sprung them.

Needless to say, HIT didn't apologize for that, either.

If you're a concerned parent looking to impart lessons about personal responsibility, being kind to others, sharing, caring and all that — well, do as HIT Entertainment's characters say, not as its executives do.

RC2 Wooden Railway Voluntary Recall Information

13 June 2007

Dear Customer,

RC2 Corporation, licensee and manufacturer of Learning Curve’s Thomas & Friends ™ Wooden Railway products, in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has announced a voluntary recall of certain wooden railway vehicles and set components within this range.

For details of the specific products affected within Learning Curve’s Thomas & Friends ™ Wooden Railway products range, and for instructions on how to return the products and obtain replacements, please go to the RC2 recall website (http://recalls.rc2.com) or call RC2’s Customer Service Line at 866.725.4407 between 8am-5pm CST Monday – Thursday or 8am-11am CST on Friday.

We take our responsibilities as owners of the Thomas brand very seriously and appreciate and understand the concerns of our customers.

RC2 has issued a product recall in all territories where the affected products have been distributed and is working in conjunction with the appropriate government agencies in each of those areas to ensure that the recall is carried out in accordance with all applicable standards and requirements, which are designed to make the process as efficient as possible.

Although it is RC2's responsibility to carry this out, we are very concerned about the situation and are working closely with RC2 to ensure that consumers are informed and accurately advised.