What kids want, kids get. And kids want toys. Despite the toy recalls that have made news this year, analysts expect the toy industry will still rake it in this holiday season.

“Kids are going to call the shots here,” said P.K. Kannan, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Across the board, toys might see “maybe minus 5 percent” in revenues in response to the recalls, Kannan said, but not for any specific brands.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled millions of Chinese-made toys this summer because of lead contamination or defective designs.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“It seems like the recalls have slowed down a little bit,” said Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for the Maryland Attorney General's Office. “It’s often hard for consumers to keep track of all of these recalls, updates, changes added to the list.”

But the timing of the recalls likely will not hurt the toy industry, Kannan said.

“Consumers tend to forget,” Kannan said. “If the recalls had been just before holiday season, they might have had a bigger impact.”

Toy sales totaled $8 billion from January to June of this year, a 3 percent increase over the same period last year, according to a report from the research firm NPD Group. Retail toy sales for all of 2006 were over $22.3 billion, the report said.