The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2012
Buckyballs: the magnet toy that fought the CPSC and went out of business
The 13+ magnet desk toy was recalled in 2010, kept selling, then spent its last money mocking the CPSC's ban. 175,000 sets recalled; the company shut down.
Maxfield & Oberton · 2012-11
What happened
Maxfield & Oberton sold Buckyballs — 125 rare-earth magnet spheres marketed as a desk toy for ages 13 and up — from March 2009 to March 2010. On May 27, 2010 the CPSC recalled about 175,000 sets: the magnets exceeded the flux limit of the federal toy standard F963-08, and the agency said children could swallow them. Fewer than 50 sets came back.
The injuries were real: the CPSC's November 2011 warning counted 22 incidents that year, 17 ingestions and 11 requiring surgery, and since 2008 it had logged 200-plus ingestions of high-powered magnets, at least 18 needing emergency surgery. The company kept selling. In 2012 the CPSC filed an administrative complaint to ban Buckyballs and Zen Magnets — a tactic the agency had used only once in the previous 11 years.
Maxfield & Oberton's answer was a public campaign mocking the ban, with ads aimed at Washington policymakers, and a refusal to settle. By November 2012 the company had halted sales and gone out of business rather than fight on. In March 2016 Zen Magnets, the competitor that stayed in court, won in the DC District Court, and in January 2017 the Tenth Circuit overturned the 2012 ban.
Why it happened
- A product labeled 13+ was recalled for violating the federal toy standard, then kept selling — fewer than 50 of 175,000 sets came back, which the company read as vindication.
- The answer to a federal ban attempt was an advertising campaign against Washington, not a settlement — money spent on mockery instead of compliance, with the company out of business by November 2012.
- The ban was contestable: Zen Magnets won in 2016 and the appeals court overturned it in 2017. The company that bet its survival on the fight was already gone.
The lesson
Recalled 175,000 sets, fewer than 50 came back, so the company kept selling and answered the ban suit with ads. Out of business by November 2012; the competitor that fought in court won in 2017.
Aftermath
The CPSC recalled about 175,000 Buckyballs sets for violating the toy standard F963-08; the remedy was a refund, and fewer than 50 sets were returned. Its November 2011 warning counted 22 incidents and 200-plus ingestions since 2008. In 2012 the CPSC filed an administrative complaint seeking to ban Buckyballs and Zen Magnets; Maxfield & Oberton campaigned against it and halted sales in November 2012, going out of business. Zen Magnets won in the DC District Court in March 2016, and the Tenth Circuit overturned the 2012 ban in January 2017.
Sources
- CPSC — Buckyballs High-Powered Magnets Sets Recalled by Maxfield and Oberton (May 2010)
- Washington Post — Buckyballs fight back (Aug 2012)
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