Safety first!

Magformers is a wonderful product. Unfortunately, this means you can now find plenty of lower quality magnetic toys on the market.

Please do not consciously buy fake or counterfeit Magformers for various reasons, but the most important reason being your child’s safety.

Never let your children play with magnetic toys where the magnets might come loose, or with loose magnets.

This is why genuine Magformers are subjected to regular safety testing to ensure the pieces are made to a very high standard, so that the small magnets are encapsulated safely and will not come loose even with a reasonable level of abuse during play.

The Magformers sold through the Magformers Store, and our authorised stockists are genuine Magformers and have therefore been safety tested to the relevant International and Australian Toy Safety Standards.

We provide warranty, support and after care to genuine Magformers products purchased from the Magformers eStore or authorised stockists.

It is simply not worth the risk to buy fake products. This is especially the case for toys containing magnets!

We recently bought a set to see for ourselves just how dangerous these fake products are.

We have decided to post the following photos as a warning to anyone considering buying fake products.

This is the tub that the fake product came in. Unfortunately it is labelled “Magformers”, but is clearly not a genuine Magformers® product.

This is the “warning” label appearing on the tub.

This is the booklet (unfortunately referring to the fake product as “Magformers”). Unlike what is stated in the booklet, genuine Magformers® come in more shapes than just squares and triangles, but the bigger concern is of course the danger associated with the inferior fake product.

It was immediately apparent that the quality of each piece was inferior. This piece showed stress marks and had a crack in the plastic.

And from a different angle, you can already see how dangerous this piece is.

Here is the other side.

With a little bit of force applied, the magnet fell out!

With only slightly more force, the two pieces of plastic came apart, and all four magnets fell out!

We were then just left with two broken pieces of cheap plastic and four very strong magnets. Obviously, this can be extremely dangerous for young children.

How to spot the fakes

So how can you tell if you are buying high quality genuine Magformers products, as opposed to cheaper, lower quality fake copies? Well, the only way to really be sure, is to buy from the Magformers Store or from an authorised stockist.

Otherwise, please be aware that some sellers will tell you that their product is “compatible with” or “works with” Magformers (these are most likely lower quality fakes). These will generally have a generic name, or may use a slight variation of “Magformers”, but because many of them use the same (or similar) logo style, colour and even tag line, it might be confusing to the untrained eye…unless you know what you are looking for.

Others will, unfortunately, tell you that their product is a “genuine” or “original” Magformers product, when it is not, so it will pay off if you know how to spot the fakes.

Here’s how to tell:

• Fake products used to be sold in plastic tubs, however many are now sold in boxes of all sizes, some of which are copies of Magformers box designs, including the exact or very similar photos, logos and tag lines. So please read the logo carefully and ensure that it is a genuine Magformers product.
• You will find deals online and on social media offering “free” pieces and all you have to pay is for the postage. Often these pieces are just shrink wrapped and they can be delivered months down the track. These are telltale signs of a copy product.

• Every Magformers shape, and most accessories have the word “MAGFORMERS” stamped / embossed on the shape or piece itself.

• Here are a couple of examples of fake Magformers products:

• Brand new genuine Magformers come in a factory sealed box, with the registered and trademarked “Magformers®” brand name clearly displayed on the box over the following easily recognisable red logo:

• The bright and colourful attractive pictures on the boxes of genuine Magformers are another big give away (although, as mentioned above, some brands have decided it is easier to copy the Magformers box designs, than design their own).

• Please check the box to ensure that they are genuine Magformers products, or if you do not have the box, check the shapes to ensure that you see the word “Magformers” on the shapes themselves. If in doubt, please contact us and we will provide you with further information.

• Here are examples of bright and vivid coloured models made with genuine Magformers:

• Genuine Magformers come in many various vivid bright and attractive colours, shapes, pieces and accessories that the fake products simply do not offer. In addition to the 8 basic Magformers colours (red, orange, yellow, light green, sky blue, blue, light purple and pink), genuine Magformers products offer solid primary colours that are attractive to children, such as bright neon colours and pastel colours.
  
• Various vivid colours make models brighter and help elicit your child’s senses and emotions by adding visual stimuli. The following pieces are examples of those found in various genuine Magformers sets:

Solid Crayon Colour Pieces found in ‘My First’ Sets

• Imitation products also have less designs, shapes and sets available, which limits what your child can build with them. They also lack the accessories found in many of the genuine Magformers sets. Why would you want to limit your child’s imagination with less shapes, designs, accessories and sets?

• You will probably eventually need the innovation found in genuine Magformers sets anyway, so why not just start with Magformers in the first place, knowing the quality and innovation associated with that name?

Most importantly, it is unknown whether the fake products have ever been subjected to any safety testing whatsoever. Many of the fake products are offered for sale by overseas sellers, who are not subject to the same strict safety standards as Australia.

As the official Australian distributor of Magformers, we ensure that our genuine Magformers products comply with all relevant safety standards before we sell them.

Here are only some of the many reasons why you should buy genuine Magformers:

• The plastic used in genuine Magformers (a type of ABS plastic) is of a very high quality and is used only in Magformers.
• In fact, the actual plastic used has been created just for Magformers! This means that no other plastic toy is made from the same plastic as genuine Magformers!
• It is a very strong plastic that will not break easily with ordinary use, or even with a reasonable level of abuse during play. However, as with any other plastic, please keep the pieces away from very high temperatures to avoid the pieces melting.
• Genuine Magformers uses neodymium magnets that are 5 times more powerful than magnets in ordinary toys to allow for secure attachment, but also allows for easy and quick disassembly.
• Genuine Magformers have 48-hour anti-rusting qualities (however it is recommended that you keep the pieces dry at all times).
• Genuine Magformers are tested to International and Australian safety standards, including the following:
  • ASTM F963-11 – Physical and mechanical tests
  • ASTM F963-11 – Flammability Test of Materials other than textile materials
  • ASTM F963-11 Heavy elements – Soluble elements test for substrate materials
  • ASTM F963-11 Heavy elements – Total Lead content
  • U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Title 16 CFR 1303 – Total Lead content in surface coating
  • U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008 Title I Section 101 – Total Lead content in surface coating
  • U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008 Title I Section 101 – Total Lead content in non-surface coating materials (substrate)
  • U.S. Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008 Title I, Section 108 – Phthalate content
  • EN71-1 : 2011 – Mechanical and Physical properties
  • EN71-2 : 2011 – Flammability test
  • EN71-3 : 2013 – Migration of certain elements
  • REACH Regulation (EC) no. 1907/2006, Annex XVII Items 51 & 52 & amendment no. 552/2009 (formerly known as Directive 2005/84/EC) – Phthalates content requirement
  • Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS ISO 8124-1:2013 – Mechanical and physical tests
  • Australian Trade Practice Act 1974 with Consumer Protection Notice no. 14 of 2003 Consumer Product Safety Standard for toys for children up to and including 36 months of age
  • Australian Trade Practice Act 1974 with Consumer Protection Notice no. 5 of 2010 Consumer Product Safety Standard for children’s toys containing magnets
  • Competition Consumer Act 2010 with Consumer Protection Notice no. 5 of 2012 for magnetic objects
  • Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS ISO 8124-2:2009 – Flammability test
  • Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS ISO 8124-3:2003 (Australian Trade Practice Act 1974 with Consumer Protection Notice no. 1, 2009 – Consumer Product Safety Standard for Lead and certain elements in children’s toys.) – Toxic elements test
  • Australian Customs Notice no. 2007/46 – amendments to the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 Schedule 2 Item 2 – Toxic elements test.
  • Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS ISO 8124-3:2012 – Toxic elements test
  • REACH Regulation (EC) No.1907/2006 , Annex XVII Item 23 & amendment No. 835/2012 – Cadmium content requirement
  • EN 62115 : 2005 + A11 : 2012 / AC : 2013 – Safety of electric toy

PLEASE DO NOT RISK YOUR CHILD’S SAFETY BY BUYING LOWER QUALITY PRODUCTS.

Of course, as with any other activity that your children take part in, competent supervision is recommended at all times for younger children.