On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 02:53:40 -0500, Silvan
wrote:

I watched Tonka's downfall with my son. Around '94, we bought a dump truck
and a back hoe. He eventually broke the back hoe, after digging lots of
real rocky dirt with the thing for hours on end. In around '97 we bought
him another one. The whole arm and bucket on the thing were PLASTIC. It
lasted a couple of months.

The key here is that the shoddy Tonka truck has nothing to do with
where it's made. Tonka decided on using plastic, not the factory in
mainland China or Taiwan or East Kangaruistkazanakan. They would, I
am sure, only be too happy to make toy arms and buckets out of
stainless steel, if Tonka wanted.

The "buy American" crowd talks about inferior foreign goods. It's not
the factory - it's the specifications the manufacturer imposes.

Cape Cod Bob
Visit my web site at http://home.comcast.net/~bobmethelis