Originally published Dec. 13, 4:34 pm ET | Updated: Dec. 14, 10:04 am ET
The toy industry is facing new issues amid pressure from government officials to ban the sale of “water bead” toys following reports of injuries and death.
This week, Amazon, Target, and Walmart joined AliExpress in making commitments to refine and restrict the sale of toys based on super absorbent polymer beads that can expand to more than 100 times their original size when hydrated with water. While the beads have existed for many years, particularly used to deliver water to plants, they became a toy department staple upon the introduction of Orbeez more than a decade ago.
An Amazon spokesperson told The Toy Book that the retailer issued an update to its sellers yesterday that it plans to prohibit the sale of water bead toys marketed to and for kids on Dec. 22.
In the interest of safety, Amazon will no longer allow the sale of water beads that are marketed to children, including as toys, art supplies or for sensory play. We work hard to ensure the products offered in our store are safe, and we have teams dedicated to developing and updating our policies, evaluating listings, and continuously monitoring our store to prevent unsafe and noncompliant products from being listed.”
Amazon says that water beads “are known by many names, including sensory beads, jelly beads, water orbs, hydro orbs, polymer beads, and gel beads” on its platform. The retailer says it will remove listings that:
- Refer to children, or use terms such as “child,” “kids,” “youth,” “boys,” or “girls”
- Include images of children with the product
- Describe their use as a toy or use terms such as “sensory play,” “arts,” or “crafts”
The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning on its site regarding the water beads sold in arts and crafts sets, activity kits, and as ammo for gel bead blasters following a raft of recalls dating back to at least 2013. Most recently, the CPSC facilitated a voluntary recall of Buffalo Games’ Chuckle & Roar Water Bead Activity Kits. According to the CPSC, more than 7,800 emergency room visits related to the ingestion of water beads took place in the U.S. between 2016 and 2022.
In New Jersey, a proposed piece of legislation is being considered that could ban the sale of water beads in The Garden State.
In September, The Toy Association reaffirmed its stance on water/gel beads in a since-deleted post on its website (archived here). Following the initial publication of this article, The Toy Association issued an updated statement:
Among reports of injury from the unintended/ misuse of water beads, a number of retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Target will stop the sale of water bead products intended for children. Safety is the number one priority for The Toy Association and its members. Safety standards for these products exist and continue to be evaluated as to whether enhanced protections are needed. We recognize and support certain retailers’ business decisions to take steps in the interim. It is important for toy shoppers to follow the age grading information on the packaging and keep products not intended for young children out of reach. Shoppers need to be aware that non-compliant and counterfeit products do exist and are a safety threat, making it imperative to shop only at legitimate retailers they know and trust. For more toy safety information, visit Playsafe.org."
According to Consumer Reports, Walmart plans to prohibit the sale of water bead toys marketed for kids under age 9 while Target says it will no longer sell water bead toys marketed to kids under 12.
The Blaster Battle
The pushback against water beads comes just as water bead blasters have made a real impact at retail in the U.S.
A controversial category itself following scuffles with law enforcement officials and an FTC investigation regarding patent disputes, water bead (“gel”) blasters have, like the beads themselves, existed in some form for more than a decade. Slow to take off in the U.S., this category is now pulling market share from traditional, foam dart blasters and is being tracked by Circana.
Gel Blaster leads the charge in the space followed by Daisy’s SlatRBall, Hasbro’s NERF Gelfire, Skyrocket’s Faction, Prime Time Toys’ Gel Zone Pro and Hydro Strike Gel-Tek, ZURU’s X-Shot Hyper Gel blaster offerings among many others.
While the ammo packets containing dehydrated water beads could fall under scrutiny, the likely scenario is that these companies will alter their marketing to remove any mention or appearance of kids since the vast majority of products in the category are already labeled for ages 14 and up.
The Toy Book will continue monitoring the water bead situation and will report on new developments as they emerge.
