Yes, it's happened. In the land of the free, a New York state bureaucrat outlawed the sale of lead figures last December. With this act (by an unelected official), an estimated 25% of the Mom & Pop hobby stores in New York were closed or out-of-business, although this ban was over-turned towards the years end. With all the trouble in today's world, the state has turned its ugly head our way.

Although lead can be dangerous when ingested (I do not know of any cases of children being hurt by lead figures), I do think there should be warning labels on each package and I would even go further and have a flyer describing the dangers of lead and what to do about it at every store that sells lead figures but an out-right ban would only make it go into the blackmarket, most hobby stores would close (lost tax revenues), less hobby conventions (more lost tax revenues), the closing of manufactures (some more tax revenues lost), and more gainers would make there own figures (more pollution in the home from the melting of lead).

The state is worried about children getting hold of the figures in the future but they have been making toy soldiers since the beginning of the century! I have yet to see a kid playing with a Karl Marx figure or a 54MM English figure because they are COLLECTIBLES.

If any of our members hear of anything like this elsewhere, write to us so that we can inform other members. Remember, the hobby you save can be your own.