Polymers in Toyland

Christmas toys Plastics are just about everywhere during the holiday season. Resistance to the wear-and-tear of children's play, cold and wet weather, convenience, safety and even style make synthetic materials attractive to manufacturers, designers and consumers alike. More than half of all toys sold in the EU - as outlined by PlasticsEurope - are sold at Christmas time. From Barbie dolls to Playmobil and even those hi-tech objects of teenage desire, Wii, Playstation, XBox and other game consoles, the basic material is plastic. Perhaps most legendary of all are Lego toys, plastics reduced to their most ingeniously simple expression - interlocking bricks. The Danish company cranks out some 19 billion bricks a year, processing approximately 30,000 tons of plastic annually. From a technical standpoint, these toys are less simple than they appear. The company uses at least 20 different materials, because of the demand for mechanical and thermal properties to fulfil the requirements of new products.