TOMY has decided to pull all its carseat brands from the market. These brands include Compass, The First Years, JJ Cole, Lamaze, and Learning Curve.
Carseat companies have gone out of business in the past, most notably Fisher Price. It doesn’t necessarily mean the product was bad; either the company decided to go in a different direction, the cost of production was too high, or there were too many problems with a seat. In the case of TOMY, it was a financial decision. After all, when a single crash test is thousands of $ per seat, you can see how it requires a lot of money to be in this business. TOMY will continue its production of strollers under The First Years and JJ Cole brands.
Statement from TOMY:
“TOMY has made the difficult decision to exit the car seat business. Despite very positive consumer reviews, based in part on our five star NHSTA ratings, we have determined that the economics of the category will prevent us from reaching the level of success necessary for continued investment. We have stopped production and are currently working with our retail partners to sell remaining inventory. We will continue to market our collection of lightweight strollers sold under the First Years and JJ Cole brands. Our customer service team remains available to you to assist with any questions or concerns you may have through this transition period.”
What does this mean to you as an owner of a TOMY carseat?
Eventually all replacement parts will be depleted either over time as owners call and request them or if a recall happens.
What should you do?
Continue using your carseat as normal. It’s still fine, right? It’s going to be fine tomorrow. The seats made by TOMY are quality products. There may be some nice sales in the near future on True Fit Convertibles, Contigo Infant Seats and B540/B570 Folding Boosters — and if you find one, consider it, but know that replacement parts likely won’t be there in the future should you need them (maybe I’m an oddity, but over the course of my kids being in carseats, I didn’t need replacement parts for any of my carseats, so . . .).
Does this mean the first years lamaze is no good??
JoAnna, if you have one, it’s fine. They made a business decision to not make carseats anymore. Baby Trend bought the molds and will be manufacturing them in 2016: https://carseatblog.com/35369/abc-kids-expo-2015-new-from-baby-trend-somewhat-new-to-us/ .
i just found out that we getting web money for the web site
yah that does not by me new car seat in anyway
thank for nothing tomy #lamerecallthe1styears
No wonder there car seats got recalled
Now I wish what we where getting for the recalled car seat
Ah, no! I am such a fan of the TrueFit! I’ll have to keep an eye out for their high back booster now.
I wonder if they’d sell the true fit to another brand, like safeguard sold the the Go? It’s an innovative seat, the only thing that’s kept me from suggesting it to most people of late is the 35 lb rear facing weight limit.
The Truefit Premiere is the first convertible seat I bought and still one of my favorites as well. When we took it to the carseat check (in 2009) the technician was super excited to see one in person.
This is sad. I love the true fit and the innovations it brought to the market.
This is really just devastating. As a daycare provider, I would have been content to keep buying the Truefit again and again for the next 20 years. I have never had a more usable carseat, it is perfect in almost every way (except for width, which is why I have one Radian). There really is nothing else on the market that functions as well as the Truefit for my needs – I have no idea what seat to turn to now.
I’ll have to keep an eye out for booster sales!
Too bad the bundle me isn’t going with them.
Wow!
Guess it’s good that I gave up on buying the Unite.
Wow. That pulls a LOT of seats off the market at once. And they don’t even have any problems or anything.
Oh man. I was really looking forward to that new combo seat that we have been waiting for so long. 🙁
Pity, I like the First Years True Fit SI for my oldest, it was a very nice decently priced seat.