Toy Telephone Sets Recalled by Montgomery Ward
Kids’ product recall 79-064. Announced by CPSC on Jan 9, 1979.
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The short answer
Announced by CPSC on Jan 9, 1979. Copied from CPSC on Oct 19, 2026.
Every line below is in CPSC’s own words, with its source beside it.
What’s wrong with it?
Burn - Not Fire-Related
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
What should you do?
The notice gives no remedy in a field of its own.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Which ones are recalled?
Toy Telephone Sets Recalled by Montgomery Ward NEWS from CPSC U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 9, 1979 Release # 79-064 Montgomery Ward Recalls 20,000 Toy Telephone Sets WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 9) -- Montgomery Ward is recalling approximately 20,000 toy telephone sets offered for sale through its mail-order catalog, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced. The phone sets were imported from Yugoslavia and are very similar to the toy telephones recalled last month by another U.S. firm. The sets include two battery-operated toy telephones connected by means of a detachable cord. The two-prong plugs at each end of the cord so closely resemble genuine electrical plugs that children may try to force them into household sockets, thereby receiving severe shocks or burns. While Montgomery Ward has received no consumer complaints of injuries from the cords, CPSC staff reports that an 8-year-old girl was burned earlier this year when she forced a plug from a similar phone set (which was distributed by another company) into a wall electrical outlet. The sets are ivory in color, and are equipped with functional intercoms, signal lights and buzzers. The name “Mehanotehnika” is printed on the bottom of each phone. The sets have been sold through Ward’s catalogs since 1975. They are advertised in the current Christmas catalog as a “Desk Phone Set,” number 48T20192, at a retail price of $9.96. Consumers ordering the toy phones are being informed that such orders are not being filled until the company can equip the phone sets with cords and plugs which are safe. Consumers should return the toy to any Montgomery Ward catalog store for a full refund.
Mehanotehnika toys telephone sets.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Who made and sold it?
- Made by Montgomery Ward.
- Made in Yugoslavia, as the notice gives it.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Was anyone hurt?
The notice doesn’t say whether anyone was hurt.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
What the record doesn’t say
- The notice lists no UPCs, so check the model, the description and the photos.
- The notice lists no model numbers in a field of their own; its description may give them.
- How many have been returned or fixed isn’t in the notice.
Hearth Record wrote these lines.
Sources
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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Recalls API.
Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily. Public domain (U.S. Government work). CPSC asks to be credited, and that no endorsement be implied.
Recalls of kids’ and home products are from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). CPSC does not endorse Hearth Record. Copied on Oct 19, 2026.