Vintage Colorforms
The Colorforms game board pictured here tested “safe by all modern standards” – meaning there was no component (no color or are of the board pictured) that tested positive for a level of Lead above the 90 ppm threshold set by the CPSIA for the presence of Lead in modern consumer goods manufactured for use by children today. HOWEVER… the reader who sent this to me sent me the board only (with one coated cardboard game piece – which I will report on separately), NOT the vinyl / plastic / rubberized pieces that come with most Colorforms sets. As a result my curiosity was piqued and I checked out eBay and purchased a NEW-in-box (never used) vintage Colorforms toy set (also, coincidentally from 1981) and tested both the background board AND the rubberized “sticker” components for Lead and the results of that testing were quite alarming. Stand by for those test results (to be posted and linked here shortly) and in the meantime, here are the test results for the game board pictured.
1981 Colorform Tummy Ache Game Board
XRF Test results
Black plastic spinner:
- Barium (Ba): 937 +/- 231 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 61 +/- 21 ppm
White area on front of game board:
- Lead (Pb): 15 +/- 8 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 372 +/- 221 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 414 +/- 32 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 524 +/- 70 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,069 +/- 112 ppm
Black area on front of game board:
- Lead (Pb): 27 +/- 10
- Barium (Ba): 2,187 +/- 233 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 403 +/- 35 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 470 +/- 74 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,079 +/- 109 ppm
Blue area on front of game board:
- Lead (Pb): 19 +/- 11 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 428 +/- 43 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 525 +/- 93 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,165 +/- 118 ppm
Red area on front of game board:
- Zinc (Zn): 413 +/- 42 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 474 +/- 89 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,087 +/- 93 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 1,730 +/- 758 ppm
Yellow area on front of game board:
- Lead (Pb): 21+/- 10 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 404 +/- 253 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 495 +/- 41 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 510 +/- 83 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 994 +/- 91 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 1,544 +/- 752 ppm
Green area on front of game board:
- Lead (Pb): 29 +/- 14 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 362 +/- 46 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 410 +/- 98 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 1,071 +/- 114 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 1,757 +/- 936 ppm
Black paper of back side of game board:
- Chromium (Cr): 58 +/- 29 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 345 +/- 46 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 656 +/- 116 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 2,402 +/- 137 ppm
As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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