A toy fire truck sold at Target can shed a part small enough to choke a child

A black plastic fire hose port, mounted on the side of a red toy fire engine, can work loose and come off in a child’s hands. Melissa & Doug has received 26 reports of exactly that on its Lights & Sounds Fire Truck Activity Board, and the loose port is small enough to pose a choking hazard. About 84,000 of the toys, sold only at Target, are being recalled.

One of the 26 reports also involved a minor cut, the only injury of any kind on record. The board sold for about $30 at Target stores and on Target.com from July 2025 through August 2026, so the whole recalled run was on shelves for roughly thirteen months.

The detaching hose port and the date codes

The Consumer Product Safety Commission notice, number 26-780, says the fire hose port “can come loose and detach,” which leaves a small loose piece within reach of a young child who can put it in the mouth and choke on it. The toy measures 10.5 inches high, 14.31 inches wide and 3.06 inches deep, weighs 1.6 pounds, and combines spinning wheels and a white rotating ladder with a busy-board panel that plays lights and sounds. Melissa & Doug, of Wilton, Connecticut, has the toy made in China.

Not every board is affected. Only units with specific date codes are in the recall: a wheel indicator reading 25-4, 25-5 or 26-3, or packaging stamped OET 25100, OET 25150 or OET 26064. WRAL’s consumer unit described where to look: the date wheels on the bottom of the toy, with one arrow pointing to 25 and another to 4 or 5, or one arrow at 26 and another at 3. A board made earlier or later than those windows falls outside the notice.

A second check helps: WBTV reported that “Melissa & Doug” is embossed on the toy’s battery compartment.

Three remedies and a proof-of-destruction routine

Melissa & Doug is offering a choice of a free replacement toy, a $30 refund check or $40 in store credit, which means a family that picks credit gets a third more value than the purchase price. Getting any of the three takes some work. Registration requires taking out the batteries, marking the board “RECALL” in permanent marker with a unique code, cutting off the hose and uploading a photograph of the result.

The cutting step is the part that sets this recall apart from the usual refund offer. Instead of shipping 84,000 toys back, the company asks each household to disable the one component that can detach, and to prove it. The requirement removes the loose hose from circulation before any money changes hands, and it also means the registered toy can no longer shed the part the notice is worried about.

The remedy menu has a visible price tag. At the shelf price of about $30, 84,000 boards represent roughly $2.5 million in sales, so a full refund on every unit would cost about the same amount, while store credit at $40 would run closer to $3.4 million if every owner chose it. Only the owners who register get paid, and the registration steps, from the permanent-marker code to the photograph, are the filter that decides how much of that exposure becomes real.

Target’s role is limited to the shelf. The notice’s title says the toy was sold exclusively there, which narrows the search for owners to one retailer’s receipts and loyalty records, and Melissa & Doug is the firm named as responsible for the recall and the remedy. Neither company is quoted in the coverage that was reviewed, and the commission’s notice is the document that carries the hazard finding, the unit count and the 26 reports. For a toy priced near $30, the notice rests on one concrete mechanical fact, a port that is not held on firmly enough, rather than on any injury statistics.

The small-parts rule that defines the hazard

Federal toy rules give the word “small” a measured meaning. The commission’s small parts guidance defines a small part as any object that fits, without compressing and in any orientation, entirely into a test cylinder that approximates the fully expanded throat of a child under three. The definition covers whole toys, separate components and pieces that break off during simulated use or abuse testing, which is the category a detaching hose port falls into.

The same guidance requires warning labels on products that contain small parts so that consumers are told not to buy them for children under a certain age, and the same warning has to appear in advertising. The commission’s small parts FAQ confirms that the ban targets products intended for children under 3, and names the commission as the enforcing agency. The recall notice for the fire truck does not say which rule the port tested against, only that it presents a choking hazard.

The unusual feature of this case is where the failure begins. A small part that breaks off under abuse testing is one thing, but the notice describes a port that is part of the toy’s intended design and came loose 26 times in a sales run of about thirteen months. Set against 84,000 toys, that is one report for roughly every 3,200 units, a count the notice presents without saying how many owners looked for the problem or how many ports separated without anyone reporting it.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

More from Morning Overview