...just as [Mattel]...was preparing to announce that the company would recall 1.5 million Chinese-made toys that were tainted with lead paint...Mattel...[was] forc[ed]...to recognize that it had more of a systemic problem than simply an isolated case...Now Mattel...is in crisis mode. Toys for the coming holiday shopping season are already being shipped...and Mattel wants to catch any other problems that may have slipped through the cracks before those toys land on store shelves...For Mattel, a big problem was that some of its trusted vendors had turned to cheaper paint suppliers outside the company's approved list...But isn't Mattel putting pressure on its vendors to save money? "No absolutely not," [said Tom Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for worldwide operations]..."We insist that they continue to use certified paint from certified vendors, and we pay for that, and we're perfectly willing to pay for that." [refers to Fisher-Price (part of Mattel), Lee Der, Early Light Industrial, Hong Li Da]