These spectacular figures are Fujin and Raijin, Wind Guy and Rain Guy. They’re by Nakagawa Takeji, a 32-year-old toymaker in Nagano, Japan. Nakagawa’s Take-g Toys [though it's a spin on his first name, it's pronounced like English] specializes in simple, modern toys with almost baroque combinations of woods and grains.

Take-g block sets come in the big three: maple, walnut, and cherry. But the Take-g Zoo animals are made from white ash and teak, too. The more elaborate, one-off toys and sculptures also include some keyaki, a rare variety of Japanese elm. Blocks and animals are sold online, but the art pieces are only sold through gallery exhibitions.

Given that the toys can run 20,000 yen [$164] for the ten animals to 42,000 yen [$344] for the big set of blocks, the Japanese have always had a thing for crazy-expensive wooden toys.

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According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China.

The recall, the second biggest this year involving toys, covers 83 products made from April 19 to July 6. Many of them feature Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters — including the Elmo Tub Sub, the Dora the Explorer Backpack, and the Giggle Gabber, a toy shaped like Elmo or Cookie Monster that toddlers shake to hear giggles and funny noises.

Mattel says it prevented more than two-thirds of the 967,000 affected toys from reaching consumers by stopping the products in its distribution centers and contacting retailers, like Wal-Mart, Target and Toys ‘R’ Us, late last week. But more than 300,000 of the tainted toys have been bought by consumers in the United States. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the toys may have a date code from 109-7LF to 187-7LF on the product or packaging.

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