Reports: Disney to test toys

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Walt Disney Co. will begin testing toys featuring its characters in an effort to ensure product safety ahead of the busy holiday shopping season, according to a pair of reports published Monday.

Disney (Charts, Fortune 500), which typically licenses the use of its characters to toymakers, said it will test more than 65,000 children's products, including items that are already on store shelves, both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported.

The company told the papers it would test toys, jewelry and furniture not just for the presence of lead paint but also for product durability.

The move follows a trio of recent recalls by Mattel Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500) after it discovered excessive levels of lead paint in some of its Chinese-made toys.

Tests conducted by Disney are expected to cost the company a million dollars a year but it might pass those expenses onto the toymakers in contract negotiations, a company spokesperson told the Times.

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