>>9535827>Toy companies don't have the money to be figuring out problems like this.actually, they do. Big companies like Hasbro and Mattel hire engineers, biologists, and chemists to create new plastics. There are entire teams of scientists researching and testing new shit, all year round at these companies.
It's also likely that they're already sitting on a rubbery material that doesn't wear out, but they're just sitting on that patent, either because it costs too much or it's not safe for infants.
Like with most patents, other companies are too fucking cheap to actually pay for the licensing fees and would rather wait out for patent to expire 20 years from now. People have actually died and gotten maimed because a certain patent that could prevent dangerous shit from happening was too costly and laws wouldn't hold these companies liable, as long as they try some other (cheaper ineffective) method.
Rubber materials in itself actually lasts a very long time. Stuff like speakers use rubber, where it stretches and warps at 500mph 1000x a milisecond, for decades and decades of use. But to bend and crease like a toy's joint does? NOPE.
