CPSC, Matsushita Electric Corporation of America Announce Recall of Combination TV/VCRs

Recall Insight

This CPSC action (record #04190) was formally reported on July 30, 2004. It is classified under Moderate severity, with a current status of Active. Matsushita Electric Corporation of America, Secaucus, New Jersey is listed as the recalling firm. Federal records indicate About 500,000 units are affected, a scale large enough to require multi-state distribution tracking.

The documented reason for this recall is: The TV/VCR cabinets can break when lifted by the ventilation holes in the top rear of the cabinet, permitting the TV/VCR to fall and injure hands and feet. Distribution information was not included in the agency filing, so consumers should assume broad potential exposure until the firm publishes point-of-sale details. The remedy documented by the agency is: Consumers should contact Panasonic, Quasar, RCA, and JCPenney to receive a free retrofit kit to cover the ventilation holes and prevent lifting from this area. — consumers holding this product should act on that instruction rather than relying on general guidance.

To put this record in context, PlainRecalls indexes 83,949 recalls across the FDA, CPSC, NHTSA and USDA FSIS going back to 1995. Within the same product category, the database holds 6 closely related recalls, of which 6 were also issued by CPSC. That clustering is a signal — repeated actions in a narrow category often indicate a systemic quality-control issue, a supplier-wide contamination, or a design defect that has propagated across product lines. This recall is roughly 22 years old; older recalls can remain relevant because many units enter resale, rental, and secondary-market channels where the original warning never reaches the end user. Always cross-check the recall number against the official agency page before relying on any summary.