THE white-coated technician jabs the bear's eye with a metal scalpel, hoping to prise it away from the head.

When that doesn't work, he hangs a nine kilogram weight off its eyeball to rip it from its sockets.

The victim in this case is a teddy bear bought as a present for an unsuspecting child, and the man holding the scalpel is a trading standards technician testing the toy for potentially dangerous defects.

A Gateshead laboratory, officially accredited yesterday for toy testing by Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Dr Kim Howells, is at the front line in the trading standards battle against rogue toys.

With the latest equipment and powers to prosecute suspect manufacturers and retailers, Gateshead Metrology Laboratory leads the way in testing toys to destruction. Lab technicians pull, prod, and chemically test every type of children's plaything, from jigsaws to jack-in-a-boxes.

Today's toys do not pose the same threats to little fingers and delicate palates that they did 30 years ago.

Metal boxes with razor sharp edges and wind-up toys with skin-lacerating springs are no longer top of the trading standards' hit list.

But, as Dr Howells explained, killer toys are still a potential problem for today's army of mini-consumers.

He said: "The safety of our children is paramount. The laboratory is doing a superb job in a vital sector of public protection.

"We don't think that most local authorities fully understand the significance of the role of trading standards - they are our front line in protecting the public.

"There are a lot of shysters out there who are selling products that are poisoning people or injuring them in some way.

"We should try and make sure that this facility is an example to the rest of the country."

The Government says that the war is being won against unscrupulous manufacturers, but it is hoped the laboratory will put the final nail in the coffin of shoddily-produced toys on Tyne and Wear.

Gateshead councillor Brian Richmond said: "Up to the mid-80s, we got a lot of toys from the Middle and Far East that were dangerous.

"People would spot a craze in this country, then take it abroad to get it made on the cheap. Thankfully, standards have now improved abroad and we don't see as many potential death traps."