Oak Brook, Illinois-based toy maker RC2 Corporation had a rough Q3, chalking up a loss of between US$13 million and US$14 million as the result of the two major recalls that took place over the summer.

Hardest hit was RC2’s preschool products category. It seems that consumers had some difficulty dealing with the recalls involving the Thomas & Friends wooden toys. Overall category sales plummeted 21% from Q3 2006, which RC2 says was fuelled by major declines in sales of Bob the Builder and Thomas & Friends goods at retail.

Net sales for the period dropped 8% to US$143 million compared with the US$156 million earned a year ago, while the figure for the first nine months of 2007 is down approximately 5% to US$347.8 million.

The one good news, silver lining-esque note for the company this quarter is that international sales were up 23%.