''We were 20 years behind the United States which has enforced strict safety standards for toys since 1972,'' said Robert Cheung, assistant director.

''Hong Kong manufacturers endeavoured to meet those overseas standards because, to export toys which did not, would have been a fruitless and costly exercise.'' Poor quality or unsafe toys which were exported, and did not meet the importing country's requirements, would end up being dumped back in Hong Kong, where they could find their way unimpeded into local outlets.

Those days are past. ''We have finally caught up with the rest of the world,'' Mr Cheung said.

In other areas, the HKSTC reflects progress and a tour through the laboratories at Tai Po is a fascinating - often macabre - journey.

In the laboratory, it is a child's nightmare. On one bench, a doll with golden hair has had her forehead sliced off. Another has lost her knees. These have been chopped into tiny pieces and put in to a beaker to be mixed with chemicals and tested for toxins.

A robot lies dismantled, ready for technicians to test its electronic circuitry and batteries for potential hazards.

Another beaker is filled with brightly coloured pieces of plastic, the chopped up remains of a toy cat. The paint will be tested for lead content.

On another floor, a box overflows with dolls - bodies burned, faces melted. They had been set ablaze to test for flammability.

Meanwhile, women are taking paint scrapings from dolls' faces. These are put into acid, to simulate stomach acid, and this is then put into a water bath, which is at body temperature. A drum churns for a couple of hours to simulate stomach action and thesolution is then tested for heavy metal contents to see what harm the paint would do if ingested by a child.

Robotic fingers are used to see whether a toy car will trap small fingers; a brass ring serves as a mouth to see whether a rattle is too small to be safe.

A torch-like device indicates when a point is too sharp by lighting up if stabbed; a vice-like object serves as a tooth to see which toys a child's teeth would sink into if bitten.

Lines painted on the wall indicate height. Two floors have been laid - the ''American'' hard wooden floor and the softer ''European'' carpeted floor. Will toys or ''unbreakable'' crockery, destined for these specific markets, shatter if dropped from a certain height? In another section of the building, a box sits on top of a huge vibrating block, to simulate the movement of a plane taking off. The packaging inside is being tested for suitability in freighting delicate electronic equipment.

On another floor, the benches are littered with pieces of wire, switches, and electrical equipment which are being pulled apart, thrown around, fiddled with and generally abused.

A mechanical hand operates a toaster, which must pop up 500 times for it to be passed.

Christmas comes early and, in one corner, a plastic tree is lit with coloured lights which are being tested for performance and flammability.

An enormous laundry is fitted with American and British-style washing machines. One older machine looks more like a paddle wheel.

Coloured fabrics are pinned to white test patches - cotton, wool, silk - to see, for example, whether a blue wool jacket will bleed colour into the cream silk lining.

Others are being washed over and over in the British machine to test for shrinkage.

A pair of socks is streaked with red dye, which has run. They are not going to make it overseas.

Shelves are lined with huge boxes of washing powder found on supermarket shelves all over the world - and caustic chemical solutions which are not.

A tank drips water on to a flashing advertising sign to ensure it will be safe, and work effectively, in the rain.

The makers of Pak Fah Yeow want to get a Q Mark and so this age-old remedy is undergoing hi-tech tests to see if it meets Hong Kong's quality standards.

A Marks and Spencer drum is used to test whether particular fabrics, sourced in Asia, will pill (form little balls).

''Marks and Spencer has very high standards,'' Mr Cheung said.

In a smaller room, the humidity is monitored for fabrics which are being prepared for the flame test.

''The amount of moisture in the material will affect the results,'' Mr Cheung said.

Another item of torture tests tensile strength of fabrics, seams or, perhaps, luggage.

In the microbiology lab, food stuffs are checked for bacteria.