diff --git a/lib/core/parser/eval_access.dart b/lib/core/parser/eval_access.dart
index 0cdcd663b..54c7cf64c 100644
--- a/lib/core/parser/eval_access.dart
+++ b/lib/core/parser/eval_access.dart
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ abstract class AccessReflective {
   _assignToNonExisting(scope, value) => null;
 
   static Function createInvokeClosure(InstanceMirror mirror, Symbol symbol) {
-    if (!hasMember(mirror, symbol)) return null;
+    if (!hasMethod(mirror, symbol)) return null;
     return relaxFnArgs(([a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5]) {
       var arguments = stripTrailingNulls([a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5]);
       return mirror.invoke(symbol, arguments).reflectee;
@@ -131,17 +131,22 @@ abstract class AccessReflective {
     return list;
   }
 
-  static bool hasMember(InstanceMirror mirror, Symbol symbol) {
+  static bool hasMethod(InstanceMirror mirror, Symbol symbol) {
     return hasMethodHelper(mirror.type, symbol);
   }
 
+  static final objectClassMirror = reflectClass(Object);
+  static final Set<Symbol> objectClassInstanceMethods =
+      new Set<Symbol>.from([#toString, #noSuchMethod]);
+
   static final Function hasMethodHelper = (() {
-    var objectType = reflect(Object).type;
     try {
       // Use ClassMirror.instanceMembers if available. It contains local
       // as well as inherited members.
-      objectType.instanceMembers;
-      return (type, symbol) => type.instanceMembers[symbol] is MethodMirror;
+      objectClassMirror.instanceMembers;
+      // For SDK 1.2 we have to use a somewhat complicated helper for this
+      // to work around bugs in the dart2js implementation.
+      return hasInstanceMethod;
     } on NoSuchMethodError catch (e) {
       // For SDK 1.0 we fall back to just using the local members.
       return (type, symbol) => type.members[symbol] is MethodMirror;
@@ -151,6 +156,27 @@ abstract class AccessReflective {
     }
     return null;
   })();
+
+  static bool hasInstanceMethod(type, symbol) {
+    // Always allow instance methods found in the Object class. This makes
+    // it easier to work around a few bugs in the dart2js implementation.
+    if (objectClassInstanceMethods.contains(symbol)) return true;
+    // Work around http://dartbug.com/16309 which causes access to the
+    // instance members of certain builtin types to throw exceptions
+    // while traversing the superclass chain.
+    var mirror;
+    try {
+      mirror = type.instanceMembers[symbol];
+    } on UnsupportedError catch (e) {
+      mirror = type.declarations[symbol];
+    }
+    // Work around http://dartbug.com/15760 which causes noSuchMethod
+    // forwarding stubs to be treated as members of all classes. We have
+    // already checked for the real instance methods in Object, so if the
+    // owner of this method is Object we simply filter it out.
+    if (mirror is !MethodMirror) return false;
+    return mirror.owner != objectClassMirror;
+  }
 }
 
 /**