Lego Steps Into Action Figures

Lego Co., the Danish toy maker best known for its brightly colored interlocking bricks, is moving into a new dimension this year: action figures.

Based on the Fox Kids show “Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension,” which debuted last weekend, Lego’s line of 20 moving figures is part of the company’s efforts to broaden its product line while maintaining Lego’s more high-minded creative play.

Lego will introduce the new toys today at the industry’s main trade show, Toy Fair, in New York.

“We’re redefining Lego,” said Andrew Black, president of the company’s Americas division. “It’s not just about bricks. It’s about learning and different ways of using your mind.”

Moving away from bricks, however, also is moving away from Lego’s proven formula. In this case, the risks are greater because of the highly competitive and trend-driven action figure business.

“It’s rolling the dice because this is not a construction toy,” said Jim Silver, publisher of industry magazine Toy Book and consumer magazine Toy Wishes. “If you look at anybody in the toy industry with the introduction of action figs, the success rate is less than 50%.”

Lego’s track record on new product lines so far is excellent. Both its 1998 Mindstorms programmable robot-building product and last year’s superhero-like Bionicle robot characters were hits with consumers and industry groups.

Both of those, however, are patterned on more traditional Lego building toys. Lego says that the Galidor line is a natural extension for Lego since it requires interchanging, snap together pieces, each of which imbues the character with different powers.

“If you bought five or six Galidor toys, took all the pieces apart and then rebuilt them, you can create products Lego hasn’t thought of,” Black said. “What you’re seeing us do is creating and redefining the company. We’re creating new forms of building and in this particular case, we’ve done what we do so well in creating a new building system and marrying it with story.”

Galidor, which comes from Lego’s partnership with Canadian entertainment company CineGroupe, follows the story of a teenage boy’s adventures as he tries to save a far-away land from an evil tyrant.

In addition to its toys and licenses, Lego, owned by the founding Kristiansen family, runs its own stores and LegoLand theme parks, including one in Carlsbad.

Lego suffered its first loss in the late 1990s, as the growth of the video game market far outpaced traditional toys, and cut about 10% of its work force. In 2001, the company announced cuts of 500 jobs as well as the end of certain Lego product lines, such as clothing and watches.

But even if it hadn’t lost ground in the 1990s, Silver said, the company has good reasons to experiment with new ideas.

“Within the construction area, you can only grow so much,” said Silver. “How do you keep growing? First you try things near to your main product line, like Mindstorms or Bionicle, then you move outside of that, like action figures.”

To that end, Lego also is introducing a new preschool line, “Lego Explore,” which includes Music Builder Composer. That toy allows children to change the instrumentation of a particular song by plugging pieces representing different instruments into a base unit with holes for melody, harmony or rhythm.

Another toy lets children build theater sets to create their own stories, including multiple backgrounds and characters as well as sound effects and other components.

Black said each of Lego’s new products could be seen as a construction product, just using different kinds of building blocks.

“With Galidor, you’re building action figures,” Black said. “With Music Builder, you’re building songs.

“We’ve taken what was traditional Lego and we’ve created a brand new building system that’s never been done before.”