His is an all-American toy story

"They are so dishonest," he said of archrival Mattel Inc., which had just won a jury victory in a long-fought copyright infringement lawsuit that could cost MGA more than $1 billion.

"Their lawyers are dishonest," said Larian, who sees the case as a vendetta by Mattel against him.

It wasn't an unexpected reaction from the feisty Larian, 54, who built his Van Nuys-based company into one of the major forces in the toy industry from a humble enterprise so shaky that it filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997.

That success was mostly built on one product -- the Bratz dolls that MGA debuted in 2001. Beloved by preteen girls, the hip dolls with tight outfits and bare midriffs that exuded street smarts (uncomfortably close to street walker, according to some angered parents) soon made MGA anywhere from $500 million to $2 billion a year, depending on which analyst was doing the estimating.

But July 17, after six weeks of testimony, the jury found that the Bratz dolls were created by a designer who had been working at Mattel under an exclusivity contract. The jury also found that MGA and Larian aided the breaking of that contract.

The battle, and courtroom fireworks the trial generated, are far from over. On Friday, during the damages phase of the trial, it was revealed that one of the jurors had made slurs about the ethnicity of Larian, who was born in Iran. The juror was removed and MGA asked for a mistrial to be declared. The matter will be taken up in court Aug. 4.

A mistrial would wipe out Mattel's victory, justifying Larian's refusal to enter settlement talks with Mattel.

"I need to sleep good at night," he said. "I can't be in bed with them."

Strolling confidently through the courthouse hallways during breaks, Larian was always nattily dressed in well-tailored suits, and always willing to give a comment to reporters.

During noon breaks, he was often seen carrying a Trader Joe's bag that didn't go with the suits. As he entered the private sanctuary of his lawyers' workroom one day he explained, "It's my lunch. My wife is very good to me."

In a recent interview, he traced his feistiness and devotion to family to his childhood.