Lego Group

Politics and protest have come to Legoland, where a new toy line called Lego Friends has been making enemies. Lego Friends features five female play figures that are a departure from the chunky, interchangeable and gender-vague people who have inhabited all of Legoland's many territories until now. These five have individual personas, slim bodies and cute faces. They hang out at the beauty shop, the vet, the cafe, the puppy house and the bakery, as well as at the design school and the inventor's workshop.

Politics and protest have come to Legoland, where a new toy line called Lego Friends has been making enemies. Lego Friends features five female play figures that are a departure from the chunky, interchangeable and gender-vague people who have inhabited all of Legoland's many territories until now. These five have individual personas, slim bodies and cute faces. They hang out at the beauty shop, the vet, the cafe, the puppy house and the bakery, as well as at the design school and the inventor's workshop.

Lego toys have always seemed pleasantly gender-neutral. Perhaps that's why the new Lego Friends line for girls has triggered a fair bit of protest from some health and equal-rights organizations. The new line, whose characters sport slim figures and stylish clothes, will contribute to gender stereotyping that promotes body dissatisfaction in girls, said Carolyn Costin, an eating disorders specialist and founder of the Monte Nido Treatment Center in Malibu. Online  petitions  have been started to protest the line, which includes a Butterfly Beauty Shop and a Your Fashion Designer Workshop. The International Assn.

Lego toys have always seemed pleasantly gender-neutral. Perhaps that's why the new Lego Friends line for girls has triggered a fair bit of protest from some health and equal-rights organizations. The new line, whose characters sport slim figures and stylish clothes, will contribute to gender stereotyping that promotes body dissatisfaction in girls, said Carolyn Costin, an eating disorders specialist and founder of the Monte Nido Treatment Center in Malibu. Online  petitions  have been started to protest the line, which includes a Butterfly Beauty Shop and a Your Fashion Designer Workshop. The International Assn.

Danish toy maker Lego Group plans to slash its work force by up to 10% as electronic toys cut deeply into sales of its famed interlocking plastic building blocks. The privately held company said it expects to report a loss for 1998, its first since its founding in the 1930s. In a statement to the company's 10,000 employees, Lego Chief Executive Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said the plan to cut up to 1,000 jobs worldwide was necessary to "slim down and improve our health."

Lego Group, whose iconic plastic building blocks have entertained millions of children for more than 70 years, said Tuesday that it would eliminate 1,200 jobs to remold itself in an era when kids prefer playing with electronic gadgets. The company, one of the last to produce toys in the U.S., plans to close its manufacturing plant in Enfield, Conn., and lay off 300 employees in early 2007. Work done at the Enfield plant will be shifted to Mexico, where costs are lower, Lego said.

Jonathan P. Brown, a hobby programmer, loves Lego. In fact, he's a bit obsessed. After all, he built a Lego robot that can solve the Rubik's Cube. For years, the Chicago architectural consultant has been fascinated by how the tiny bricks of plastic can be configured--and blended with robot components, microprocessors and motors--to create functional, and sometimes strange, creations. On his site, at jpbrown.i8.com /index.

Computer scientists at Brandeis University say they have taken a significant step toward creating robots that will evolve into ever more sophisticated machines, capable of repairing and modifying their own hardware. What they have come up with isn't exactly the "2001" film star, Hal, or even R2D2 of "Star Wars." But they have produced software that allows a computer to design structures, such as bridges and cranes, without human intervention.

Legoland has a new landlord. Blackstone Group, a New York investment firm, said Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Lego Group's four family entertainment parks, including one in Carlsbad in San Diego County, for $457 million. The sale follows Blackstone's $187-million acquisition in May of Merlin Entertainment Group, a London company that operates 28 tourist attractions in eight European countries under the Dungeons, Sea Life, Seal Sanctuary and Earth Explorer brands.

The raciest ride at the Legoland California theme park being built atop a breezy bluff in Carlsbad will be the pint-sized Dragon roller coaster, with a top speed of 15 mph. The watercraft carrying visitors around the park will move even more slowly. And the gorillas and birds are nothing more than millions of skillfully assembled plastic blocks.

Lego may have a record gain in U.S. sales this year as cash-strapped parents seek toys that will last, said the head of the company's Americas unit. Lego's total sales growth will exceed its August projection of 12%, Soren Torp Laursen said. The company has had an "exceptional year" in the United States and Britain, he said. "We braced ourselves for fairly tough conditions because the macro-economic picture was not looking very good," Laursen said Tuesday.

Lego Group, whose iconic plastic building blocks have entertained millions of children for more than 70 years, said Tuesday that it would eliminate 1,200 jobs to remold itself in an era when kids prefer playing with electronic gadgets. The company, one of the last to produce toys in the U.S., plans to close its manufacturing plant in Enfield, Conn., and lay off 300 employees in early 2007. Work done at the Enfield plant will be shifted to Mexico, where costs are lower, Lego said.

Legoland has a new landlord. Blackstone Group, a New York investment firm, said Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Lego Group's four family entertainment parks, including one in Carlsbad in San Diego County, for $457 million. The sale follows Blackstone's $187-million acquisition in May of Merlin Entertainment Group, a London company that operates 28 tourist attractions in eight European countries under the Dungeons, Sea Life, Seal Sanctuary and Earth Explorer brands.

Danish toy maker Lego said it was in talks with several partners to sell its four Legoland amusement parks, including one in Carlsbad in San Diego County. It expected to reach a deal this summer. "We're in the middle of [the] process and do not wish to comment further," spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said.

Financially troubled Danish toy maker Lego Holding is about to sell four of the biggest bricks in its empire -- its Legoland theme parks. Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity firm, is close to an agreement to buy Lego's family entertainment parks, including one in Carlsbad in San Diego County. The deal would be valued at about $461 million, according to sources close to the deal cited by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

Brick by brick, a part of the Lego empire is up for sale. The four Legoland amusement parks -- including one that opened near San Diego in 1999 -- are being shed by Lego Co., best known for its miniature plastic building bricks. The closely held toy maker, based in Billund, Denmark, disclosed the move Thursday as it announced that Chief Executive Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen was stepping down because of disappointing earnings.

By the end of the 1980s, Lego noticed something was wrong. Girls seemed to be losing interest in the toy maker's small, colorful, plastic building blocks. Company executives in this central Danish town scratched their heads. They commissioned inquiries, hired experts, studied child psychology. Finally they learned what may seem obvious to many: Girls and boys are different.

In a bid to recapture kids' imaginations, decidedly low-tech Lego is taking its building blocks high-tech. Lego Group will marry its construction sets with computers this fall when it introduces a series of software titles based on Lego themes, as well as a programmable brick that lets kids build lifelike robots.

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.

Jonathan P. Brown, a hobby programmer, loves Lego. In fact, he's a bit obsessed. After all, he built a Lego robot that can solve the Rubik's Cube. For years, the Chicago architectural consultant has been fascinated by how the tiny bricks of plastic can be configured--and blended with robot components, microprocessors and motors--to create functional, and sometimes strange, creations. On his site, at jpbrown.i8.com /index.