The Danish toymaker posted a 25% jump in revenues and a 31% rise in net profits in 2015, thanks to a huge demand for its Star Wars, Ninjago and Disney (DIS) Princess products. The company said it sold more than 72 billion Lego bricks to 100 million kids in 2015, with Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle, the Star Wars Millennium Falcon and a Police Station topping the list of best sellers. "If I could sing and dance, I should be singing and dancing, because it is a fantastic number of results," Lego's CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp said at a press conference on Tuesday. The company launched 350 new products in 2015, the largest number ever. It has also expanded further into digital world, launching GO DIMENSIONS video game, which merges physical Lego brick building with interactive console game. Lego reported revenues of 35.8 billion Danish kroner in 2015 on Tuesday. That's up 25.2% compared to 2014, which was already very successful year. The toymaker received a boost from the Lego Movie, which premiered in February 2014.
It became the world's biggest toy company in September of the same year, overtaking Mattel (MAT). Lego said it grew double digits in all of its core markets, outpacing the wider toy market, which it said grew by "mid single digits" in 2015. The company employs nearly 14,000 people around the world, and is still owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family that founded it in 1932. Its sales have quadrupled in the last 10 years.Racism is sadly alive and well in the world, but in a LEGO Star Wars toy set? Have a look at the picture above: That’s LEGO’s rendition of “Jabba’s Palace,” as in Jabba the Hutt, the giant alien slug-creature that hassled Han Solo and his pals over a snarling sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi. According to the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria, it’s also a racially prejudiced riff on at least two revered religious structures, reports The Telegraph. (MORE: Texas Apartment to Track Dog Poop Offenders Using DNA) TCCA apparently believes the toy set resembles the Hagia Sophia, originally a structure in Istanbul that began life as an Orthodox basilica in 360, became a mosque in 1453 and was eventually converted to a museum in 1935;
TCCA further alleges it resembles the 7th century Jami’ al-Kabir mosque in Beirut. What’s more, writes TCCA according to a Google Translate version of the page (originally in German): It is clear that the figure of the ugly villain Jabba and the whole scene [exemplifies] racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against … Orientals and Asians as sneaky and criminal personalities (slaveholders, leaders of criminal organizations, terrorists, criminals, murderers, human sacrifice)… A picture posted on TCCA’s website shows the toy structure with pictures of the Hagia Sophia mosque and red connector arrows drawing comparisons between the toy palace’s dome and the mosque’s, and suggesting the accompanying toy tower resembles a minaret. TCCA thus calls on LEGO to, among other things, “apologize publicly for the violation of religious and cultural feelings.” LEGO’s actual toy description sounds innocuous enough: “Rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt’s desert palace!
Avoid the trap door and roof-mounted missles [sic] to free Han Solo from Jabba’s Palace, with poseable Jabba and all-new Salacious Crumb.” Not so, says TCCA on its site — alleging that the Gamorrean guard in the tower represents an Islamic prayer leader “as a criminal with an ax and rifle;” that the tower contains “several assault rifles” (presumably implicating its residents as warlike); and that “[the] terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed.” (MORE: Parents in U.S. and China Both Lie to Their Kids, Study Says) TCCA may care to check its aim: LEGO Jabba’s Palace is based on the detailed sets and backdrops created for Return of the Jedi, after all. Whatever George Lucas was channeling in the original design, the palace, the tower and Jabba himself have been around for decades.Watch: Star Wars Short Film Shows What Happened Minutes Before ‘Force Awakens’Posted on Monday, May 9th, 2016 by Peter ScirettaAs you probably know by now, Disney has teamed with LEGO to release a series of Star Wars animated short films set before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
We’ve posted a bunch of them on the site in the past, and they are definitely worth your time. The latest one, the fifth in the series, is titled “Attack of the Conscience” and tells Finn’s (at the time, still FN-2187) story leading up to the seconds before we see he in JJ Abrams‘ Episode VII. Watch that short and the other four previously released LEGO Star Wars animated short films, after the jump. Here is our previously released story collecting all the shorts, followed with the new short film on the bottom:Back in February, Disney announced a new series of Star Wars animated short films titled LEGO Star Wars: The Resistance Rises a prequel to Episode VII featuring characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The first short in the series, titled Poe to the Rescue premiered on DisneyXD, and was later put online for everyone to enjoy. Disney has now released three more LEGO Star Wars: The Resistance Rises shorts, titled The Trouble with Rathtars, Hunting for Han and Rey Strikes Back.
All three shorts are a fun watch and well worth your time. I wish Disney would make an actual animated series out of these and not just shorts. Watch the two new LEGO Star Wars: The Resistance Rises short films now after the jump.Here is the previously released Poe to the Rescue short which follows Resistance pilot Poe Dameron alongside two droids, C-3PO and BB-8, as they come to the aid of Admiral Ackbar who is being held captive by Captain Phasma aboard a Star Destroyer.Now let’s get to the new episodes, which were recently released via Toys R Us (via: Starwarsnewsnet). First up is episode 2, The Trouble with Rathtars:HAN SOLO and CHEWBACCA have their hands full with a pack of misbehaving Rathtars as they attempt to transport their carnivorous cargo to a rendezvous with Bala Tik the pirate. Things go from bad to worse when First Order TIE Fighters pull the freighter over, forcing Han to think quick and somehow save his skin from the First Order and the rampaging creatures.And here is episode 3, Hunting for Han:At the castle of pirate MAZ KANATA (the gathering spot for A-list Scum and Villainy across the galaxy) Maz prepares to trade with scurvy pirate BALA TIK.
Bala Tik’s demands that Maz reveal the location of Han Solo, whom Bala Tik accuses of cheating him out of his Rathtars. As it happens, every unsavory character there has a beef with Han, and soon the Han-haters erupt in a brawl that stops when a mysterious OLD COOT sends the angry Scum on a wild goose chase after Han.Here is Episode #4, Rey Strikes Back:On remote Jakku, REY strives to make ends meet by scavenging ruined Star Destroyers, but the heartless trader UNKAR PLUTT isn’t making it easy for her. Angry at what he perceives as Rey’s ingratitude, Plutt sends henchmen to steal her cherished Tank Speeder. The two not-so-bright baddies meet their match in the determined Rey, who stops at nothing to get her beloved “Bumper” back.UPDATE: Here is Episode #5 in the series, Attack of the Conscience:I believe these shorts are roughly considered canon, which may mean that they confirm Lando is still alive in the Star Wars universe. It also confirms he’s friendly with Maz, who we know returns for Star Wars Episode VIII.