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At first glance, a video game featuring plastic toy figures that re-enact classic scenes from Star Wars films might seem like an odd pairing. Just don't tell that to Lego AS.

The Danish toy maker – most famous for its brightly coloured interlocking bricks – began dabbling with video games in 1997 as a way of expanding the Lego brand beyond building blocks in the same way the company was looking to diversify with books, DVD movies and theme parks.

But it wasn't until a few years ago when the company seized upon the idea of creating a series of games in which its iconic mini-figures stand in for the famous actors of the Star Wars saga and other action classics that things really began to take off.

Now, after five successful games starring Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones and Batman, video games are helping to power the company's turnaround and build a new business line that extends to young adults.

And to top it off, the games are driving sales back to the company's core business of selling plastic blocks to kids.

“Within Lego, we are always looking for ways to relevantly reach kids and take the Lego values and bring them to kids in a different way,” said Jill Wilfert, vice-president of Lego's licensing division.

When Lego carved its first paths into the video game market, it created its own internal division to create and develop games based on the Lego brand, the first of which was Lego Island for the PC.

The in-house company was known as Lego Media International and produced a series of somewhat successful games – Lego Island went on to sell more than 500,000 copies – tough economic times forced the company to re-evaluate the practicality of running its own game studio. When revenues plateaued in 2003 and 2004, the company was forced to cut costs and ended up outsourcing a number of its licensing initiatives, including its video game and theme park businesses.

“We did financially have a few years where we were not hitting profitability numbers,” Ms. Wilfert said.

“And we really looked at our business overall and decided to actually take the video games from an internally produced offering to a licensed offering. It was at the same time as the company was looking at focusing on what we really do best.”

Over the past five years, Lego's revenue has increased from about $1.4-billion to more than $1.6-billion, according to the company's 2007 annual report.

Meanwhile, expenses have fallen from more than $1.6-billion in 2003 – driving the company that year $180-million into the red – to about $1.3-billion in 2007.

Although Lego is not publicly listed, it has published earnings reports since 1997.

At the same time Lego began brokering a deal with game developer TT Games – now owned by Time Warner Inc. – the company approached Lucasfilm Ltd., the company responsible for Star Wars and Indiana Jones merchandising.

The two sides were already firm partners thanks to the success of Lego's brick sets based on those movies, but they wanted to take the relationship further.

In 2005, Lego Star Wars: The Video Game was launched to coincide with the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Since then, Lego and TT Games have teamed up to create two more Star Wars titles, an Indiana Jones game and the company's most recent success, Lego Batman, thanks to a partnership with Warner Bros. In total, there have been nearly 14 million Lego games sold in the U.S. alone.

Normally, sales of a movie-themed Lego brick set decline once the movie leaves theatres and other, newer sets come along.

But Star Wars sets have bucked this trend; sales of Star Wars Lego play sets have increased by “double digit” margins since the last major Star Wars film was released in 2005. Ms. Wilfert believes that growth is due, at least in part, to the success of the video games.

“Sales have increased quite dramatically on a global basis, and we've actually seen a complete opposite trend,” she said.

“We know that the games have had a huge influence on that.”

Children enjoy the games because of the addition of the Lego mini-figure humour to iconic Hollywood movies, but parents appreciate the effort the games take to tone down violence.

There is no death or destruction in a Lego video game; if a spaceship is blown apart in a Star Wars title, it can be reassembled.

When the Batmobile crashes, it can be put back together.

Lego is also working on a new massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) in the mould of the popular World Of Warcraft franchise, where players install the game on their computer in order to interact with other player in an online world over the Internet.