Galidor is a discontinued Lego theme released from 2002 until 2003. Noted for its departure from traditional

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

bricks in favor of customizable

action figure An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game, television program, or sport; fictional or historical. These figures are usually ...

s, the theme was poorly received and is credited in part for the financial failure of the Lego brand prior to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp becoming CEO in 2004.

Overview

Inspired by the success of Bionicle in 2001, the Lego Group sought to create a new line of action figures that departed from the system of bricks for which the company had been known. During this period, the company produced a range of themes that did not focus on traditional Lego bricks, such as Znap, Primo, Scala, and Galidor. The Galidor line, first released in 2002, features customizable action figures with interchangeable pieces such as arms, heads, and legs. Galidor is similar to other action figure brands that were on the market on the time. The line features 21 sets, five of which were available as

Happy Meal A Happy Meal is a kids' meal usually sold at the American fast food Chain store#Restaurant chain, restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy or book is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red cardboard b ...

toys from

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. One toy in the series, the Kek Powerizer, includes playable video games and makes sounds when receiving signals from the tie-in television series. The voice lines of the Kek Powerizer were recorded by actor Brian Hamilton. Galidor has one cancelled set that was never released, which is a buildable toy motorcycle with shark parts called the Mokarr. Due to a combination of factors, such as each set using expensive specialized parts, competition with Lego's own Bionicle series, and the unpopularity of the tie-in television series, the toy line performed very poorly and the Lego Group was close to bankruptcy by 2003. In 2004, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp became chief executive officer of the Lego Group. He ended production of unprofitable lines in favor of the brick-based building system that the company had previously produced.

Tie-in media

In order to promote the Galidor line of toys, the Lego Group produced various forms of tie-in media such as video games for the

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Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

, and

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

. Most notably, a live-action television series titled '' Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension'' was produced. Created by Thomas W. Lynch, the show lasted for two seasons. David C. Robertson, the writer of '' Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation'', said that the show was "stunningly bad" and "destroyed careers". The show was unpopular and sales for the toys diminished once it stopped airing.

Reception

The Galidor line of toys and tie-in media performed very poorly. Lego designer Mark Stafford considers Galidor to be the Lego Group's biggest failure. Despite this, Galidor has remained popular among dedicated fans. Due to the line's status as a

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

among Lego fans, it has been referenced in various modern Lego sets and series, including Lego Monkie Kid,

Lego Ninjago Lego ''Ninjago'' (stylized as ''LEGO NINJAGO''; , ) is a List of Lego themes, Lego theme that was created in 2011 and a flagship brand of The Lego Group. It is the first theme to be based on ninjas since the discontinuation of the Lego Ninja th ...

Lego Minecraft Lego Minecraft (stylized as ''LEGO Minecraft'') is a List of Lego themes, Lego theme based on the sandbox video game ''Minecraft (franchise), Minecraft''. The theme was first introduced in 2012. Overview The earlier "Micro World" sets feature a g ...

, a boutique hotel set, and the "90 Years of Play" set released for the Lego Group's 90th anniversary in 2022.

References

{{Lego Lego themes Products introduced in 2002 Products and services discontinued in 2003 Action figures