Star Wars helps build Lego profit

R2-D2 and other Star Wars toys proved popular with Lego fans

Danish toymaker Lego saw its 2009 profits grow strongly - with its Star Wars and Lego City products generating the largest sales.

Pre-tax profits rose 55.9% from 2008 to 2,887m Danish Kroner ($530m; £351m).

Lego increased its global market share to 4.8% during 2009, with strongest growth in English-speaking markets.

The company also completed a reversal of previous outsourcing projects, and brought all of its factory production back in house.

During 2009, Lego invested in its factories in Mexico, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

The firm began in a carpenter's workshop in 1932 and founder Ole Kirk Christiansen chose the name for his creation by combining the first two letters of the Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well".

Lego claims that children across the globe spend five billion hours a year playing with its bricks.