<P> In 1999 , the first Lego products featuring licensed characters , i.e. not designed in - house , were Lego Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh Duplo , followed in 2000 by Lego Harry Potter characters to figures from other Steven Spielberg movies . Soren Holm , the head of Lego Concept Lab said toy weapons had always been heavily debated , but that since the Lego Star Wars release Lego has grown `` more comfortable with conflict '' . Mr Laursen , executive North American operations suggested to make `` violence not explicit , but humoristic . '' After 1999 a number of in - house characters were strongly characterised with media utilisation and non-Lego System merchandising , most notably Bionicle from 2001 -- 2010 and then again in 2016 . </P>
<P> In 1999 , the first Lego products featuring licensed characters , i.e. not designed in - house , were Lego Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh Duplo , followed in 2000 by Lego Harry Potter characters to figures from other Steven Spielberg movies . Soren Holm , the head of Lego Concept Lab said toy weapons had always been heavily debated , but that since the Lego Star Wars release Lego has grown `` more comfortable with conflict '' . Mr Laursen , executive North American operations suggested to make `` violence not explicit , but humoristic . '' After 1999 a number of in - house characters were strongly characterised with media utilisation and non-Lego System merchandising , most notably Bionicle from 2001 -- 2010 and then again in 2016 . </P>
when did lego first begin licensing characters from movie and tv shows for lego sets
when did lego first begin licensing characters from movie and tv shows for lego sets
1999
1999