The toy went on sale last February, but Lego did not receive any complaints until last week, said Eva Lykkegaard, a company spokeswoman. Lykkegaard said the illustration accompanying the toy was not consistent with Lego's ethics and values.
"It was totally unacceptable," she said. "There has been a mistake. We will see to it a thing like that will never happen again."
Mattel's Max Steel line of toys features a theme similar to Lego's Alpha Team. Max Steel, a bionic 19 year old who practices extreme sports, does battle with terrorists who threaten to blow up buildings.
Several of the Max Steel action figures talk of a bad guy named Psycho who is threatening to blow up a sports stadium. The packaging for the Max Steel MX99 Heli-Jet Vehicle presents children with a scenario where a villain is attacking New York. Inside, a card says the villain Vitriol is standing on the World Trade Center and children must stop him from destroying New York.
Mattel officials said they were asking retailers to remove the mission card from the heli-jet and would provide retailers with a black or blue sticker to cover product descriptions that talk about urban terrorism on all Max Steel products.
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