Lego and Tesco team up for 'healthy alternative' to chocolate Easter eggs

UK supermarket giant Tesco has teamed up with Lego to launch an exclusive limited-edition Easter toy - pitched as an alternative to chocolate eggs.

The one-off Easter-themed building kit is aimed at children aged seven and up, and features two Lego minifigures painting eggs. The toy is priced £6 ($8.60) and will be available in more than 650 Tesco stores across the UK.

Tesco said it wanted to offer a ‘healthy alternative’ to chocolate.

Not only will it get the kids away from eating too much chocolate, it will also help channel their creativity during the school Easter holidays,” said Tesco toy buyer Miranda Applegate.

'An inexpensive, healthy alternative'

For many children Easter is all about receiving and eating chocolate eggs so we wanted to help parents by creating an inexpensive, healthy alternative.”

British shoppers spend around £2.5bn ($3.6bn) on toys in the nation’s supermarkets – and Lego minifigures regularly feature among the top sellers (NPD Group).

For such a world-renowned toy making giant such as Lego to make an exclusive toy for Tesco shoppers is a real honor and we’re sure they will prove to be very popular,” added Applegate.

Other toy manufacturers have offered alternatives to chocolate eggs. These include Playmobile, which produces a range of play sets inside hollow plastic eggs.

Tesco is the UK’s largest multiple supermarket retailer, and held at 28.4% share of grocery market spend in the 12 weeks ending 28 February 2016 [Kantar Worldpanel].