Mattel and its subsidiary Fisher-Price have agreed to pay a $2.3 million fine for breaking the federal lead paint ban, federal officials announced Friday.

It's the highest penality ever for products regulated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Commission staffers allege that the toymakers knowingly imported and sold children's toys with paints and other surface coatings with lead levels that violated the 30-year-old federal law. Since 1978, toys and other children's products can have no more than 0.06 percent lead in paints or surface coatings. In 2007, if you'll remember, about 95 Mattel and Fisher-Price toy models were found to exceed the limit. Many were made in China.

Lead can be toxic to young kids.

Commission staffers say Mattel imported up to 900,000 toys that didn't meet the rules between September 2006 and August 2007, including the "Sarge" toy car and many Barbie accessories. The "Sarge" car was recalled in August 2007; the Barbie toys in September 2007.

Fisher-Price imported as many as 1.1 million toys with too much lead between July 2006 and August 2007, including some licensed character toys and the Bongo Band, GEOTRAX locomotive and Go Diego Go Rescue Boat toys. Those toys were recalled between August 2007 and October 2007.

Mattel and Fisher-Price agree to the settlement, but still deny that they knowingly violated the federal law, which commission staffers alleged. Mattel's net sales were $785.6 million in the first quarter of this year, down about 15 percent compared to last year.

These toy recalls helped spark the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which sets higher limits on lead and phthalates, which are added to plastic to make it softer. Consignment stores and sales and small toy and children's clothing manufacturers have raised concerns about the sweeping law's impact on their businesses. The commission clarified some of the rules in January and continues to work on how the rules will be implemented.

Here are photos of some of the recalled toys: