Lady Gaga has been hit with a $10 million (£6.5 million) lawsuit by a toymaker who claims she blocked the release of a doll likeness of her.

MGA Entertainment claims the multi award-winning star made a last-minute request to remove a voice chip from the doll, which meant the product was not in shops in time for Christmas.

The toy manufacturer accuses Gaga and her management of deliberately delaying the process to tie in with the release of her new album in 2013. It also claims they wanted to concentrate on marketing a perfume instead of the dolls.

Gaga's representative said the dispute is between MGA and Universal Music Group's merchandising company, the Bravado International Group, and there is no "legitimate reason" to drag the singer into the lawsuit.

In legal papers filed in New York on Tuesday, MGA claims the Poker Face singer and her team acted in “bad faith” by withholding final approval for the figurines.

Deals with distributors were in place and the dolls were expected to make $28 million (£17.8 million) in revenue for the Christmas 2012 retail season, according to MGA, which claims it suffered “irreparable” losses as a result of the “unreasonable delays”.

MGA says it has already handed Bravado International Group $1 million (£637,000) for the rights to make the doll, adding that it paid out its largest ever advance "because Lady Gaga is not only an A-list celebrity, but one of the few elite recording artists working today".

Gaga's representative Amanda Silverman told reporters that the singer’s lawyers had not seen the court papers.

"This is a dispute between Universal Music Group's merchandising company and MGA," she stated.

"There was no legitimate reason for dragging Lady Gaga into that dispute. Lady Gaga will vigorously defend MGA's ill-conceived lawsuit and is confident that she will prevail."