NPD unveils kids' top play items

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. — The NPD Group unveiled the top current favorite play items among children ages 14 years and younger.

After compiling 2,958 mentions, NPD revealed the top items included Lego, laptop, Nintendo Wii, toy cars, Xbox, books, video games, Nintendo DS, Barbie and iPod, while the top five product categories included toys (54%), video games (20%), consumer electronics (12%), sporting goods (5%) and books (3%).

The top five properties included Lego, Barbie, Crayola, LeapPad and Thomas & Friends. What's more, new, never-before-mentioned brands, such as Lightning McQueen from "Cars 2," LeapFrog LeapPad, Exersaucer by Evenflo, Dinosaur Train and VTech InnoTab, also were featured as answers.

“Kids clearly have a wide variety of types of products at their disposal to entertain them during their free time,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst at NPD Group. “Not long ago, the image of play was dominated by thoughts of kids playing only with toy items, but now consumer electronic devices and video games play a prominent role in their 'play' time. That said, toys were mentioned more than twice as much as any other category in this survey.”