Building a lasting reputation as our favourite toy ... it’s Lego

Lego has beaten off competition from Barbie, Action Man and the Game Boy to be named the most popular toy ever manufactured.

The Danish building bricks, first launched in 1949, are still in demand today, selling out before last Christmas at many major retailers.

Today they were hailed as the leaders in a revival of retro playthings, as it emerged that many of us keep into adulthood the toys we cherished most as children. Of 3,000 people surveyed aged from 20 to 40, half said they still had their favourites.

The men's top four were Lego, Game Boy, Transformers and Action Man, while the women put the Barbie doll first, with Lego, My Little Pony, Game Boy and Sindy also scoring highly.

Christian Robinson, managing director of gift website Firebox.com, which conducted the research, said: "We are not surprised Lego came top. It is timeless and popular with young and old, male and female."

Seventy per cent of those quizzed said they preferred retro toys to today's more hi-tech offerings. Peter Jenkinson, editor of toy website Toyology, credited the success of the Toy Story films, which feature many retro favourites, with boosting demand among children and adults alike.