Lego has been voted the greatest toy of all time, with iconic favourites Monopoly, Action Man and Scalextric following just behind.For the first time ever, the bosses of Britain's biggest toy companies have joined forces to cast their votes on the games which they think have shaped the industry and childhoods over the last 50 years.Toy experts from 100 companies up and down the country took part in the study, which is the first of its kind to ask the opinions of leading firms instead of consumers. Iconic Lego was voted the greatest toy of all time in the survey by the bosses from Britain's top gaming firms. Pictured: A giant Lego statue at Legoland park in Denmark (left) and a life-size Shrek sculpture in Windsor Classic board game Monopoly, which originated in the 1930s, was voted the second best toy in the world Racing car game Scalextric game third in the survey which was carried out by toy industry website ToyNews Action Man (left) ranked third in the greatest toys' list, while the Barbie doll (right) also featured in the top 10All of the executives were asked to reveal their top three toys of all time, with the only condition being that they weren't allowed to vote for their own toys.
Lego was crowned the greatest toy of all time, with all but a few voters putting it in the number one spot.Iconic board game Monopoly came second, with Action Man in third, racing car game Scalextric in fourth and football toy Subbuteo in fifth.The rest of the top 10 was rounded off with Rubik's Cube, Star Wars toys, Barbie, Matchbox Cars and playing cards.Other recognisable names in the top 50 included Kerplunk (joint 11th), Frisbee (joint 14th), Play-Doh (joint 14th), Atari (joint 14th) and My Little Pony (joint 21st).However, popular toys absent from the top 50 list included games such as Etcha A Sketch, Dungeons and Dragons, Pokémon cards and Cluedo.The top 50 also included a few surprises such as Cards Against Humanity, a risqué party game involving playing cards which launched in 2011 after it was successfully funded on Kickstarter.ToyNews, a leading toy industry website, said the survey serves as a celebration of the greatest toys the industry has produced over the last 50 years.
Football toy Subbuteo (left) came fifth in the list, while the classic Rubik's Cube (right) ranked sixth The top 50 also included a few surprises such as Cards Against Humanity (pictured), which is a risqué party game involving playing cards which launched in 2011 after it was successfully crowd-funded on Kickstarter Star Wars toys came joint sixth in the list, which is the first to be compiled using the votes of industry bosses Matchbox Cars (left) also featured high in the list, while a classic pack of playing cards rounded off the top 10 FROM CLASSIC LEGO PIECES TO AN EMPIRE: THE GREATEST TOY EVER Since it was introduced in the mid-1900s, Lego has developed from classic brick pieces to mini-figuresLego, which has been voted the greatest toy of all time, was introduced to the world in 1949.The popular toy is manufactured by The Lego Group, which is a privately-held company based in Billund, Denmark.It was developed in the workshop of Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen
, who started making wooden toys in 1932.Just two years later he registered his company name as Lego, which comes from the Danish phrase 'leg godt', which means to 'play well'.He began producing plastic toys in 1947 before introducing them as official Lego pieces to the world two years later. Basic Lego consists of colourful interlocking bricks which can be formed together to create a structure.However, over the years Lego has been widely developed and now features various accompaniments including miniature Lego figures, vehicles and accessories.It can also be bought in a variety of different themes, including towns and cities, space, robots, pirates, trains, Vikings, dinosaurs, and the wild west.As of 2013, around 560 billion Lego parts had been produced and distributed around the world.The Lego brand has become huge since its introduction in the 1950s and has branched out to include video games, theme parks, retail stores, board games, books, television shows and films.Some of the largest Lego sets to ever have been commercially produced include minifig-scaled edition of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon, which contained 5,195 pieces, and a 5,922-piece Taj Mahal.
Billy Langsworthy, deputy editor of ToyNews, said: 'A lot of the top toy lists that are about come from surveys of consumers but very rarely does anyone ask the industry experts what they think.'I'm not aware of any other survey like this one - we got executives from almost 100 of the leading toy companies to participate.'We wanted to know about personal favourites and also about toys they thought were the most commercially successful, and whether they matched with what consumers say.'Each executive was asked to pick their top three toys they felt were the greatest of all time then submit them to us.'A lot of the entries in the top 50 were expected but there were a few surprises - playing cards, although not a brand, featured high up on the list as did roller skates.'And there were other big names that didn't make the cut – Etcha A Sketch, Beanie Babies and Pokémon for example. Operation, the battery-operated game of physical skill, failed to rank in the top 20 but did feature in the top 50
Classic word game Scrabble, which was introduced in 1938, featured in the second half of the top 50 Children's favourite Ker-plunk, which involves coloured straws and marbles, made it into the top 20 toys' list Trivial pursuit, which has now been developed to include different themes such as Disney and Baby Boomers'A lot of the big-name toys from the last 50 years are in there but there's also some newer ones like Cards Against Humanity, which came to life after being crowdfunded on Kickstarter.'The top vote was Lego by a country mile - almost every single person had Lego as their number one toy.'The survey is homage to how strong the toy industry has been over the past 50 years.'We wanted it to be a celebration of all the great toys that have been created by toy companies, and that's just what it is.'Some of the British toy companies which took part in the survey included Hasbro, Mattel, The Entertainer, The Toy Store, Toy Shop UK, Jumbo Games, LeapFrog, MV Sports, Oxford Games and Rainbow Designs.
Furby, an American electronic robotic toy released in 1998 (left), and My Little Pony (right) featured in the list Meccano, which enables children to build model toys (left) and classic Top Trumps (right) were in the top 50 Fashion doll Sindy, which was created in Britain in 1963, was also voted highly by the gaming bosses Play-Doh didn't feature in the top 10 of the list, but did rank in the top half of the top 50 greatest toys THE TOP 50 TOYS AS RANKED BY THE BOSSES OF BRITAIN'S GAMING FIRMS 1 - Lego 2 - Monopoly 3 - Action Man 4 - Scalextric 5 - SubbuteoRubik's CubeStar Wars toysBarbieMatchbox carsPlaying cardsKerplunkPlaymobilM.A.S.K. toysAtariFrisbeeTrivial PursuitPlay-DohSuper SoakerYo-YoSylvanian FamiliesTransformersTiny TearsOperationMouse Trap Monster in My Pocket My Little PonySimon SaysSindyAirfixBoglinsCards Against HumanityCascadeFurbyMastermindRoller SkatesStarbirdThunderbirdsA La Carte KitchenBig Yellow Teapot Crossfire Girls World Guess Who?