Bandai has announced that Power Rangers is the top property in the action figure category for the first five months of the year, according to consumer panel information compiled by The NPD Group.  Five of the top 20 action figure and accessory products are Power Rangers items.  Bandai's Power Ranger toys are continuing a string of top-selling years from the 90s through the earlier years of this decade. 

While NPD does not disclose much of its information to non-subscribers, it has released its over-all toy best-seller lists for the first quarter and for April. For those periods Yu Gi Oh was clearly the most successful property, with five of the top ten toys in dollars for the first quarter, and four of the top ten in April.  Although the number of Yu Gi Oh products in the top ten dropped in April, it moved to the top of the list; the top three best-selling toys (dollars) in April were all Yu Gi Oh card products.   Yu Gi Oh drove a 19% expansion in the games/puzzles category in the second half of last year (see 'Games, Models Up Double Digits') and appears to be continuing its strong performance over-all.

The Beyblade Starter Set was the other product of interest to pop culture retailers in the NPD reports; it's the #4 best-seller in the best-selling toys by dollar list for the first quarter and for April.  While the filling of supply pipelines may be taking some heat off the product, Beyblade remains a strong property (as we've been reporting, see 'Five Million Beyblades' and 'ICv2 2002 Toy Awards').  Continuing TV exposure is certainly part of the explanation (see 'Beyblades Spins into Season Two')