Look Out, Scrabble

With more than a dozen fan groups on Facebook and a forthcoming iPhone app, Bananagrams may be the most popular game you've never heard of. From a first order two years ago of 5,000 banana-shaped pouches filled with plastic letter tiles, the game has proved to be a word-of-mouth hit, with 2 million units expected to be sold this year.

Much like a simplified Scrabble, Bananagrams has players arrange tiles in intersecting words, but with no board or point values to keep track of. Everyone plays simultaneously, and the first one to use all her tiles wins.

The Rhode Island family that invented the game--and that plans spin-offs in the shape of pears and apples--has kept control of the company. Granddad's new title: top banana.