Toy of the year: a doll's house that teaches children to tidy

The Hamleys prize for the best toy of 2003 has been awarded to Polly's Place Hangin' Out House, a portable doll's house which allows children as young as three to learn the skills of home-making.

The shortlist of 18 toys, including such distractions as 'The Toy That Makes you Turn Off The TV' and 'The One of a Kind Toy', was compiled by 12 family panels from throughout the UK. A celebrity judging panel, which selected the overall winner, also tested the toys.

Chaired by GMTV's Lorraine Kelly, the judges were design expert Stephen Bayley, broadcaster Libby Purves, Torquil Norman (founder of Bluebird Toys), and journalist and author Matt Seaton.

The brightly coloured Polly's Place Hangin' Out House (Mattel, £24.99), which is part of the Polly Pocket range, contains furniture and dolls. The contents are bendy and magnetic, allowing children to arrange the house for themselves.

Lorraine Kelly said: "Polly's Place Hangin Out House was the eventual winner because it was so well designed, with excellent attention to detail, and great play-value. And its portability appeals in today's fast-paced world, where kids are constantly moving from one place to another."

The toy was picked as an overall winner from the 'The Twelfth Night Toy' category: toys defined as having play appeal long after the Christmas tree has come down.

Other winners included Talk Pro Tennis (Vivid Imaginations, £19.99), an outdoor tennis game with an electronic talking scorer, and My First Write and Learn Desk (Vetch, £39.99), an educational drawing surface with LCD screen.

John Watkinson, the chief executive of Hamleys, said: "We wanted to find toys that really are the best for their design, their entertainment value and for how they promote the value of play in general."