NARRAGANSETT, R.I. - Had a lightning bolt struck Abe Nathanson between the eyes that day, the outcome could hardly have been more, shall we say, fruitful. Four summers ago, a frustrated Nathanson was sitting at his dining room table, having lost yet another Scrabble game to his 11-year-old grandson, Aaron. It wasn’t the loss that bothered Nathanson so much. It was the two hours it had taken to play the game.

Staring at his letter tiles, Nathanson said, “We need an anagrams game so fast, it’ll drive you bananas.’’ As the words came tumbling out, he began rearranging them in his head. Anagrams. Bananas. Bananagrams.

Bingo.

In a flash, Nathanson had conceptualized one of the hottest games to hit the toy market in years. Simple in design - no batteries, control sticks, cards, dice, or game board - yet challenging enough for grown-ups to play, Bananagrams is a fast-paced family word game packed inside a banana-shaped yellow pouch. Named “Game of the Year’’ at the 2009 Toy Fair, it’s expected to sell 2 million units this year in the US alone. Worldwide, Bananagrams is currently available in 21 countries and six languages. It even boasts its own iPhone app and Facebook page.

Can you spell P-H-E-N-O-M-E-N-O-N?

“It’s a juggernaut,’’ says Nathanson, who turned 80 this Thanksgiving and who looks and sounds like a character from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,’’ his favorite television show. Nathanson expects sales of the game to double next year, eyeing markets like Brazil, where, as he puts it, “they’re crazy about bananas.’’

Don’t bet against him. Capitalizing on word-of-mouth marketing, Bananagrams has climbed the charts without benefit of heavy advertising, a national sales force, or exposure in retail giants like Wal-Mart and Toys R Us, whom Nathanson refuses to do business with. (“It’s a personal animus on my part,’’ he admits. “They force too many small guys out of business.’’)

Don’t get him started, either, on the toy companies that regularly approach him with seven-figure buyout offers. “Obnoxious’’ is about the mildest term he uses for them. “They treat me like I just fell off a banana truck,’’ says Nathanson, sitting at the very table where Bananagrams first ripened four years ago. “We didn’t do this to get rich. It’s been a labor of love for my family, and we’d rather leave it that way.’’