New data from research firm The NPD Group reveals that US toy sales got a 3% boost in the four-week lead-up to Easter 2014 versus the same period in 2013, thanks to warmer weather experienced during the holiday, which occurred three weeks later than last year.

Milder temperatures helped drive sales of outdoor and sports toys up 20% while building sets and arts & crafts both experienced 10% growth.

The outdoor toys growth comes as good news for US companies like Pennsylvania-based toymaker Wicked Cool Toys, for example, which just entered a partnership with Sesame Workshop to launch a line of summer and seasonal toys featuring classic Sesame Street characters including Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Mattel’s recent purchase of Montreal, Canada-based Mega Blocks is also timely given the ongoing growth of the building sets and arts & crafts toy segments.

In related NPD news, the firm recently found that US retail sales of licensed toys increased 3% to US$5.3 billion by the end of 2013, and Disney’s Frozen is one of the industry’s top-selling licenses so far in 2014.