Not Just Child’s Play.
A growing number of adults are buying toys for themselves. The recent survey conducted by the American Toy Association found that 58% of parents had bought toys and games for themselves.
Visitors to the bustling Lego store in midtown Manhattan this holiday season may be surprised by what greets them upon their entrance. After waiting in a line so long that it requires a bouncer, they will find not only sections dedicated to Star Wars and Harry Potter, but also an area labeled Adults Welcome.
Occupying about a third of the store’s floor space, it invites those who are young at heart, if not in body, to build.
In neat stacks, sit a Lego typewriter, a Lego grand piano, a Lego Colosseum, and a Lego version of the set of Friends.
Some of the construction kits are eerily specific, like a Lego Real Madrid soccer stadium, a Lego Bugatti Chiron, and a Lego version of the ’80s-era Nintendo NES gaming console.
Lego is far from the only toy company catering to a previously neglected sector of the market.
In 2020, Hasbro introduced an adult version of Play-Doh perfumed with smells like “overpriced latte” and “fresh-cut grass.”
In 2021, Fisher-Price brought a Bluetooth enabled version of the vintage Chatter Phone toy—the one with a face on its dial pad—to the market for grownups.
In October, 2022 McDonald’s started serving Adult Happy Meals, toys included.
Mattel, meanwhile, has added alcohol to the menu at the American Girl store, and in 2020 launched an adult-oriented wing of the company called Mattel Creations that partners with celebrities and fashion designers to create limited-edition toys.
Mattel Tesla Cybertruck retailed at US$400. A Gucci collaboration with Hot Wheels sold out online in less than a minute.
Build-a-Bear, whose typical customers are young children looking to customize their snuggly playthings, introduced new “After Dark” stuffed animals—including a bunny named Pawlette who wears a T-shirt that declares: «It’s wine o’clock somewhere» and carries a bottle of red wine—in 2019.
Last year Build-a-Bear added a “Bear Cave” section to their website that you must be over 18 to enter.
Mostly, toys were the domain of children in the past. Nowadays toy companies began to say: «We’re not in the kids business. We’re in the play business. And anyone can play». This isn’t some passing trend. The kidults ( kid + adult) just want to play.