Close Menu
    UK toy sales up as 'kidults' buy Lego and Pokémon
    United Kingdom

    UK toy sales up as ‘kidults’ buy Lego and Pokémon

    Share.
    View 24 Comments

    24 Comments

    1. UziYT on

      Wouldn’t this just be the equivalent of older generations buying model train sets or whatever. “kidults” sounds kinda insulting lol. I personally don’t get the hype of lego/pokemon but it seems like a cool hobby for many.

    3. PolMacTire on

      I personally buy the Lego Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series sets (large, detailed models of starships). I grew up watching Star Wars and building Lego was something I always enjoyed doing as a kid. As an adult, I still enjoy both, but I now have the money to be able to afford it as a hobby.

    4. Kind_Commission_427 on

      No chance of ever owning a home , so you may as well have some nice toys in your bedroom at your parents house

    5. Brian-Kellett on

      Kidult = person with hobbies.

      No one is demeaning to the person who buys every single football shirt for their team and can reel off the past year or two of results.

      Or every journalist who has to try every brand of cocaine and AI LLM to write their articles for them.

    6. Chappers88 on

      I’ve been collecting both for years. Had loads of Lego sets on display until the kids came along.

      Pokémon at the moment is more the TCG side of things and ALOT of people see it as a cash grab at the moment. Scalping and buying whole stock to sell well above retail. Which sucks because me and my son actually play the game and can hardly find any packs in shops.

    7. ameliasophia on

      I can’t even judge. Kinder egg have totally hooked me recently with their DC playmobil and Harry Potter funko pops 

    8. Dansinnervoice on

      Turning 40 tomorrow, In the last 6 months I’ve started buying Lego again. It’s so cathartic to build and just totally let’s my brain actually relax after a long work week. It’s my way of meditating and just so happens I can make a kick ass Optimus Prime at the same time. I also remember and was mega obsessed with Pokemon everything in the late 90s…wish I kept my completed base set! Ha!

    9. MoHeeKhan on

      BBC furthering its own decline by insinuating that any adult whose hobby isn’t alcoholism and football is childish and wrong.

    10. ZanzibarGuy on

      People with hobbies buy things related to their hobbies. Media goes wild and decides to label them as “kidults”.

      Do we have any ideas of what we could label these non-news journalists in a similar fashion?

    11. Dedward5 on

      Making models, collecting dolls, dolls houses, glass ornaments, etc etc, all been happening for decades.

    12. Mysterious_One9 on

      The majority of buyers are Scalpers who seem to be buying up everything. Theyve found out its an easy way to make a quick buck.

      Lego holds its value well, buying sets near retirement holding and flipping after a few years.

      Pokemon has went mental with resales up to 5 times the original value depending on the set.

    13. hadawayandshite on

      Is it that different from making matchstick models?

      Or displaying crap ornaments- I remember my mam had all these weird Victorian children with prams and stuff on the mantle piece—-now she has random abstracted people from B&M

      I have Nintendo stuff on a bookshelf in the spare room.

      If stuff sparks joy and doesn’t hurt anyone- mind your business

    14. That-Guy-Nicho on

      Modern life is simultaneously hard yet boring; demanding yet unfulfilling; and extremely expensive. People are on edge and things – economically, socially, culturally, arguably political – seem to keep getting worse, or at least more intense. That’s not my own feelings (I have a pretty good life), that’s an analysis of average sentiment – a measurement of the times.

      So in light of that, its completely understandable that people might wanna inject a little bit of fun into life.

      Is this really all that different from playing video games, the plastic toy soldiers, colouring books, or anything else popular lately?

    15. Minimum-Geologist-58 on

      You can read fascinating cultural analysis about this. It’s speculated to be a bit of a return to the Victorian practice of having awful creepy dolls everywhere. It’s about spending more time at home and keeping up with cultural trends in the home rather than at the theatre/cinema or through fashion, why it’s done through toys nobody is really clear on beyond the idea that they’re widespread, cheap and quite generic (art is too personal and expensive).

    16. Sea-Caterpillar-255 on

      If you can’t buy a house or afford kids, that money doesn’t disappear. You just get all the other shit you wanted. You’d still rather have an actual life, but since that’s illegal, you can at least have an amazing Lego set and 2 PS5s

    17. Keywi1 on

      Nothing wrong with some Lego! They make a lot of sets aimed towards adults now.

      I don’t really get the continued love of Pokemon though as the games have been pretty terrible for a while.

    18. TheDawiWhisperer on

      now i have some disposable income in my 40s i’ve 100% gone back to the hobbies i had when i was 13

    19. MrPuddington2 on

      Meanwhile, a record number of children, 4.5 Million (nearly 1 in 3), live in poverty. The gerontocracy is devouring the children.

    20. Caesar171 on

      Pokémon need to make it so you can like order literally any card you want from them for 50p + pp and cut the legs out from under these “investors”. Used to be for kids.

    21. kahnindustries on

      Kidults???

      Grandpa is shitting his nappy, we gonna start calling them Boombies? Babbers? Kidoldbastards?

    24. F1nut92 on

      Can confirm, as an adult who is into Pokémon and Lego, just Nintendo stuff in general to as well.