Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Grown-ups are buying more toys than preschoolers — to the tune of $1 billion
The New York Post ^ | March 30, 2025 | Raquel Laneri

Posted on 04/05/2025 7:31:52 AM PDT by Towed_Jumper

Bob Friedland’s home in Little Falls, NJ, is filled with Lego. Lego flowers adorn his dining room table. A Lego reproduction of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” hangs in his office. He has 10 Lego city skylines scattered throughout his abode (one for every town he’s visited). On Halloween, he strings lights on his Lego “Nightmare Before Christmas” set and displays it at the bay window at the front of his house.

“I had to move out of my condo and into a house to find a place to put them all,” Friedland, 50, told The Post.

Friedland has worked in the toy industry as a marketer for decades, but he only began seriously playing with Lego in 2020.

Like many adults stuck at home during the Coronavirus pandemic that spring, Friedland found himself alone and anxious. He remembered how playing with the snappable plastic building blocks had brought him joy as a child. So he bought a 1,000-piece Lego “Voltron” set — based on the 1980s cartoon. And then bought another, and another. He’s completed at least 50 sets since, re-creating everything from a bonsai plant to the set of Jerry’s apartment on “Seinfeld.”

“They’re a stress reliever,” Friedland said. “They don’t fall apart, you can put them on a shelf and look at them and they give you fun, good memories.”

Friedland isn’t the only grown-up embracing their inner child. What started as a pandemic pastime has exploded into a phenomenon, with companies such as MGA Entertainment, Hasbro and Lego pumping out products targeted to these so-called “kidults”: miniature fake food, limited-edition Formula 1 figurines and intricate building sets.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: adults; toys
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 last
To: 9YearLurker

I respect pet owners.
But pet collectors who substitute dogs and cats for children, that’s a whole different thing.


61 posted on 04/05/2025 12:37:03 PM PDT by Buttons12 ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Buttons12

I know what you’re describing, but I’m not sure how and why you draw the line on what’s acceptable.

If they didn’t have kids or pets, would that be better?


62 posted on 04/05/2025 12:44:55 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: HartleyMBaldwin
--- "Check out Rod Stewart’s model train setup."

Thanks for the head's up. I'd not seen it before. Quite an art form in its own way.

63 posted on 04/05/2025 12:53:03 PM PDT by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: AppyPappy

The squishmallows remind me of the little statues one could buy at every store that said things like I love you this much...

Popular in the early 70s

I once visited a lesbian I knew at her home and she and her girlfriend had hundreds of them on this display shelving. Along with nudes and seminude pin up pictures of women. You know like the Farrah Fawcett


64 posted on 04/05/2025 1:03:16 PM PDT by Chickensoup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Towed_Jumper

My toy = Buying a PING driver. To each his own...


65 posted on 04/05/2025 1:06:52 PM PDT by dakine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Towed_Jumper

Indeed many a carpets got wet at 2:00am over those.


66 posted on 04/05/2025 1:24:53 PM PDT by Vaduz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Towed_Jumper

There’s a Youtube video where a team assembles a jeep drives it off a TV sound stage in…under four minutes!?!


67 posted on 04/05/2025 1:56:02 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

😉🙂[In my best John Cleese:] “I see, I see! I get the picture! If I have a big model train setup, I’m a broken adult with an unhappy childhood! But if _Rod Stewart_ has one, it’s some sort of work of art!”


68 posted on 04/05/2025 2:15:05 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HartleyMBaldwin
I wish I still had a lot of my childhood toys, like my collection of real steel Tonka trucks.

Tonka trucks were great! Handsome & sturdy. My kid brother loved them!

69 posted on 04/05/2025 7:46:23 PM PDT by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

70 posted on 04/06/2025 8:25:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Libloather

If you have dogs, the small Nyla-Bones are almost as bad as Legos.


71 posted on 04/07/2025 12:18:07 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-71 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson