https://nypost.com/2024/06/14/business/grown-ups-surpass-preschoolers-as-the-biggest-toy-consumers/
>Jay Glatfelter spends about $4,800 a year on toys – $2,400 for himself and $2,400 combined on his six- and 10-year-old sons’ birthday and Christmas presents.>The 39-year-old tech sales rep, who moonlights as a toy influencer under the moniker Geek.Dad.Life, is among a booming group of grown-ups who are shelling out big bucks to collect action figures, trading cards and Lego sets that harken back to their youth in the 1980s and 1990s.>Their love of all things Star Wars, Marvel, Ghostbusters and Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles is a bright patch in an otherwise bleak outlook for the toy industry.
>>11032541>For the first time ever, toy demand from preschoolers was surpassed by demand from toy enthusiasts over the age of 18, with the latter accounting for $1.5 billion in sales from January to April, according to data from Circana.>“The reality is that most kids today are not connecting with physical toys the way previous generations did,” toy influencer Dan Larson told The Post, explaining that he’s “a big fan of G.I. Joe.”>Circana, which tracks consumer trends, described 18 and over “as the most important age group for the toy industry,” pointing to a recent survey showing that 43% of adults purchased a toy for themselves during the past year.
>>11032544>The toy industry has been struggling to recover from a bust that followed a wild boom during the pandemic, when families were holed up at home stocking up on Barbies, Hot Wheels and board games. >US toy sales tumbled 8% to $28 billion last year after rising 1% from a year earlier, according to Circana data.>That’s after historic surges in 2020 and 2021, when industrywide revenue surged 17% and 16%, respectively. >This year’s numbers still look weak: Toy sales dropped 1% through April compared to a year ago while the number of units sold dipped by 2%, according to Circana. >It’s no wonder that toy makers including Mattel, Hasbro and Lego are wooing drinking-age consumers.>“Lego has someone on staff whose job is outreach to ‘AFOLs’ [or adult fans of Lego], who are buying $200 sets,” explained James Zahn, editor of Toy Insider.
>>11032545>Ineeed, Lego sells sets for adults that are far pricier, including a Titanic set that sells for $679.99 and a Star Wars Millennium Falcon priced at $849.99.>In another key trend, grown-ups are buying collectible plush toys reminiscent of the Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch Dolls that sparked frenzies in the 1980s and 1990s.>Eight-inch Squishmallows, collectibles that look like Humpty Dumpty with various faces including cats, pandas, clowns and bananas, were the top-selling toy in the first quarter, thanks in large part to adult collectors, according to Zahn.>But the majority of grown-up toy buyers are so-called “kidults” like Larson and Glatfelter – who tend to be men who are into action figures, trading cards and model sets, say experts.>“The fandom skews more male and more millennial and Gen X,” said Glatfelter, who sees the trend as an evolution from previous generations who collected knickknacks.>“It’s the modern day version of when our grandparents collected Hummel figures,” he explained.
>>11032550>Some collectors are sensitive about being described as “kidults.” The issue inspired Larson to devote an entire segment on his YouTube channel SecretGalaxy to discuss whether “Action Figure Collecting is an Embarassing Hobby.” >The answer, he concluded, is yes and no.>A “societal perception” that all toys are made for children feeds into the embarrassment, he said. On the other hand, collecting toys has “become more acceptable because companies are making lot of things for adults,” according to Larson.>“If tiny plastic people brighten your world a little,” Larson said in the segment, “then don’t let anyone take that away from you.” >It can be a pricey hobby, with the average collector spending between $300 to $400 a month, according to Larson, who keeps some of his collection on display on a wall in the house he shares with his wife. Other items are stored in closets, the basement and in various bins, he said.>Toy industry honchos welcome the kidults to their toy chests, but insist that kids will always rule in the toy aisle.>For one thing, the first quarter is typically the slowest time of year for the industry, suggesting that adults’ buying power stood out because there were fewer purchases for kids after families binged on the holidays, Greg Ahearn, president of the Toy Association told the Post.>“The primary consumer is always going to be children,” Ahearn insisted. “But we are finding that the adult market is flexing its muscle and has reached that tipping point.”
The comment section is hilarious
>>11032579Yeah, bet their idea of "adult" hobbies is sitting in front of TV 24/7.
>>11032579A lot of it is on point though. Especially the comments about adults chosing to coomsome instead of raising families. Just look at the faggot they got for reference...Dan Larson. A childless woke loser and there on tons of them like that on youtube
>>11032593>instead of raising familiesYou can thank feminism for that.Manchildren are only a symptom.
>>11032538I never thought I’d be one of those weird adults who was into Lego, and I’m generally disgusted by Lego’s pivot to mostly movie licensed products, but that Icons Countach is tempting me. It’s exactly the kind of thing I dreamed about Lego making as a kid. I wish I had harassed my parents into buying more of the Model Team sets for me.
Shit article. Barely any info on sales. Fluff piece crap.Basically, sales have fallen so much since COVID that adults are now an important section of the market.
>>11032640https://www.circana.com/intelligence/press-releases/2024/us-toy-industry-shows-a-softening-decline-in-early-2024-thanks-to-the-adults/Not exactly. What has happened is that for the first time, it's become more lucrative for the toy industry to target adults instead of children, more children by % still get more toys compared to adults but that is already a staggering growing 43%
>>11032653Maybe because of rising prices and corporate greed parents decide to go second hand as it would be cheaper than buying some thing new
>>11032593you have two entire generations now that can by and large barely afford to take care of themselves, no shit most of them don't want to have children; its not going to get better
>>11032593>adults chosing to coomsome instead of raising families.You think "chosing" to enjoy a hobby is because men don't want families?
>>11032653Doesn't say anything about adult market growing though. Just that sales are down and that adults now make up a bigger portion of sales.Completely shit articles that offer no real insight, but i guess they might be withholding that info to make you pay up? So very vague.Also>including card sales with toyspfffftNPD does a better job.
Lmao, all the normoids screeching in the comments.I've yet to hear one argument why it's bad to play with toys as an adult from such people.>b-but it's childish!Why is that a bad thing? I work hard to earn my money, I pay my taxes, I take care of my home and family. I can do whatever the fuck I want in my free time. What are the alternatives anyway? Watching goysports on the TV? Having small talk with boomers over BBQ? People are mad becuase "children's" hobbies are more fun than adult ones. I'll keep collecting and dressing up dolls, playing with Lego and watching cartoons. Fucking blow me.
>>11032682For some, yes. Look at the amount of retards on youtube or social media stuck in child like states with disposable income that prefer to waste their lives playing video games for a living and hoarding tons of plastic trash
>>11032712Duck Bricks is the only chad among them as he actually talked about his plans for family and raising children where he was raised, he's only 25 too.
>>11032538this AI picture sucks ass. but yeah, i can see it.I mean this entire board is proof of it, ain’t it?
>>11032538>"respected" news outlet>article about grown ups playing with toys>can't find a grown up to make a photo off>uses the most dogshit attempt at ai image generation>actually publishes that slop for everyone to seeincredibly shameless
>>11032739New toys are not selling because A) children do not care about what is sold unless it's Minecraft or skibidi toilet B) smart phones are a bigger distraction and have longer investment for the parent C) rising costs cut into all unneeded distractions, toys always going first D) even if a child wants a toy there is so much to choose from the parent doesn't have to buy something new and can go secondhand or a discount store like ollies where unsold stock that doesn't get reported as profit to the company goes
>>11032740journos should be executed
They're not really even toys for 9/10 people who are in to them. They're collectibles. I would say that 9/10 of the people who are in to this stuff don't actually play with them outside of fiddling with them to get them in a cool pose before sticking them on a shelf.
>>11032749Doesn't that technically constitute as play though? You don't need to be tardbashing action figures to say you've played wiith a toy. A lot of my playing as a kid involved just posing around random dudes, setting up battle scenes and imagining them being played out. I never made pew pew noises or voiced my characters.
>>11032601Yeah you can look at any online dating app's stats and see why men would rather fuck off and have fun by themselves than put up with that shit.
>>11032696Shut up subjectanon
I genuinely don't know what's funnier. The lowest common denominator comments section or the fact that you guys got your micro penises so bent out of shape over them. Imagine giving a shit what other people think lmao.
>>11032593>childlessYou're saying that like it's a bad thing.
It's very funny though that the primary argument for why most toylines have to be shit from the shills has been "ummm but they're for kids! adult collectors don't matter!" when time and time again we see that statistics say the opposite
>>11032847So they need to make preschooler toys better... because adults are spending more money on card games?The article doesn't say anything about what adults are buying or how much they're actually spending. Someone in this this thread linked to the tracker and one of their charts shows that sports cards and pokemon sets are the biggest new trend and squishmallows are the biggest toys. Who buys that shit? Who knows, because the tracker doesn't say.It could be that Funko is the only one experiencing that growth, because adults are buying up their Pop trash, so why should Hasbro produce better toys if Hasbro isn't experiencing any growth? In fact, Hasbro should copy Funko's garbage to try and woo adults.
>>11032860funko is literally going out of business. Stop talking out of your ass.
>>11032864Point of the matter is that who knows what's actually garnering more adult $$$.It could just be adults speculating on Pokemon and NBA cards, because those are included with action figures and funko trash.
>>11032656Immigrants don't seem to have a problem with this
>>11032579>hurr durr grown men playing with childrens toyschildren could not appreciate the quality of my figures because they're stupid and don't have my elevated sense of taste in expensive plastic
>>11032711But anon any form of posable figure is a toy and toys are for children. Please sell them all to buy more sports jerseys and socket wrenches.
>>11032778This. It's amazing how insecure some of you are about your own hobbies.
>>11032941I don't see anyone being insecure. We're laughing at normies.
>>11032944You're lashing out at people making fun of your hobbies or calling you immature and infantile. What else would you call it?
>>11032953>lashing outYou sound like you need ti buy some nails and screws to feel like a real man
>>11032972Thanks for proving my point bruh
>>11032973Thanks for proving you're a pussy, bruh.
>>11032753>I never made pew pew noises or voiced my characters.Nice aphantasia bro.
>>11032975Yeah, totally not insecure with your hobby.
>>11032593Raising kids is more expensive than collecting toys as a hobby, because you have to spend money on clothes, food, and other necessary things to keep them alive and healthy - and then you're likely to buy toys on top of that just for them.
>>11032980Coming from a crybaby like you that got mad people were "lashing out."
>>11032977It's the exact opposite though. I could perfectly imagine them doing those things without me having to physically flail them around.Skill issue.
>prechoolers BTFO ADULTS WIN AGAINADULTS UNDEFEATED
>>11033044when will they learn
Most American adult toy collectors are pretty trash anyway and can't display properly or scrutinize good/bad product. Buying overpriced lego sets that look shittier than model kits because they can't actually paint or clip sprues properly. MOCs are cool but that's not the kind of people going to target and buying whatever giant set because it has Star Wars on it.The other side is dudes in awful graphic tees buying capeshit wal-mart toys, or Diamond select at best. It all just looks so ugly.
>>11033023Lmao I'm not mad at it, just amused at how butthurt you guys get when someone points out you play with toys.
>>11033100>you guysSays the crybaby still crying about everyone laughing at you.
>>11033082We will always defeat them. We’re even better at playing with toys than those losers.
>>11032538>people with disposable income dispose of it>normies: NO NOT LIKE THAT
>>11032745journalists aren't the ones producing the AI slop you retard
>>11032593Nigga there are thousands of parents in this community. In any given message board or social media group page you'll see several people talk about what toys they buy for their kids or how hard it is to find stuff for them. There's arguably way more toy collecting parents than there are for video games.
>>11033005Alcohol sales are down because gen x'ers and millennials are getting old and zoomers spend their money on drugs. Alcohol companies don't make NEAR the amount of money they did in the mid 00's. There's numbers to back up YoY declines in sales.
>>11032538It's baffling how AI can form a more coherent tattoo than a lego set. I can tell it's Lego, but it's also a mishmash of papercraft and such
>>11032767>dating appsThere's your problem
>>11033990He's a handsome bastard, he should be on TV.
>>11032885Because immigrants are used to living in third world shit holes and crappy living conditions with no money. I'm not a third world monkey. Oh, and the government will just give them money anyway to reproduce more of them so yea, of course it is fucking easy for them when the establishment dick rides them and give them incentives to do it, moron.
>>11034179yes anon, that's why you can't get a girlfriend.
>>11032767sad thing is, dating apps worked really well before (((they))) found out that you can't make money when the costumers all end up in relationships.
>>11032538The last generation with creative hobbies. The generation being raised now will only be a screen drone
>>11032593Fuck raising a family, women are whores anyways
>>11034179Yes, that's what I implied, what >>11034243 and >>11035224 are complaining about doesn't apply to the future inhabitants of Earth
>>11032538Grown adults with decent jobs and no families to support are the only ones who can fucking afford to be big toy-buyers now.
If I have a child they will be playing with toys from MY childhood. They WILL play with Bionicles and they will like it, they WILL develop autistic levels of lore
>>11032939Correct.Children also cannot possibly appreciate the quality of the paint jobs.
>>11035391And they WILL be trans
>>11033669There are more video game playing parents though because playing video games as adults has become socially acceptable while collecting toys has not
>>11032715Duck Bricks is ugly and autistic though and is making the rest of us AFOLs look bad
>>11032593The thing is it's not a choice. Not just toy collecting, but for any other medium this gets blamed on. Lets say someone gave up "consuming" and kept all the $$ linked to that. The fact is the money spent on toys or whatever is a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to afford a home in a decent area, or raise a kid. So even if you didn't consume you still wouldn't be able to afford it. Then there is also the fact that its also not an individual choice and you need another person as well. people dont actually meet eachother anymore, everyone always has their guard up, and its just way more common for people to be anxious or have social anxiety. Funny enough despite that many women already have double digit partners and are thus damaged in terms of being able to properly pair bond. So you got the worst of both worlds. If it was as simple as "consume" or have a nice home, good wife, and children not even the dumbest fucks would pick consume. Consuming is just a byproduct of not being able to have those previous things and finding something to entertain yourself or throw money at. And If people are in a position where they can afford kids/a home in the first place chances are they are also going to be able to consume to some degree as well. I suppose if your like one of these outlier of faggots who spends $500+ a month on toys or games that’s an exception, but really how many faggots are doing that. I probably get a Game, or figure every month or every other month. Which I would probably say is on the more serious side. And Cutting that out would do fuck all to increase prospects of eventually being able to afford a home, or raise a family.
>>11035317There are a growing number of these due to societal issues in the west
>>11032538>Grown-ups Surpass Preschoolers as the Biggest Toy ConsumersSo can toys have guns and butts again yet, or is there a new excuse now?
>>11035789No, moms will bitch and whine and get things pulled from shelves first.
>>11035997>toys>shelvesShare your time machine
>>11032538Those kids never had a chance
>>11035760>people dont actually meet eachother anymore, everyone always has their guard upI love this trend because it's basically just sociopaths telling on themselves. It's really not hard to make connections with people. You just can't be an unrepentant chud about it because women don't tolerate that shit anymore. Some of you don't even realize how hard you give it away even within the first few minutes of conversation. 99% of the time, if a woman rejects you, she was right to do so.
>>11034179maybe you should start reproducing so your country wouldn't let immigrants in due to your declining population. Here's some tips for you white americans: stop taking abortions, stop promoting gay relationships.
>>11038000>stop taking abortions, stop promoting gay relationshipsultimately tertiary issues.
>>11038000You absolute retard, the government makes policies to make having children in white families harder and harder and then import immigrants and give them everything, it's an active genocide.
>>11032825Who will take care of you and your toys once you are older?
>>11040753My toys, they’ll come to life like in Toy Story and help me commit sudoku when I’m too old to function.
>>11040761Chungus, hell of an epic coom, etc.
>>11040756What happens if your toys don't want to take care of you and escape?
>>11040798Straight into the MEAT GRINDER
>>11032740You'd think they would just grab a photo of some toy reviewer on YouTube.
>>11032741Also toy companies don't have the range they used to because advertising to children is frowned upon in America. It's the same reason McDonalds doesn't have Ronald McDonald and shit anymore. Everything has been toned down and it's allowed just the worst shit imaginable to take their place like Tiktok.
>>11038000Almost everyone in the USA is descended from immigrants. Checkmate racists!
>>11040753this is so creepy when people say this. "u should have kids so you can have little slaves that wipe your ass later" and you accuse other people here of being sociopaths lol
>>11034038fuck off, its the meta now cold approach stopped in the early 10s
>>11040948no its not>>11037870shut up fag you clearly dont know shit>>11032593no it fucking isnt, incel>bunch of money to jump through a females hoops, 5 figures for a wedding, over 1/2 million for a house with high interest, several hundred thousand for kids throughout their life, over 50% of his-fault divorce and losing all of thatvs>New dragon toy for $30
Would you rather spend 1000$ on some bitches who won't appreciate your collection and will likely make you get rid of it, or would you rather spend 1000$ on something awesome, like this?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23SE4Ym83bc
>>11041057i would rather die than have to talk to a tiktok watching, negro loving woman for more than 5 minutes. yes the toy
>>11032711>People are madThey're not, they just think it's pathetic, big difference.
>>11032740>incredibly shamelessAI photos are free, real photos cost thousands to license, welcome to the future.
>>11032740>>11041500This is what you should blame the owners of the corporate IP.Although I'm sure YT reviewers (since YTs and TikTokers already do this) are doing things like having AI narration and AI generated imagery in even unboxing and review type videos.
