Washington, United States
Are legos for adults or kids? When I go to the Lego store in Alderwood Mall, the majority of people there are adults and teenagers buying Lego sets labeled as 18+.
For most of Lego’s history, kids were the targeted demographic. By the 1980’s there was a small but growing group of adults who built large creations. However, it’s only been in the last 20 years that Lego has seen a surge in adult and teenage consumers.
The company started to switch its mindset by the early 2000’s and introduced 16+ sets and then finally in 2020 it announced the first 18+ sets. One example is the 21054 The White House.
The Covid-19 pandemic assisted Lego sales because being in lockdown, adults had more time to develop new hobbies, including Lego building.
Adults helped drive up sales during the 2020 and 2021 fiscal year. Every year after 2020, more and more 18+ sets have been released and more adults and teenagers enter the market for Lego Sets.
The main difference between 18+ sets and regular sets is that they often have more pieces, are more expensive and some of the time, have less play features. They are generally meant for display and are more difficult to construct. Some positives to this change is that now Lego is seen as a toy for all rather than just kids. In fact if you go to Lego.com it has a section for adults and has the tagline “Adults Welcome”.
The 18+ builds themselves are often more detailed and have many references to the original material. It’s nice to notice those easter eggs, or more simpler but creative builds like 21340 Tales of the Space Age.
Additionally, with the Botanical Collection line, they have targeted adults who want to gift something to other adults who are into having a little botanical display of realistic plants in your home and have been widely popular.
With more teenagers and adults using legos, means extra creativity is seen in Lego conventions in which adults have created great and large builds. One famous example is the 500k Lego Diorama of the Star Wars Galactic Senate. Other examples include Hogwarts Castle, Lord of the Rings, and custom Lego cities, all grand examples of custom creations.
Some negatives of these sets are the prices. As stated, 18+ sets are more expensive and often are a main point in the discussions regarding if Lego sets are too overpriced. The main targets are the Lego Star Wars and Disney sets since they are IPs, they inflate the prices by $5-$30. In fact, an example of an overpriced set isn’t in the 18+ categories but rather a Wolverine 99 set that has been overpriced by $60. While Jurassic Park sets are often overpriced, the expensive molds for the dinosaurs have often inflated the prices and recently more brick built sets for Jurassic Park and many series have been released.
Another concern is the used Lego market and resellers. If you go on Ebay or a secondary market to buy owned sets or unopened sets, it would set you back, price-wise, even more than normal. Resellers have increased prices in sets that they regard as valuable due to how many sales received, or its predicted popularity.
The original 2007 model of the Lego Eiffel Tower is a highly valued set with resellers selling it for $500 or more and some selling it for $1500 or more. Modular buildings are another example of high-resale, of more than 100%-200% higher than the original price.
Since last year I’ve been keeping my Lego boxes in case of ever reselling them in the future but for now I am just adding to my collection and display.
Perhaps the increase in prices is why over the course of this year, robbers have stolen Legos from upwards of $200,000 or more. CNN states that “Lego products, especially the pricier sets that range from over $100 to $1,000 or more, are being targeted for theft both by individual shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings who make a beeline for sets sitting on store shelves because they can fetch a good profit at resale both in legal and illegal channels.”
Due to the demand for old Lego sets and more expensive sets, resellers and robbers make huge amounts of profit from it and often target secondary unofficial lego stores.
With every year comes more 18+ sets and more adults and teenagers entering into the Lego world. It appears this trend isn’t slowing down for quite some time in the foreseeable future. With Lego being one of the only toy companies that has been seeing growth, its strategy to target teenagers and adults has been very successful.