So we're going to begin this article with a shock revelation, despite all the recent furore about 'Kidult Toys', adults have been a major consumer segment of the Toy market for a very long time.
Steve Reece has been working in the Toy business since the late 1990s. One of his first ever projects as Hasbro's in-house consumer researcher was to run a project interviewing adult collectors of Action Man, the pre-eminent European action figure at that time. To be fair, that group of people could best be described as 'unusual' at that time, but even back then higher spec, higher priced action figures were made on various brands including iconic action figure brand Star Wars directly targeting adult collectors. Steve has been working with companies to understand the Kidult Toys market for a long time at this point, most industry analysts describe Steve as a Kidult Toy Expert.
What has changed in the twenty something years since then is that new generations who have been brought up on popular culture and pop culture merchandise have aged, and versus their parents generations who were arguably more straight and serious, today's adults will happily buy or receive as a gift a Toy if it represents something they are into.
It isn't just about Pop Culture though, in the adjacent world of 'Hobbyists', generations of model train enthusiasts have shared their passion with their kids and grand kids.
CONSUMER SEGMENTATION OF THE KIDULT TOY SPACE
The following consumer segmentation diagram shows a more detailed nuanced way to approach this space. It should be pointed out that there are those who we might categorise as Kidults who find that description offensive or insulting, they prefer to be known as 'adult collectors'. Our view is that the Kidult space is actually bigger than just collectors as the following diagram shows, so we continue to use the phrase as the most commonly accepted descriptor.
If you want more detail on the segmentation of the Kidult Toy market, you can read a more in depth article we published here: https://www.toyindustryjournal.com/post/a-deeper-examination-of-the-kidult-toy-space-consumer-segmentations
And if you are interested in our Kidult Toy Expert Consultancy services, just click here for further details: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/services