Most adults today remember playing with Lego as a kid. Originating in 1949, the simple interlocking plastic bricks took the world by storm and have become one of the most universally cherished children’s toys ever created.

What makes Lego so valuable as a children’s toy is that it is fuel for a child’s imagination, allowing them to build virtually whatever they want, disassemble it, and build something new. However, Lego has transcended over the years to become accepted as something adults love to partake in.

There’s no doubt that Lego is becoming a hugely popular hobby for adults. Below, we’ll dig a little deeper into the reasons why.

Collecting + building themed sets

While Lego is ostensibly a children’s toy product, it’s become a huge collector’s item with adults. In fact, starting a Lego collection is one of the most popular and easily accessible hobbies out there.

One of the biggest appeals of Lego is the themed sets that have been released.

These sets are similar to model aeroplanes and other hobby products where you follow instructions to create a model for display. Lego sets are very popular due to the fact that they don’t require any glue or tools to assemble, you simply follow the instructions with the pieces given to you.

Many Lego sets are of licensed themes from popular cartoons, movies, and video games etc. The most popular examples include Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Batman.

As more and more adults get into building and collecting Lego sets, larger and more elaborate sets have been released over the years. Some of these include scale replicas of famous buildings and vehicles with thousands of pieces that require a long time to build.

Of course, any Lego collector will know about the coveted Lego Millennium Falcon (the iconic ship from the Star Wars movies). The scale-replica set once sold for $15,000 USD in Las Vegas.

While the Las Vegas location and the fact it was an airtight first edition set inflated the value, it remains the highest-selling Lego product ever. The set was commonly sold between $3000 – $5000 before a new version came out in 2017 that devalued it.

Some of the most challenging Lego sets to construct are those that replicate the wonders of the world, and the Taj Mahal is undoubtedly the most treasured one to be released. With a top sale price of $3864.

There are plenty more highly valuable Lego sets out that that vary in terms of scarcity and uniqueness. Lego collecting is very widespread these days.

As mentioned, Lego is an easily accessible collecting hobby that anyone can get involved with. You don’t need any special tools or training to be good at it, you just purchase the sets and build them at your leisure.

Promoting wellness

Building Lego is also more than just a hobby for many people and has been used as a way for stressed adults to unwind, and even as a way for seniors to maintain dexterity. The popularity of Lego as a wellness product has increased over the years.

Lego is great as a relaxing activity in the same way that cooking or scrapbooking is – it allows you to focus on a short-term goal and keep your hands busy. If you are the kind of person who tends to overthink a lot, then unwinding with a Lego set after work can be a great way to take your mind off the world.

Also working towards little goals in life is something that helps to keep you from falling into a rut. If you have a boring job and not much else is going on in life, then at least building a Lego set is something you can work towards and have control over.

There is also the benefit of Lego keeping people away from TV and computer screens. These days, we spend way too much time in front of screens – Lego helps you disconnect for a little bit and unwind with something tactile that you can control with your hands.

Less stigmatisation

In the past, some adults might have kept their love of Lego a secret for fear of being mocked for playing with a children’s toy. However, as society has begun to embrace more tolerant views, only the most shallow and mean-spirited people would make fun of someone for enjoying Lego as an adult.

This shift has also been reflected by the manufacturers of Lego (The Lego Group), with the aforementioned Millennium Flacon and other large sets clearly being marketed at teenagers and adults. With that said, even just building randomly with a box of assorted blocks can be fun for adults who want to distract themselves.

This reduction in stigmatisation is something that can be seen all across society. There are simply fewer expectations surrounding what people can do in their own time as a hobby – everyone is more accepting of things that might have previously been seen as weird.

For example, video games were once only seen as an activity for children or socially-awkward adults. Nowadays, video games are a mainstream form of entertainment enjoyed by virtually everyone.

While collecting Lego as an adult is still a little bit quirky in the grand scheme of things, nobody needs to be ashamed of it.

Nostalgia

Of course, Lego is something that was a big part of many childhood’s, and there is naturally a big element of nostalgia surrounding it. People yearn to relive their childhood memories more and more, and nostalgia has become a big area of spending for today’s adults as they seek to capture a time long past.

Lego reminds people of a more innocent time when all they had to worry about was finding a piece that had rolled away or being ordered to pack up their toys before bedtime. With all the stresses that adults face in the modern world, it’s no surprise that many have turned to something like Lego as a form of escapism.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you don’t need to dig very deep to understand why Lego has become hugely popular with adults. As a result of this trend, the adult market has become more and more relevant in the eyes of a company that traditionally designed its products for children.

As today’s kids are being distracted with smartphones and video games, it’s become harder for toy manufacturers to get their products noticed by the demographic they’re ostensibly designed for. More and more, adults are becoming the favoured consumers of products that were at one time seen as exclusively the realm of children.

If you’re an adult who’s eager to revisit Lego, then you shouldn’t hesitate to take the leap. There’s a wide range of sets out there to suit different budgets and goals, and with the ease of home shipping, you don’t have to go into a toy store and pick something off the shelves.

Even if you never played with Lego as a child, you can surely enjoy it as an adult if it interests you. There will undoubtedly be something out there that appeals to you – if you want to build it, go ahead and have fun!