Adults are buying record numbers of toys for themselves — these are the most popular ones
Lynn Rosenblum, associate professor of toy design at Otis College of Art and Design, told NBC News that "there has been a clear rise in adults buying toys for themselves" and named Lego as a standout…
According to NBC News, US toy purchases by adults aged 18 and over climbed 18 percent in the first half of 2025 — a figure tracked by Circana, split nearly evenly between male and female buyers, and tied in the coverage to a trend outlets call "kidulting." The toys leading the surge, named across NBC's reporting and Good Housekeeping's 2026 roundup, are plastic building sets aimed at older builders, plush collectibles with hard vinyl faces, battery-driven interactive figures, and influence-marketed blind-box drops. Almost none of it sits in the FSC-certified, solid-wood, non-toxic-finish territory this site covers — and that gap is the part worth reading closely.
A recurring cycle, amplified
Lynn Rosenblum, associate professor of toy design at Otis College of Art and Design, told NBC News that "there has been a clear rise in adults buying toys for themselves" and named Lego as a standout — including sets aimed at older builders, such as the botanical collection. Licensed mental health therapist and certified financial therapist Kiki Jacobson, also quoted by NBC, framed it as a long-running cycle: Beanie Babies in the 1990s, Tamagotchis, Furby, Silly Bandz, and now Pokémon cards. What has changed, per the NBC reporting, is distribution — social media algorithms and limited "drops" accelerating a collector impulse that once moved more slowly.
What these toys physically are
Pull a headline item from the season's lists and the material profile is consistent: molded plastic or polymer bodies, vinyl face elements bonded to plush shells, battery compartments driving lights, sound, and motion, and packaging built for blind-box repeat purchase. Good Housekeeping's roundup describes construction sets with built-in lights and sound, the Pikachu Puppetronic producing more than 100 actions through a puppeteer's grip, and a Toniebox Lite aimed at under-$100 screen-free storytelling. Tactile integrity — the kind a buyer tracks when choosing solid beech or maple — isn't the design brief here. Neither is finish safety or end-of-life recovery: battery housings and mixed-material construction don't enter standard recycling streams, and a sealed novelty becomes a long-residence object once attention shifts elsewhere.
What this leaves for someone choosing on material grounds
The 18 percent jump describes a parallel market, not a redirect. If your criteria are documented wood species, plant-oil or water-based finishes, mechanical function, and toys engineered to outlast attention spans, none of the chart-toppers should pull you off course. Watch three edge cases as the trend widens: licensed crossover IP migrating into the wooden-toy aisle, "nostalgia reissues" that substitute plastic for what was once wood, and FSC or PEFC claims from brands without an established certified supply chain. Those are where the adult-buying boom will next test the material standards this audience already holds.