LEGO has been experimenting with adult-oriented sets in the past few years, and while the sets are amazing, they are also raising some concerns. Most of the sets in the adult line are very expensive, they are mostly meant for display with no play-features, and they take up shelf space from sets that are more affordable and more appropriate for younger builders.
In the past, I have only seen adult-oriented sets at official LEGO stores, Toys’R’Us, and the Online LEGO Shop. Other retail locations like Walmart, Target, etc. carried smaller sets for children and a couple of medium-size sets for special occasions like birthdays and holidays.
I don’t know how it is at other locations, but walking down the LEGO aisle at my local Wal-Mart or Target is now much different than a decade ago. Instead of the colorful smaller sets, now I see a lot of big black boxes with display sets meant for older builders. Sets like the LEGO Star Wars Helmet collection, and LEGO Botanical sets. There are still a few smaller LEGO City and LEGO Creator sets in between, but definitely much less than it was years ago.
It looks like others also noticed these changes judging from the conversations I have seen on LEGO forums and on social media, and I even stumbled upon a video that pretty much summarized my thoughts. You can watch it below.
What do you think? How do you like the adult-oriented sets? Would you like to see smaller sets in the adult line, or do you prefer larger and more detailed display sets? And do you feel like adult sets take away space from lower-priced and kid-oriented sets? What do you think the future holds for the LEGO hobby? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
I agree with most of this. But it seems they are making changes. This year, we have a number of adult sets around $50.
As far as what stores carry, I don’t know how that works. How much is controlled by the store itself.
I recall hearing recently that toy sales from adult collectors finally surpassed toys being bought for children. Certain other action-figure type toy lines don’t even have their more expensive releases showing up in toy isles, you have to order them online. That this problem, as you describe it, exists, just shows there is an incredible market for large, expensive Lego sets with no “toyetic” play value. It’s no surprise that brick and mortar retail stores want a piece of that action. The question for the toy industry at large is how much can the adult collectors be catered to without cannibalizing the products aimed at kids, and indeed, if the product lines aimed at kids suffer, will the toy companies even care as long as their sales stay high. It’s a significant paradigm shift that I’m sure nobody saw coming even just a few years ago. Adults have always had their collections, coins, stamps, even some youth-focused products like baseball cards and comic books have long been accepted as something with a heavy adult collectors market, but toys?
It’s inevitable – I have been collecting LEGO for 64 years, since my first little red and white set in 1960. So the adults may now outnumber the children, and LEGO knows their customer base.
I read one of the comments below about getting out the adult son’s Lego bricks and putting the sets back together. That is exactly how I started. It took me awhile but I did separate his bricks into his old sets, bagged them with the instructions (or found online if not there), and really enjoyed doing it. After that, the kids started gifting me sets on special occasions, mainly Star Wars models. Later, I took out my son’s sets that were part of the City collection and set them up under the Christmas tree. He hadn’t had many but that started my City and City creating. Now my son has built a table that rolls in and out for me for the City, the kids have gotten me 2 trains and buildings, etc. I have built buildings on my own from Lego bricks from my son’s old sets, made cheaper ones from off brands gotten from Amazon (have to reinforce those usually), scanned sales, etc to add to the city. It is fun but yes, Lego is expensive and I occasionally splurge on sets. However, I always look for sets with mini figs if I am going to splurge. I have reconfigured the city several times as I don’t want to expand beyond the space. So over time, the cheaper builds will go probably. It is a great hobby but I agree with you, an expensive one. We probably would not have bought those sets for our son in the past had they been in the price range they are today.
As an AFOL, I enjoy a mix of smaller/easier sets (like the botanicals) and larger/more complex sets (like Technic cars or NASA). With the bigger sets I find I am able to pace myself and make the build last longer. I have most of my non-seasonal sets on display throughout my house but I don’t have kids and my husband collects die cast cars which segue nicely with my Lego.
My boyfriend just recently started getting into the Lego sets… I’m here to tell you the prices are INSANE in my opinion. but I do not like spending a lot of money on anything at all so it drives me crazy. Recently we bought him the Batman skyline at a nice 250.00 (enter mild heart attack). It took him two days to put it together and now it sits on a shelf… Roughly 50.00 a day or 100.00 on other sets.. it’s a very expensive hobby. Adults need Hobby’s just as much as kids do…it’s all over priced if u ask me.
Agree on high prices I’m not going to pay. Roses beautiful but why so expensive!! Less is more for some of us adults.
We started buy Lego sets for our son over 35 years ago. When he went off to college the Legos sat helter shelter in bins for years. Then my wife and I decided to them out. It took us weeks. Fortunately the instructions had been saved. The .most exciting part was putting an old tain sei back together. We set up the tracks AND IT RAN LIKE NEW! Our 42 year old son recently came home for a visit and we re-gifted the Legos to him. We have our own now. The Valentine roses for my wife this year.
The adults sets brought so many of my adult friends into the hobby. So they are definitely a plus. As long as they don’t forget the kids, lego should be fine. They know what they’re doing. But I wish the adult sets were only sold online and more kids sets and affordable sets were on shelves.
I feel that kiddos are not buying Legos as much… too much screen time taking over. Lego is diversifying in a way that keeps their product moving off of shelves. Kind of sad actually… like nations that are upside down in birth rates; it is only a matter of time until young person lego demand is virtually gone.
Yep! This was my first thought. The fan base has shifted bc kids are less interested in the toys that used to fill the shelves. Seems like if it doesn’t have a screen then it’s not going to make it on the wishlist.
Let’s face it, Adult sets are for those of us who grew up as kids on LEGO especially in the highest popularity time the 80s. I’m happy with all LEGO products.
Illumination is the next level!
I agree with all what my fellow Lego fans have said. So, for awhile now fans ( of all ages) have been collecting a lot of castle themed sets and been wanting more. I think Lego should do another survey on what themes they should focus on that adults and kids would like to collect. I ‘ll raise my hand for more medieval stuff make battle packs . From dwarves elves and other characters that can go with the fantasy theme. As you can tell you know what I want.
I have not seen a reduction in the number of younger (the stuff not labelled 18+) set available. What I seen at Target is an increase in shelf space for LEGO. What used to be most of 2 aisle sides is now more than 3. Meijer went from a half aisle side to nearly a full aisle. Scheels carries just about every set available outside a LEGO store.
Put another way, retailers have expanded their LEGO offerings and not at the expense of shelf space for sets aimed at younger builders.
I can’t speak to Wal-Mart since they seem to mark up some of if their sets above what they sell for on the LEGO site, so I don’t shop there.
I find it very frustrating that the adult sets don’t cover a wider range of price brackets. I do not have money to spend on this stuff beyond maybe $40 – $50 for a very special splurge. I find very few of them compelling, though, I think most are a bit cheesy, and I don’t get much joy out of recreating stuff from movies.
As a way to fulfill my desire for more complex builds without spending hundreds of dollars, I’ve started to experiment with designing my own projects and buying individual bricks in bulk from independent sellers to make them happen. I’m not very experienced with this, but it’s fun to figure it out. It feels more meaningful and it’s full of problem-solving challenges, which are satisfying to solve. There are times I want a nice big fat project that I don’t have to invent myself, but when I really want something relaxing I buy smaller sets for kids, like the 3 in 1 Creator sets.
Honestly, my experience has been the exact opposite. My wife was visiting friends out of state this past week; I stayed home to watch the dogs, and I put together several Lego sets while she was gone. I got the Field Flowers set (30701 – $4.99), Cherry Blossoms (40725 – $14.99), the 25th anniversary Star Wars Destroyer Droid (75381 – $49.99) and Dune House Atreides Ornithopter icon set (10327 – 164.99). That’s a wide range of prices, for various sizes of sets, all aimed at adults. The botanical collection, particularly, has many sets on the lower price range. We’re also into orchids, and have several of the lego botanical sets mixed in with live plants in our orchid cabinets.
Yes the Adult sets can be expensive but I look at the cost from another perspective that makes it more easier to justify. Unfortunately, this different perspective requires a bit of self control – and we are supposed to be adults. What I do is work just two bags of a set over the course of the weekend (one bag each for each day I have off). I then look at the original price and divide it by each week I spend working on a kit. This makes lower end kits extremely affordable while more expensive kits reasonable. For example, I have built the very expensive Titanic, Avengers Tower and Rivendell and the length of time it took me to build the entire kit, if I spread the total price out over that time, makes it a reasonable $20-30ish a week. Maybe this is a rationale to myself, but if I hadn’t made the purchase, I would have spent that – and probably a lot more – in “entertainment.” By prolonging the build, I increase the amount the therapeutic enjoyment I get from each set. Yes sometimes it’s hard to stop after one bag – and a couple of times I’ve cheated – but being an older adult, those times I did cheat, I found I was just working to work and not enjoying the process. So that makes me fine with building something that was fun and challenging to build, looks incredible and which provided so many hours of pleasure. I frankly can’t imagine how some barrel through one of these huge kits in a day or two. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t admire and enjoy my three colossal builds. Yes display space is becoming an issue but I tackle that at a later time. As long as the quality and build ability continue, I hope LEGO continues with the Adult Line!
I absolutely love the way you look at it! I can now justify some of those retired modular buildings that are on ebay for $250-$350 that I have been wanting so badly! Should work on my husband as well!☺️
When one buys an expensive item, the consumer has a certain expectation. These are merely “base kits” meant to inspire better creations. It is not difficult to find ingeninous MOC’s out there with superior details and features compared to official Lego sets. That said, the price is not justified. Lego has to get its act together.
As a fan for over 50 years now, i feel the push to adult sets ($$$+) is taking away from their future fanbase. I love the city, technic, and many other sets. However I don’t have the $1500-$3000+ in the last year to buy all the sets I’d like. I’m lucky, I found a few smaller sets I like. Also who has room for all those large sets? Not most of us. I have a whole room (12×12) and a half dedicated to built sets, with 3 tables for my city, and I don’t even have all of my sets built, as I’d need a 1000 sq. Ft. Area to display all of it. Smaller sets can go anywhere I can find a small space. Bedroom, living room, etc. Big sets… not so much.
If they can get back to their roots more as a child’s toy, they’d do better than focusing on adults. I know lots of adults angry they can’t find those $20 or less sets for their children or grandchildren anymore. So they’ve stopped buying them outright.
Good day all. The adult sets are an absolute MUST for LEGO. ESPECIALLY if they want to stay afloat over the next 20-30 years. I do 3-9 adult sets per year, lots of shelf space, lots of time, and enough of a budget
I grew up with Lego, and have played with Lego with my own kids for years.
There’s an adult sets for everyone and for me I only care about Castle, space and non-existing Pirates. Now Im waiting for 10305 to hit $300 but I don’t think I will ever buy those big LOTR sets (Maybe Buda-dur) but Rivendell should be $400.
They could always create a section for adults. I noticed that my local Walmart had a separate section for adult games. Why not do the same with Legos?
The problem isn’t with the 18yo sets. As an adult, I enjoy many of the adult sets. Their pricing – is something else entirely. I recently bought my gf the ho / gringotts bank. She’s a hp fanatic. She LOVES it.. but that 500+ dollar price tag is insane. Despite it being a great set – it’s freaking legos. 300 for the collectors edition hedwig set? No thanks. 500+ for the full castle? No thanks. 500 for avengers tower? Hard pass. I’d love to buy all of these but the pricing firmly and harshly yanks these sets out of reach. It’s plastic legos for crying out loud.