Toying Around
Tracking culture through play: toys, games and the grown ups who buy them
This newsletter looks at how play is evolving across kidult collectibles, experiential playgrounds, screen lite storytelling, virtual pets and gamified fitness, and what that tells us about the audiences behind the trends. It is not a millennial report, but if you read between the lines you will see plenty about the people who grew up with Tamagotchi and PlayStation and are now buying Death Star sets, blind box toys and family passes to Lego parks.
A. Franchises, Fandom and Collectibles
1. Kidult Collectibles and Blind Box Fandom
Adult collectors are driving a premium layer of the toy market, where figures, sets and mystery drops function as lifestyle objects rather than just kids’ playthings.
When palm sized Labubu blind box figures sold out online at around 11 dollars each, Pop Mart’s profits jumped nearly 400 percent. Their CEO is targeting 20 billion yuan in revenue by 2025 and planning 10 new US stores, all off the back of collectible toy demand.
Lego has launched a 9,023 piece Death Star set at a $1,000 price point, clearly aimed at serious adult hobbyists. Lego reported a 10 percent increase in net profit and a 12 percent rise in sales, launching a record 314 new sets in the first half of 2025, plus 24 new stores, many of which also serve adult fans.
Specialty resale shops like Bricks and Minifigs in Maryland focus on buying, trading and reselling new and used Lego sets for collectors, not just kids and parents who want a single box on a birthday.
Atari CX-10 joystick whiskey decanter set sells at $125 for nostalgic adult gamers.
Taras Yoom launched “Another Kingdom” backgammon set as a 21-edition art object with NFC authentication – a tabletop game as luxury collectible.
How To Leverage This Trend
Treat toys as long term collectible systems with rarity tiers, artist collaborations and resellable value.
Design “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” experiences such as repair, trade and display services around core lines.
Use blind boxes and limited drops carefully to balance excitement with fatigue and regulator interest.
2. Franchises as Play Platforms
Game and toy IP are being treated as platforms rather than single products, with user created content, education and cross media storytelling all orbiting the same world.
In Korea, Nexon is turning MapleStory into a multi platform ecosystem. There is a UGC sandbox for player built games and “Hello Maple” for coding education using the same IP, both showing high engagement and strong earnings.
SMG Studio and Lego have launched Lego Party, a multiplayer game with more than 60 minigames themed around Lego sets and deep character customisation. Pre orders include exclusive digital minifigures that link game to physical collection habits.
Disney Jr is extending Marvel into preschool through Marvel’s Iron Man and His Awesome Friends, designed to work for both kids and parents by focusing on resilience and problem solving as much as heroics. (yeah, sure….)
Lego’s “Never Stop Playing” campaign with Tom Holland uses a short film and subsequent exhibition at Lego House in Denmark to turn the brand’s core idea of creativity into a cultural event.
Purina Beggin’ Blocks Minecraft treats + sweepstakes: use of Minecraft IP bridging film, food and gaming prizes.
How To Leverage This Trend
Design IP with a clear spine that can support games, toys, shows, creator tools and education products.
Allow kids and fans to build inside the world, then promote and merchandise the best community work.
Use education and skills building as a legitimate on ramp into a franchise, not an afterthought.
B. Immersive Worlds, Events and Venues
3. ‘Eventized’ Launches and Live Service Seasons
Major releases now behave like serialized media, with pre testing, cross title rewards and live events that turn launches into multi week narratives.
Why now
EA is reshaping Battlefield into something closer to an annualized franchise, consolidating several studios into Battlefield Studios and creating Battlefield Labs for early player testing before fiscal 2026 launch.
The Road to Battlefield 6 event in Battlefield 2042 ran from August 10 to October 7 and offered more than 20 exclusive rewards for Battlefield 6 and over 50 for Battlefield 2042, clearly linking the outgoing game to the new one.
The launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong caused store access issues on Steam, Nintendo eShop and Xbox due to mega-demand, with players joking that store errors were the first boss of the game. That level of heat explains why publishers now design launch as a season instead of a single moment.
How To Leverage This Trend
Build a pre launch runway that includes tests, creator access and “legacy” events inside older titles.
Design reward paths that bridge older and newer titles and keep status carrying forward.
Treat launch weeks like live TV premieres, with planned beats, community memes and contingency plans for infrastructure strain.
4. Experiential Playgrounds and Branded Venues
Toys and games increasingly show up as physical destinations where fans can buy, play, eat and post, not just as products on shelves.
Why now
The Pokémon Company ran a dedicated Pokémon Center pop up at the 2025 Pokémon World Championships in Anaheim, offering exclusive event merchandise and turning competition viewing into a shopping and fandom moment.
Shanghai Lego Land keeps selling out tickets and hotel stays driven by local families and strategic adult ticket discounts.
Xbox France opened the Radianite Café in Paris during Valorant Champions finals.
The Jellycat Café in Shanghai reopens as a hybrid café and brand storytelling space where plush toys become pastries, designed for social shareability and nostalgia powered engagement.
Draftcade in Omaha offers more than 75 classic arcade games plus 48 draft beers, using a 10 dollar wristband model for unlimited play and expanding an existing arcade bar chain.
Victory Escape Game in Paris adds new escape rooms, from a haunted 1950s motel to family focused adventure in a lost ark setting, framing puzzle rooms as repeatable social nights out.
Pickleball concepts like The Pickle Pad and Chicken N Pickle are treated as full entertainment hubs that combine courts, dining, community events and even travel experiences, not just sports facilities (334906).
How To Leverage This Trend
Think about IP as a location strategy: cafés, arcades, parks and pop ups where fans can live inside the world for an afternoon.
Use time limited formats and exclusive merch to create urgency and social proof.
Integrate booking, loyalty and UGC capture so these spaces feed ongoing digital play and CRM, not just footfall.
C. Screen-lite and Companions
5. Screen-lite Storytelling and Calm Tech Play
Screen-free and screen-lite devices use simple physical inputs and audio to deliver stories, music and educational content, giving kids an object to handle and parents a way to manage content and limits without handing over a full screen.
Toniebox is positioned as a screen-free audio player that uses collectible figurines to trigger stories and music, connected to a Tonies app that lets parents manage content and controls.
Yoto Player is a screen-free audio device that plays content via physical cards, with a companion app for parents to manage playlists and daily usage limits.
A Stylus round-up spotlights three tech free or screen free tools: MyWonder, a powered learning companion in India activated by mode cards, Nodi Flip, an audio device for 5 to 12 year olds that plays Spotify, podcasts and curated lessons, and TeenieWins, a talking flash card reader developed with therapists for neurodivergent kids and speech therapy. All are framed as screen free educational tech for kids (Article 30410836).
The educational toys market was estimated at $54.00 billion USD in 2023 and is projected to reach $118.79 billion USD by 2030, which gives a strong macro tailwind for screen-lite learning devices that sit between toys and edtech.
How To Leverage This Trend
Treat screen-lite as a design principle, not just a feature. Keep the object tactile and simple in the child’s hand and push most complexity into a parent app or cloud layer.
Build collectible or modular ecosystems around the core device: figurines, cards, tiles or flash cards that can be sold in waves and mapped to themes such as bedtime, travel, language or STEM.
Use screen-lite devices as gateways to broader franchises. Stories, songs and missions on the box or player can introduce IP that later shows up in books, shows, games or classroom materials.
Explore inclusive and therapeutic use cases. TeenieWins is already being piloted with neurodivergent kids and speech therapy, which hints at a wider role for audio and card based systems in care and special education.
6. Virtual Pets and Companion Devices
Virtual companions are returning in updated forms that blend nostalgia with more complex play and closer daily presence.
Takara Tomy and The Pokémon Company are launching the Pokémon Poke Monster Ball, an interactive virtual pet device shaped like a Pokéball that lets users care for 157 virtual Pokémon and includes a diary feature to save memories, priced at 7,480 yen.
It’s argued that the device is a Tamagotchi style virtual pet, using both care loops and battle play, which brings 1990s mechanics into a modern, IP rich context./
Huawei’s Children’s Watch 3 Pro adds a camera, 4G and location tracking into a child focused wearable, turning the watch into a daily companion device that is as much about communication and peace of mind as it is about play.
OpenSea “Meetbit” is an AI plush tied to Meebits collectibles: a literal AI toy + blockchain identity.
Mr. Christmas AI Santa telephone toy with conversational AI, memory and upsellable minutes.
What next
Use emotional bonds and low friction check ins as the core loop instead of pure high intensity gameplay.
Combine physical shells with software updates so that virtual pets can evolve with seasonal content and events.
Explore companion devices that help kids manage routines, safety and self expression, not just entertainment.
D. Play for Health and Growth
7. Learning First Edutainment and Educational Play
There is a steady stream of toys, platforms and content where learning is the main promise, but play and story are the delivery mechanism.
VTech’s Professor Schreibfix is an educational toy designed to teach reading and writing with a blackboard, pencil, illuminated screen and audio feedback, positioned explicitly as an interactive learning aid rather than a pure toy.
A cluster of edtech startups is building education through playful interfaces. Edurino offers educational games, Faba develops audio devices for children, and several others in literacy and math have all raised significant rounds, according to a roundup of new tools for literacy, math and teacher connections (995821).
Coding platform Codedéx leans on game development courses and “challenge packs” to make programming feel like a series of adventures rather than dry instruction .
GraphoGame data-driven literacy game with real-time teacher analytics.
AchieveAble provides blended 1:1 + game-show math tutoring.
How To Leverage This Trend
Pair physical toys with simple companion apps or portals that give parents and teachers real feedback on progress.
Use familiar game genres such as puzzles, narrative quests and mini challenges to deliver core curriculum skills.
Position learning toys as long term systems that can be upgraded through new content drops and modules, not as one off purchases.
Comment on this newsletter on the LinkedIn version of the trends report.
[All images AI generated]
