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Hello, this is 6 Minute English
from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.
And I'm Beth.
Action figures, building bricks,
stuffed cuddly animals –
there's a whole world of toys
that many of us have forgotten
since we were children.
Do you still have any toys
from when you were a boy, Phil?
Erm, a couple,
but I gave them to my kids.
Well, nowadays,
grown-ups playing with toys
is more common
than you might think.
Recent estimates suggest that adults
buying kids' toys for themselves
account for between 30 and 40%
of the entire toy market,
so many that advertisers
have come up with a term for them –
kidults – adults who are interested in toys
and games intended for children.
Between last October
and December alone,
American kidults spent over 1.5 billion
dollars on toys for themselves.
Among the most popular
were plush toys,
or plushies for short – toy dolls
or animals made from cloth
and filled with soft material.
And like other recent trends,
the toy trend is being driven by
online shoppers and social media.
In this episode,
we'll meet a children's toy maker
and an online influencer who are both
involved in the increasing trend
of adults interested in kids' toys.
We'll also learn
some useful new vocabulary.
And remember – you'll find
a transcript for this episode,
along with all the new words
and phrases,
on our website,
bbclearningenglish.com.
But first, I have a question
for you, Beth.
Lego remains one of the most popular,
and expensive, children's toys.
So, according to MSN News, what was
the most expensive Lego set ever made?
Was it: a) the Lego
Harry Potter Hogwarts School,
b) the Lego Star Wars
Millennium Falcon,
or c) the Lego Eiffel Tower?
I'm going to guess Hogwarts
because I like Harry Potter.
OK. Well, we'll find out the answer
later in the programme.
Lisa Lee is a toy maker based
in Vancouver and the owner
of Leather Monsters, a brand of leather
plushies which she advertises online.
Here, Lisa tells BBC World Service
programme Business Daily
how she reconnected
with her love of toys as an adult.
Once I kind of had a stable job
with disposable income,
I kind of rediscovered my love
for soft toys,
and I started buying them again because
I've always loved collecting things,
because, you know, they bring me
happiness, they bring me joy.
And I think also
a big pillar of my channel
and my content is reconnecting with my
childhood and healing that inner child.
And I think
the toys also play a part in that.
Lisa started collecting toys as an adult
with a job and disposable income.
Disposable income is the money
you have left over
after paying all your expenses.
You can use it
to buy whatever you like.
Soft, cuddly toys make Lisa happy
and help her reconnect
with her inner child – a term from
psychology which describes the part
of your adult personality that
still feels and reacts like a child.
Besides the adults who sell kids'
toys are the adults who buy them.
Jay Glatfelter is
an enthusiastic toy collector
and influencer who makes YouTube
videos under the name Geek Dad Life.
Here's Jay talking about the link
between Covid lockdowns and the rise in
adult toy collecting to
BBC World Service's Business Daily.
And then what happened was
a whole bunch of new collectors
kind of jumped into toy collecting.
And for those of us that were
into it before, we saw the prices –
the secondary market prices – like,
explode once the pandemic happened,
because you had people that had time
on their hands,
maybe they had extra money because
they're not spending it by going out,
and now they're putting it
into collecting toys.
During the pandemic,
people had time on their hands –
an idiom meaning to have a lot of
free time and nothing to do with it.
Many adults went online, hoping to find
the toys they remembered from childhood.
As a result, a whole bunch –
meaning a large number –
of people started collecting toys,
and slowly but surely
demand increased and prices went up.
Yes, it seems that the feeling
of rediscovering your childhood,
reported by many adult
toy collectors, comes at a price,
with the cost of collectible items,
like Pokémon cards
and Jellycat plushies, increasing
dramatically during the pandemic.
And speaking of expensive toys,
Phil, isn't it time you reveal
the answer to your question?
Ah, yes. I asked you, What was the
most expensive Lego set ever made?
You said it was
the Lego Hogwarts School.
Well, I'm afraid
the answer is actually
the Lego Star Wars
Millennium Falcon,
which had a UK retail price
of £734.99,
according to MSN news.
That's crazy!
OK. It's time to recap the vocabulary
we've learned, starting with kidult –
an adult who likes playing with toys
and games intended for children.
Plushie is short for plush toy –
a toy doll or animal stuffed
with a soft cloth filling.
Your disposable income is
the amount of money
you have left to buy whatever
you want after paying your expenses.
Someone's inner child refers to
the part of their adult personality
that still feels
and reacts like a child.
A bunch is a number of things,
often a large number of things.
And finally, the idiom,
to have time on your hands,
means having free time
and nothing much to do with it.
Once again, our six minutes are up,
but remember – you'll find episodes
about plenty more trending topics,
along with a quiz and worksheet
for this episode on our website,
bbclearningenglish.com.
See you there soon,
but for now it's goodbye.
Bye!
Vocabulary
Word 1 of 15cuddly
word
0:15
"soft and pleasant to hold closely."
More Listening Practice
About this lesson
Explore the trend of adults buying toys meant for children and what it says about modern life in this 6 Minute English episode.