Pop Insider Editor-In-Chief Marissa Silva examines the "kidulting" trend in the toy industry and developing nostalgic toys for adults.

Video Transcript

- All right, well, if you're an adult who loves toys, there's nothing to be ashamed of. You're just one of many millions of kidults. The American Toy Association says 58% of adults bought a toy for themselves last year alone. On TikTok, videos of adults doing just that have more than 4 billion views.

Marissa Silva is the "Pop Insider" editor-in-chief. She joins us now. Nice to see you, Marissa. We're not talking about Barbie dolls per se, which we might in a moment, but what are adults buying when it comes to toys and why?

MARISSA SILVA: Yeah, absolutely. You know adults are not only just buying toys that are typically designed for kids. They're actually buying toys designed for them. So toy manufacturers are really aware of this trend, and they're actually cranking out new products that have adults in mind.

Take, for example, LEGO is making LEGO sets that are designed for 18-plus. So they're really more intricate toys, they're highly collectible, they have great quality, and they're really made for grownups.

- And I will say the nostalgia aspect of a lot of these stories is just delicious. We know that there's an ET board game that was one of my favorite things that I saw was coming out. Tell us more about that and really that crossover between the movie and the board games and what that brings to the table.

MARISSA SILVA: Yeah, you know, there's always been a really strong relationship between franchises, movies, video games, things like that, and physical products, right. So you wanna recreate those experiences that you have watching one of your favorite films with a physical item. And nostalgia's really playing into this because all those films that we grew up with-- "ET," "Back to the Future," "Star Wars," you name it-- they're getting these amazing licensing lines full of collectibles-- toys, games.