En Paris, Toulouse, London, Melbourne or Miami, since 2007, the “Art of the Brick” exhibition presents a collection of sculptures and reproductions of Lego paintings. It also offers a nice collection of adults who no longer bother with the company of a child to go and admire these installations. We also come across families whose parents hang out in front of each work, taking note of the number of bricks used and the construction time, while their kids whine like in a Flemish painting exhibition, asking when are we going to the Accrobranche.
This phenomenon is echoed in Lego stores, where out of season there are more adults than children. An article from Wall Street Journal explained, at the beginning of April, that grown-ups now represent a gold mine for the brand: adulthood lasts longer than childhood, older children have the advantage of not changing their center of interest every three months and also have more pocket money.
In France, 80% of “sets” that cost more than 200 euros are “adult” models (with black and serious packaging like deodorants for men); this range was launched in 2020.
How do we recognize them?
They impatiently awaited the birth of their children to introduce them to Lego. They have not managed to share their passion as much as they would like. They forbid their offspring from reselling their Lego or Kapla at garage sales.
They always know enough adults who are a little more screwed up than themselves – those whose boxes are still wrapped or those whose children have to put the pieces back in the original boxes without mixing them – to convince themselves that they have a fairly normal relationship to plastic bricks.
They know the number of parts in the main kits by heart. They don’t round: they say four thousand and forty-nine coins, not four thousand. They find the small local Lego building expos much more “in the spirit of the brick” than “Art of the Brick”.
They can talk about “moc” (my own construction, “my own construction”) or “illegal construction technique”. They like the expression AFOL (adult fans of Lego), which designates a community, but not that of “kidults” (contraction of kid And adults), which designates a market. They do not include adults who have year-round Disney passes.
How they speak
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