Kidulting means adults buying toys for themselves and taking time to play, collect or build with them. According to the market research firm Circana, nearly 40 percent of consumers in Europe bought toys for themselves or another adult in 2025. And Germany is now the largest kidult market in Europe, reports the Nuremberg Toy Fair (in German).
What's behind it
One particular spaceship is enough, and you're back in your childhood bedroom, sometime in the eighties, wishing for exactly this model for Christmas.
Sociologist Dirk Gemein explained to the Frankfurter Rundschau (in German) what happens there. Research calls it self-continuity: the feeling of staying connected, despite all the changes in life, to the person you used to be.
Why building in particular
Gemein also explains why many adults reach for a model kit: when you assemble a model, your own work becomes physically visible. Out of individual parts comes something that lasts.
A mechanical model from UGEARS adds one more thing: it works. The racing car shifts through its gears, and the pinball machine shoots the ball across the playfield. It's still no children's toy, though. The kits are rated from age 14, there are lots of small parts, and the mechanism has to sit just right.
No longer a secret
The model railway used to live in the basement, and hardly anyone outside the family knew about it. Gemein points out that older generations built and collected too. What's new is that adults are open about it today: more than one in every three euros spent in the German toy market now comes from teenagers and adults, according to the Nuremberg Toy Fair.
Three models for the child you once were: experience them again
If you saw Star Wars™ in the cinema as a child, you know the Millennium Falcon™ from every angle. Now you build it yourself, from over a thousand parts, and at the end the hyperdrive glows blue.
For everyone who pushed racing cars across the carpet as a child: the UGT-24 is a 1960s endurance racer with a V8 and three gears. This time it drives on its own spring motor.
Pinball used to mean the pub or the funfair. The Quidditch™ Pinball from the world of Harry Potter™ sits on your table, and once it's built, you play, with a plunger and flippers.
And if you give it as a gift
A model that reminds him of his childhood comes with a story: while unwrapping it, he tells you why he wanted exactly this ship back then. More ideas in What to give a man who already has everything?
We ship from our warehouse in Essen, usually within 1–3 working days. You have 100 days to return it, and spare parts are free.
Sources
- Frankfurter Rundschau (Ippen.Media): Immer mehr Millennials betreiben nach der Arbeit „Kidulting“, 04.11.2026, in German. fr.de
- Circana, published by The Toy Association: Global Toy Industry Rebounds in 2025 as Sales Rise 7%, 27.01.2026. toyassociation.org
- Spielwarenmesse: Deutschland ist Europas führender Kidult-Markt, in German. spielwarenmesse.de