{"id":601209,"date":"2026-08-31T04:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/601209\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T04:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:06:15","slug":"its-therapy-by-stealth-the-adult-fans-helping-lego-build-its-billions-in-sales-lego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/601209\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s therapy by stealth\u2019: the adult fans helping Lego build its billions in sales | Lego"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a cosy cafe in Kingston upon Thames on the outskirts of London, nine people gather in the early evening to drink and talk. To the casual observer it may look like a book club, but when the friends reach into their bags it\u2019s not paperbacks they produce \u2013 but packs of Lego<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Geoff Lay, who organised the gathering, worked in software development before recently starting Noble Brick, a Lego-focused events organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was one of those kids where you couldn\u2019t go into my bedroom because the floor was covered in pieces,\u201d he says. But after a break with the hobby, the 44-year-old rediscovered Lego 10 years ago \u2013 after being given a set recreating London\u2019s Tower Bridge. He has been building ever since.<\/p>\n

The allure of a Lego set may conjure childhood fun, but a growing number of adult enthusiasts is one of the reasons behind a surge in sales which has helped increase the Danish toymaker\u2019s revenues by 21%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Geoff Lay helps his fiancee, Lauren Marshall, centre, and fellow enthusiast Holly Nessling get to grips with their Lego Darth Vader figure. Photograph: Antonio Olmos\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Thanks to collaborations with the likes of the World Cup and Stranger Things, as well as mini figures of popular football players, more and more are finding themselves returning to the brand in later life.<\/p>\n

The Lego Group was founded in 1932 and has built a lucrative plastic empire, generating \u00a34.8bn in revenue in the first half of 2026 alone. Since the 1990s, Lego has expanded its products to include brand tie-ins, video games, television shows and sets tailored towards adults \u2013 often costing hundreds of pounds.<\/p>\n

Lay is confident that a new demographic of older Lego enthusiasts is here to stay. He says: \u201cThe idea that Lego is for kids is banished.\u201d His 40-year-old fiancee, Lauren Marshall, agrees: \u201cYou don\u2019t have a typical Lego fan any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall \u201cdidn\u2019t have Lego as a child\u201d, but got into the hobby as an adult after her partner\u2019s fervour rubbed off on her. As she assembles the legs of a large Darth Vader, she says sets are \u201ca lot like jigsaws\u201d, and they are \u201ccompleting something like a puzzle\u201d.<\/p>\n

Adult Lego Fans gather at the Old London Road Cafe in Kingston. Tim Hirst working on his DeLorean Car Lego. Photograph: Antonio Olmos\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Someone who was raised on a less structured style of Lego play is 28-year-old Loretta Piare. \u201cGrowing up, I loved Lego. We always had huge boxes of it,\u201d she says, as she constructs a cactus from the company\u2019s botanical series. \u201cWe could never afford one of the fancy sets. My mum would get the big boxes of mixed colours.\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markWhy can\u2019t we play with Lego? Some people might say it\u2019s for kids but there are so many of us Jordan Wiltshire, GertLUG<\/p>\n

She stopped playing with Lego in her teens \u2013 \u201cI used to love building houses and making it up\u201d \u2013 but the cost-effective and environmentally conscious option to borrow other people\u2019s bricks at adult groups has revived her interest. \u201cI love following instructions,\u201d she says, \u201cI love colourful bricks, basically. I love building things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Stone, a 35-year-old decorator, renewed his love for Lego after quitting smoking during Covid and buying himself a racing car set. While constructing a brick-based Nintendo Game Boy console, he explains how he joined the London Afol (Adult Fans of Lego) group to make new friends. \u201cI got really bored. I had a load of buddies that would just go out drinking.\u201d Now, Stone takes part in collaborative builds late into the night with more than 20 other Afol members.<\/p>\n

Tim Stone working on his Lego Nintendo Game Boy console. Photograph: Antonio Olmos\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

There are dozens of Lego fan groups across the UK. Jordan Wiltshire, 32, is a member of GertLUG, a \u201cLego user group\u201d based in Bristol. He became conscious of the cost and began to wonder if Lego was a \u201csensible\u201d purchase. When a friend bought him a Lego Star Wars Tie Fighter for Christmas when he was 26, things slotted back into place.<\/p>\n

He calls Lego his \u201cpersonality\u201d, and is a strong advocate against ageism related to the hobby. \u201cWhy can\u2019t we play with Lego?\u201d he asks. \u201cSome people might say it\u2019s for kids but there are so many of us and we all have different things we love about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiltshire, who builds his own Lego creations, says he enjoys the \u201csense of accomplishment\u201d: \u201cIt\u2019s a way I can be creative and actually be quite good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are other purported benefits to playing with Lego, such as improved mental health. Nick Bright runs Brighton Bricks, an adult Lego group that meets monthly, and says: \u201cIt\u2019s therapy by stealth, you don\u2019t even realise you\u2019re helping your wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work on a Lego mosaic in Brighton. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Like many adult fans, the 51-year-old rediscovered Lego later in life. He recalls the product that revived the habit: \u201cIt was the Haunted House Monster Fighters set. It was one of those moments where you go \u2018Yeah, this is me\u2019.\u201d He shares his love for Lego with his nine-year-old son and 80-year-old mother. His home collection is large and admits \u201cmy wife maybe thinks I have too much\u201d.<\/p>\n

Nick Bright, who runs Brighton Bricks: \u2018It\u2019s therapy by stealth, you don\u2019t even realise you\u2019re helping your wellbeing.\u2019 Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

There are plenty of gateways into the hobby through collaborations with the likes of Disney, Dune and Fortnite, but Bright warns that one downside is that \u201cthere are a lot more bigger, expensive sets and there is a fear of missing out\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bright prefers to follow the guide of a Lego set\u2019s printed instructions, but has many friends whose constructions come from their own imagination. \u201cWe\u2019re all doing the same thing, but we are all doing it differently,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I love about Lego is that there\u2019s no wrong way to build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes the creativity displayed through MOCs \u2013 an enthusiast term meaning \u201cmy own creation\u201d to describe original builds \u2013 shows that Lego is much more than a children\u2019s toy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just like how someone can do knitting and pottery \u2013 it\u2019s an art form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of people\u2019s reasons to love Lego, its adult fanbase shows the company won\u2019t be hitting a brick wall any time soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a cosy cafe in Kingston upon Thames on the outskirts of London, nine people gather in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-601209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}