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Hasbro Inc./AP/File |
Toys 'Я' (for) us grown-ups!
Sales of toys are down – except to adults, who love to collect the toys that were popular when they were younger.
from the October 6, 2008 edition
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Longtime teddy bear collector Yvette Jessen, who lives near Frankfurt, says that her extensive stuffed ursine cadre brings out the "internal child" in everyone who comes to visit her. If more people would allow that playful side to emerge, "then perhaps we could find a means in which to coexist with one another in a peaceful way," she says.
"That is where creativity and imagination thrive," says Miller. "And as long as these individuals aren't becoming a burden to society or doing something terribly criminal, I see nothing wrong with continuing to play with toys throughout adulthood."
With a basement full of LEGO constructions, Ohio State University assistant professor Paul Janssen is an enthusiastic and unapologetic member of AFOL. A father of three, Dr. Janssen says he is no longer embarrassed to admit that he loves to play with the little bricks.
AFOL members even have a name for the years spent away from the beloved building toys. "We call them the Dark Ages," says Janssen with a laugh. "For most, it's roughly the years between 15 and mid- to late 20s."
For him, beginning to collect LEGOS in his 20s came about after he got a job and was able to buy the products on his own. And, of course, finding like-minded aficionados along the way.
While adults have long collected children's toys, musician Richard Patrick says that for most of the people he knows who have children's playthings (and he knows many, he says), the toys are just a cover for doing what they really want. He has hundreds of "Star Wars" figures and memorabilia all over his house, "except for the bedroom where my wife and I sleep," he says. He figures the trove is worth thousands of dollars by now, "but I wouldn't ever sell it. I just love having the stuff around."
Jim Hemstead, a chef in Bothell, Wash., has much the same feelings about his extensive Muppet collection, housed in various part of his home, including his 7-year-old daughter's closet, not to mention in additional storage units. He occasionally rearranges Kermit and Miss Piggy in a few of his favorite scenes.
For this trio of toy lovers, as with many other adults, the toys are as much a symbol of another time as they are playthings. "I love what the ['Star Wars'] movie meant to me," says Mr. Patrick.
That's a sentiment echoed by Mr. Hemstead. "The Muppets aren't just toys," he says, adding that he deeply admires Muppet creator Jim Henson. "He wanted to show a world where all these different characters could get along, and I love that vision of peace."
This deep, emotional connection is what toymaker Jason Feinberg tries to tap with his line of "dolls" for adults. He sculpts famous figures from history and modern life and mass-produces them. The Barack Obama figure has been a bestseller for the company he founded, Jailbreak Toys.
Beneath this adult attraction to a "toy" is something deeper, Mr. Feinberg says. Other cultures have long respected the desire to have a physical, outward symbol of people or things that are close to the heart, "We've lost something by reducing this need to merely being a child's toy."
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