Playing with toys is a big part
of growing up, and helps kids to develop and learn as they get older. Role
playing and learning how things work is a great way for kids to learn about
what it is like to be an adult and can help with their emotional as well as
social development, as well as exploring new skills that they may want to
develop as adults.
But the wish to play doesn’t end
there, and the toys industry knows this. As adults, we have such busy and
pressured lives that the need to wind down and play can be overwhelming, which
is why many toys are aimed at adults as much as kids, and possibly make up a
large part of the business for some toy companies.
The video games industry is one
of the largest and most profitable industries in the world for good reason. Not
only do video games provide a way for kids to let loose and explore different
situations and ways of thinking, but they are also bought widely by adults, who
use them to escape the stresses of everyday life. Games like Guitar Hero allow
adults to see what life may have been like if they had chosen another path, and
for an hour or so experience the life of a rockstar. Most of the music on these
games is aimed at adults, featuring as it does a large selection of classic tracks
that kids are unlikely to know or associate good feelings with. Similarly,
fantasy games like the Final Fantasy series, or Skyrim, create a whole other
world and hours of epic gameplay, for a true escape from your life for hours at
a time. These games do appeal to children, but it is likely that adults find
more to bond with in these games, and thus make up a huge number of the
customers for these companies.
Razor scooters have also been
hugely popular with adults and really allow adults to let loose for a few
hours. Definitely more aimed at children than adults, in a way that bikes are
not, scooters have still become completely acceptable modes of transport for
adults in the inner cities, and it is not unusual to see professionals scooting
to work on their razor scooters. Companies even target adults with their
marketing for these scooters, making them seem more ‘adult’ and more advanced
than the standard versions, and so totally acceptable for use by anyone over
the age of 18!
In action figures from popular
television series’ and movies, the toy industry has even found a way to target
adults with what are essentially dolls. Making them collectable and somehow
more ‘serious’ than other dolls, adults feel completely justified in buying a
huge number of these dolls every year.
