‘Lego is for everyone:’ Spokane businesses, collectors part of growing ‘kidult’ economy

They’re hip, they’re lively and they’re terrorizing local malls.

They’ve even got their own lingo.

Self-proclaimed AFOLs, or Adult Fans of Lego, have been fueling sales for the Danish toy titan since the COVID-19 pandemic, as the industry as a whole profits from a rise in nostalgia-fueled shoppers.

“Kidults,” as they’re referred to, accounted for more toy sales from January through April than any other age group, according to the research firm Circana. With more than $1.5 billion in sales earlier this year, adults surpassed preschoolers as the No. 1 purchasing demographic for toys for the first time , according to Circana.

That’s welcome news for Frankie Foote, co-owner of Brick Buy Brick, the Lego resale store in Spokane’s Garland District. As someone who got into the hobby as a child, Foote said she’s been glad to see the Lego group invest in product lines aimed at older demographics. She credits the pandemic for reigniting that childhood passion for so many, spurring the recent boon in brick sales.

“So many of us were just working our lives away and not really having a very good balance of play and adulthood,” Foote said. “Then the pandemic happened, and we all slowed down and kind of got back into these things that brought us joy as kids.”

Foote and her partner, Bryce Colvin, opened the shop in June 2023, ushering in a new era for Lego in Spokane just a few months before the official Lego store opened in River Park Square. The two locations are the anchor points of a local brick ecosystem, as collectors can offload and purchase older sets at Foote’s shop and grab the new releases downtown, she said.

“When people go down there and they are looking for something, they send them up to us, and vice-versa, we send people down to the Lego store all the time,” Foote said. “I’m glad that Spokane is flourishing in the Lego world, because we were not a year and a half ago.”

Courtney Haney, co-owner of Bardic Brewing and Cidery in Spokane Valley, has found her own way to capitalize on Lego’s popularity by regularly hosting date nights at the brewery. Couples will order a set through Haney in advance, and then build it over a flight of locally made beers and ciders, she said.

Haney said the idea comes from her and her husband Mark Haney’s shared interest in Lego, and the nights allow fellow AFOLs to connect over the craft and explore potential deeper connections.

The events have drawn in their own repeat customers, who wander in for a date night and end up returning again and again, she added.

“Our goal at Bardic is to create a space for community and conversation, and that’s really what it’s all about,” Haney said.

Bardic Brewing is soon to open a second location at the intersection of Browne Street and Riverside Avenue in the former Mountain Lakes Brewing storefront, and Haney said she looks forward to hosting a few Lego nights there next year.

“We’re hoping it’s a matter of days, and not weeks,” Haney said. “We’re really looking forward to it.”

For now, Haney, her husband and their two kids will continue to chip away at their own builds. They recently acquired a Dungeons & Dragons-themed set that, in addition to a build, serves as a map for a D&D campaign to play through. Haney said the ability to connect over Lego as a family is one of the reasons she, and many others, continue to drive business for Lego shops like Foote’s.

Foote sees folks of all ages and from all walks of life frequent the shop but said nothing beats the reactions from adult shoppers coming across one of their childhood holy grails on display. Brick Buy Brick carries several vintage, completed sets behind the counter at the Garland shop, which are typically more affordable than their un-built counterparts, Foote said.

“They’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, I wanted that set so bad as a kid,’ ” Foote said. “Then we always end up talking about all the sets we wanted as kids, and then the sets we actually got.”

“And then we talk about how crazy it is that they’re expensive now, and how we didn’t think that would ever happen,” she added.

It’s not just older sets that have skyrocketed in value; the average price of a new Lego set has risen by nearly 36% in the last 10 years, according to a data analysis by independent Lego media group Bricka. The same analysis found it would cost nearly $30,000 to buy every set released in 2023.

At Brick Buy Brick, affordability is part of the business plan, Foote said. She and her partner wanted to ensure access to Lego for everyone, which is why the prebuilt kits are usually cheaper, “rare” minifigures are well below the latest eBay listing and bulk bricks for the passionate builders are on par with shops in more populated cities.

Foote and Colvin don’t mind if some of their more sought-after items are then resold, so long as kids can continue to “come in see a cool minifigure and feel like they can actually afford it,” and adults aren’t “priced out of their hobby,” she said.

“Lego is for everyone,” Foote said. “Not everything has to be so expensive all the time.”

The exorbitant prices are lifelong Lego fan and Spokane transplant Eddie Gooden’s only real complaint about the toy he adores.

Gooden’s passion for building stems from the freedom and versatility that comes with Lego, he said. He still fondly remembers getting his first set, a small black and yellow waverunner from a General Mills promotion, in exchange for a stack of Box Tops.

“I got that first one, and then it was maybe a couple months later and I got another one the same way, through the cereal,” Gooden recalled.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Gooden started spotting the iconic yellow logo in the toy aisle and begging his parents to drop it in the cart. He worries the prices nowadays may prevent some children from getting into the hobby as early as he did.

“My parents didn’t have a lot of money, the hot new toy that year, that was rare for us to get,” Gooden said. “But my mom could always afford a box of Lego, you know? And it kept you satisfied, and it kept me satisfied throughout my entire childhood. I don’t think I ever had any toys that took more of my time than Lego did.”

Gooden believes the rise in popularity for older crowds is attributed to a couple of factors, like adults finding more free time during the pandemic, the hit TV show Lego Masters shining a new light on the hobby and Lego’s commitment to cashing in on childhood nostalgia.

In recent decades, Lego has shifted from creating thematic sets like the space, pirates and castle collections of yore to established intellectual properties like “Star Wars,” “Harry Potter” and Disney films. The “Star Wars” series, which began 25 years ago, is now one of the most profitable for the toy giant, with a litany of new releases each year.

Gooden said the shift was a good business decision for Lego, since customers will often pay top dollar for a set representing one of their favorite childhood memories, whether it’s a diorama of the “Star Wars” trash compactor scene in “A New Hope,” a recreation of the elven city of Rivendell from “The Lord of the Rings” or a likeness of Mario and his trusty companion Yoshi from the Nintendo games.

“I’m sitting in my little Lego area and I’m staring at my ‘Sesame Street’ set, I have my Winnie the Pooh set, there’s the Steamboat Willie, the original Mickey Mouse set,” Gooden said. “These are things that we grew up with in our childhood, so of course we’re going to flock to those when we see those sets.”

Gooden will buy the occasional set just like any other collector, but his real focus is creating custom designs known in the community as MOCs, which stands for My Own Creation. He started posting his builds to Instagram a few years ago at the advice of his wife, who told him he needed to share his creations with a broader community.

One thing led to another, and in 2022, Gooden was asked to compete alongside his older sister, Asiza, on Season 3 of “LEGO Masters.”

Gooden said the experience was a blessing in disguise that came after a tumultuous few months. He and his family had just relocated to Spokane from California to be closer to his siblings and parents, and had little certainty about the next chapter of their lives.

“We came up here with nothing, just literally starting from ground zero,” Gooden said. “So it was kind of a shock to get that opportunity.”

Gooden said he learned a lot about himself, as well as his craft, during his time on the show. He’s never considered himself an extrovert, but it brought him out of his shell, and led to lasting relationships with just about every one of his fellow contestants. He remains in touch with many of them, sharing techniques, their latest MOCs or stories from their daily lives.

“I can’t really describe it,” Gooden said. “It’s just awesome, especially getting to do it with my big sister, who has kind of been with me on the Lego journey since we were children.”

Lego is something to bond over, Gooden said, whether it’s with his fellow contestants, his siblings or his own children. It’s also one of the reasons why he believes the iconic plastic bricks will probably always have mass appeal.

To Gooden, Lego is unparalleled in the toy aisle. Whereas other toys popular with adults like Barbies, Hot Wheels and Squishmallows are relatively static. Lego comes with endless possibilities and without gendered connotations, Gooden said.

“A boat or an airplane or whatever it may be, you can always take those things apart and rebuild something else, create a whole new story, whole new party with it,” Gooden said. “It’s a never-ending kind of thing.”

Lego has been a part of Gooden’s life since that first box of Fruit Loops, and, like many other nostalgic adults, he expects that to be the case well into the future.

“As you grow, you start to collect; as you gather more inventory, that just increases the possibilities of what you can build, what you can create,” he said.