I think some folks may have gotten the wrong impression from a comment I made so I figure I'd just throw this out there: when I said I found 'kidult' to be offensive I was being ironic. I realize in this day and age it can often be genuinely hard to tell due to how overly sensitive some people have gotten but obviously there are far worse things to be called.

I just think It's a silly word that makes the writer of this article look out of touch.

I haven't kept up with this thread but I hope no one's actually taken offense to something so goofy. D:

 

This thread... eh, the internet really... but every time I've poked back in I'm reminded of the song:

"everywhere around you, you find reasons to,
turn into a warrior to protect what you believe,
but you think their beliefs make them less than you,
that is a delusion that your sickness has conceived"

"so you spend every day of your life,
looking for something to set,
you on fire..."

Also, the "bridge scene" from Robin Hood: Men in Tights...

except it's lost all funny because some people are zealot-level invested.

 

An impressive tribute to CTE.

Anyway, I'm just here to say in the tones of the old Toys R Us jingle, "I'm a big Kidult now!"

 

Oh boy. Hasbro is embracing 'kidult' as an industry term!

https://twitter.com/TFU_INFO/status/1622924913169276928

 

Hello new stomach ulcer.

 

Define "young adults"... I'm in the 40+ bracket now and I don't consider myself a "young adult" anymore. I'm in the yelling "kids today" and "get off my lawn" stage.

 

“Young” is what marketing chases after. So they’ll slap it on something to make it sound more palatable to themselves.

 

It's a dumb word, but I feel like the people overreacting to it sorta prove it's accurate?

 

10000% this,

 

Ah, the "(age) is the new (significantly younger age)" marketing mentality

 

Yeah it's right there in the slide. "They turn to nostalgia for comfort..."

It's a polite way of saying what many of us here say quite often. We like things we recognize because it makes us feel immune from the unwavering passage of time while guarding us from the harsh truth that sometimes the things we liked then aren't what people like today.

HasTak isn't doing nostalgia because we are their primary market. They're doing nostalgia because kids like cool toys, and by making nostalgic toys they can simultaneously appeal to kids who think these things are cool *and* get bonus money from adults who don't want anything to change. All while saving money on R&D because they can just recycle classic stuff every once in a while. The longer this cycle goes the easier it gets, as the kids of today growing up on our nostalgia will then be the adults who're nostalgic for the same stuff leading to their kids being exposed to the same stuff we have now.

 

It's more like people don't like being reminded they're old. So you find new ways to frame your products so potential adult customers feel nostalgic without simultaneously remembering they're old.

You can tell it works because there's whole forums of grown adults who've convinced themselves a number of children's toy lines are actually aimed at "adult collectors."

 

LOL

My POV: F*ck 'em! I'm old, I like toys, that's it.

Call me kidult, I don't care.

(I said this before but it helps that my old tag was KD so that's that)

 

Nah, it's just dumb. Or maybe I'm not seeing the level of overreaction, I don't know.

 

I feel like regarding the playful ribbing of a silly corporate slang term as overreacting is itself overreacting.

Maybe that's where my aversion comes from because I've never seen my collecting as denying the fact that I'm aging. Not even coping with it. I like that I'm an adult. It means I have money to buy all the toys I want.  

I'm sure in ten-twenty years when various parts of my body start betraying me one by one I'll be singing a different tune, but right now I'd rather be known as a grown-ass man (as in my ass has grown, disproportionately I might add) who just collects things he likes than the implication that I'm in some perpetual crisis.

 

I've been following this thread since it first started, trust me...there's a clear difference between the two and it's gotta be tiring for people such as yourself to keep purposefully viewing criticism of one as an attack on everyone. It's all too common around here.

Okay, I mean...good for you? If you don't think this term offends you then don't get mad when I specifically refer to those who take it deeply personal. Like I've said before, hit dogs holler.

 

It was a marketing strat from the beginning! getting worked up about it means you played into their marketing trap!

 

The absolute staggering lack of self-awareness, holy moly.

Did you specifically refer to anyone? I just saw a blanket statement with no direct reply to anyone specifically. You didn't even give an example of what overreacting was.

See that's the problem with speaking about specific people without specifically specifying who you're specifying, it's really not that specific. Specifically in instances like this where there are specific examples you can quite easily reply to.