Grown-ups buying kids’ toys

6 Minute English

BBC

Language Learning, Education

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What was your favourite toy as a child? And would you consider playing with it as an adult...? It's not just kids who like to play with toys – many adults like to buy kids' toys for themselves! Phil and Beth discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

Find a full transcript, worksheet and interactive quiz for this episode at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2025/ep-250814

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Understand news stories in English with our Learning English from the News podcast.
0:05.2	In each episode, we talk about one big news story
0:08.3	and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.
0:12.4	Follow the biggest stories in the world and improve your English.
0:16.1	Search for Learning English from the News in your podcast app
0:19.4	or visit BBC LearningEnglish.com.
0:24.1	Six Minute English from BBC LearningEnglish.com.
0:30.8	Hello, this is Six Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.
0:35.0	And I'm Beth. Action figures, building bricks, stuffed cuddly animals,
0:40.5	there's a whole world of toys that many of us have forgotten since we were children. Do you still have
0:46.4	any toys from when you were a boy, Phil? A couple, but I gave them to my kids. Well, nowadays,
0:53.2	grown-ups playing with toys is more common
0:55.6	than you might think. Recent estimates suggest that adults buying kids' toys for themselves
1:01.6	account for between 30 and 40% of the entire toy market. So many that advertisers have come up
1:09.3	with a term for them, kiddults. adults who are interested in toys and games intended for children.
1:16.3	Between last October and December alone, American kiddults spent over $1.5 billion on toys for themselves.
1:25.4	Among the most popular were plush toys, or plushies for short,
1:29.2	toy dolls or animals made from cloth and filled with soft material.
1:33.4	And like other recent trends, the toy trend is being driven by online shoppers and social media.
1:38.7	In this episode, we'll meet a children's toy maker and an online influencer
1:44.0	who were both involved in the increasing
1:46.2	trend of adults interested in kids' toys. We'll also learn some useful new vocabulary, and remember
	...

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