What Lego Lost When It Grew Up

Next month, just in time for the holidays, Lego will launch its largest set yet: a miniature version of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia. (“Perfect for anyone who loves visionary design, architecture or travel,” the website proclaims.) The price tag, at $799.99, is a bargain if you assess it on a per-brick basis: The set contains 12,060 pieces, most of which are beige.

The instructions are laid out such that the person building the model will re-create the historical timeline of the church’s construction, starting with the crypt.

When complete, the model stands about two feet tall and is densely ornamented, frosted with wings and spires and 42 hook-handed figures serving as statues of biblical characters.

Antoni Gaudí meant for his masterpiece to inspire awe and, at times, fear; so, too, may this heap of bricks.

Lego fans sometimes refer to their “dark ages”—the period of their life, usually starting in their teens, when they lost interest in their brick sets.

Such angst has gone the way of dial-up internet now that Lego, like many other toy brands, actively courts older customers.

In the early 2000s, Lego was near bankruptcy; today, powered by an emergent adult demographic, the company is earning record revenues and growing faster than many of its competitors.

The situation sounds like a CEO’s daydream: a toy maker that’s ensured its customers will never age out of its merchandise.

Yet by embracing the tastes and preferences of the Lego adult, the company has started to make wares that are distinctively un-toylike, losing something essential to their appeal in the process.

Of course, adults have always been able to buy and tinker with Lego sets as they pleased.

Only in recent years, however, has the brand been so overt, and so enterprising, in reaching out to this audience.

In 2020, the company officially launched its “Adults Welcome” marketing campaign, casting brick-building as a form of stress relief.

The next year, when that campaign launched its first global TV ads, the company’s chief product and marketing officer told Ad Age that “children are at the center of everything we do, but we are delighted that the love of Lego building transcends age.” Since then, the brand has rolled out hundreds of brick sets to suit grown-up interests—packaged in sleek black boxes rather than its traditional cheery egg-yolk yellow.

The LEGO Masters reality show, in which two teams face off in preposterously elaborate building challenges, premiered in 2020, has aired for five seasons (with a sixth on the way), and spun off a celebrity holiday special. (A version starring kids was only announced in 2025.) The company’s indoor theme parks, which were originally designed for families, now host special adults-only nights.