OEMs, kids and the forever young

For car designers, amassing a hoard of model vehicles is…ahem…a professional pursuit, but for other grown-ups, the desire to own and interact with toys is a central feature of what marketers term, kidulthood.

A kidult is anyone over the age of 12 who buys fun items for themselves that have traditionally been aimed at children. And though by no means a new phenomenon, the last few years have witnessed an explosion in uptake, with the kidultsphere becoming a multi-billion-dollar sector. Indeed, in Europe alone, sales to the forever young currently account for 28.5% of total toy purchases. Several factors combine to explain the growth. Firstly, kidults often report that their lives are too stressful and wish to return to simpler times. Kidulting also allows access to communities which form around collecting and trading specific items, thereby fulfilling an important social function. Demographics also come into play with falling birthrates meaning that income that would otherwise be spent on children being freed up to feed the habit.

 The growth of the kidultsphere is such that long-established toy and game companies like LEGO, Mattel, and Hasbro, now see grown-ups as a key audience. Creating reboots helps these brands target those who remember hankering after the original, while limited-edition releases serve as status symbols for devotees. Newer names are also making a splash with, for example, rare Jellycat plushies fetching $1400 in China.

Automotive OEMs are no strangers to courting the forever young with many building showstoppers for the Gran Turismo series, and the never-ending stream of spiritual successors and restomods can also partially be put down as moves to exploit the kidultsphere. But just as toy manufacturers are stepping up their game, so too are some automakers, and we’re now seeing imaginative ploys that specifically target kidults. There’s also the impetus to appeal to actual kids. This is because lower birthrates will eventually result in a diminished pool of potential consumers, so there’s heightened pressure to engender brand recognition at a young age.

Cars in Kidultland

In China, the collectible toy sector is worth an eye-watering 50 billion yuan (over $6.9 billion), so it’s no surprise that the push to reel in kidults is very evident there. Consecutive Beijing Auto Shows have featured cars produced by homegrown brands masquerading as plush toys. Chinese consumers are also being treated to special editions of small vehicles featuring cutesy CMF and livery. Geely’s Panda Mini Little Yellow Duck Limited Edition includes quackable exterior livery and interior CMF, in a push, no doubt, to take the edge off the 9-9-6 working day. In a different take on playfulness, the Bestune Xiaoma Mini’s dashboard is fitted with a Lego base, creating plentiful opportunities for play.

Most European OEMs have stopped short of courting the kidult demographic with the same level of gusto, though, perhaps surprisingly, Porsche is a notable exception. Last year, the performance brand joined forces with Kasing Lung (the Chinese illustrator and toy designer behind Pop Mart’s stratospherically successful Monsters series) to host an exhibition of his artwork in its Taipei Porsche NOW showroom. A subsequent collaboration featuring an open-top 911 decorated with Lung’s sketchwork and a human-scale Labubu at the wheel, marked the 911 Targa’s 60th anniversary. Kidults couldn’t take the showpiece home, though fortunate individuals could get their hands on one of 60 eminently collectible table-top models of a classic targa piloted by King Mon, another of Lung’s lucrative creations. According to Porsche, the left field collaboration speaks to the idea that character and car share core values:

“King Mon is known for looking out for others and carrying himself with quiet confidence – traits that fit the Targa perfectly.”

As well as being synergistic, the collab surely reflects the fact that Porsche is struggling in key markets so is likely looking to explicitly tap the kidultsphere.

Collectibles also feature in Mobilze’s marketing strategy. As well as including the obligatory baseball cap, the Renault offshoot’s merchandise range makes room for funky scale models of the brand’s quirky quadricycles. White and sporting lively patterns, the models channel adult art toy vibes. Dacia is also tapping into the kidult market. The brilliant 2025 Hipster concept’s cabin features a wonderfully nostalgic and decidedly discrete analogue ‘mazegame’ accessory, transporting users back to pre-digital times. As well as this, a plush toy, whose colouration chimes with that of the interior, hangs from behind a front seat headrest. Its design is a nod, surely, to the ugly-cute aesthetic that has run amok in the kidultsphere. Mounted on Dacia’s YouClip system, the accessories encourage swapping and community-building, aspects that are important to the forever young.

Appealing to Generation Alpha

Born from 2010 onwards, Generation Alpha is motivated by the desire to make sustainable choices and to feel empowered. Primarily, OEMs have set their sights on catering for them by building electric quadricycles. In some parts of Europe, they can be driven by children as young as 14, so enable a tangible level of empowerment.

As well as craving carbon-neutral independence, this demographic aspires to create its experiences—as opposed to merely being the passive recipient of them. Reflecting this, the 2025 Toyota FT-Me concept comes with the option of jazzy body wraps, allowing younger users access to an increased level of self-expression. Mobilize has approached the challenge of creating a space for active consumerism in a particularly innovative way. It allows drivers to sell unused electrical charge back to the grid, just as homeowners who have installed solar panels can. With this move, the French brand offers youngsters a relatively low stakes taste of contemporary adult life.

Of all the OEMs, Toyota has advanced furthest in thinking about how to appeal to even younger children. Unveiled at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, the Kids Mobi concept’s bouncy organic exterior volume, unapologetically playful CMF and front lighting that doubles as a pair of cartoonish blinking eyes, represents a provocation offering small children unparalleled freedom. And its Ai travel companion speaks to the idea that today’s young kids are the first group of people to grow up perceiving a conversation with the tech as a totally natural way of communicating.

Where might all this lead?

Kidulting shows no sign of being a flash in the pan. Indeed, in Europe alone, it’s predicted that by 2034, one third of total toys and games purchases will be made by the forever young. Automotive OEMs are bound to react by offering more fun merchandise and accessories as well as increased opportunities for collecting and community-building. The emotional support aspect that seems intrinsic to kidulthood is likely to mean that design-for-wellbeing will feature prominently too.

In the push to appeal to children, OEMs are also likely to provide ever more opportunities for younger kids to access the brand. On one level this is positive as it moves us towards a more inclusive society in which people of all ages can become independent road users. It also frames the youngest as consumers in a climate of increasingly fraught competition, the upshot being that children could grow up faster than ever before, which, for me at least, is a disconcerting prospect.