What's the average age people grow out of LEGO?

[Lego David]

So, I was recently wondering, on average, what is the average age kids grow out of LEGO? As much as we would all like to believe that LEGO is a timeless hobby for everyone, the reality is that most kids who played with LEGO often grow out of it as they mature and find other interests. Some rediscover the hobby years later after their "Dark Ages" but I don't really believe that is the case with everyone. 

So, from your experiences, when did your siblings or other people you know grow out of LEGO, even though you remained interested in it? 

[metalgeekzy]

I mean, i have been kinda thinking about a different but similar thought. 
Are most kids even into legos? With the age of electronic devices and most kids just wanting to play on devices all the time, can you even get them interested in putting down there phone and getting them to play with Legos? 

[JopieK]

I think it is about the time kids go to high school or during the first years of high school.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

I was 12 years old. I got like one more set and already felt a bit ashamed of it because you were supposed to become an "adult" and only care about Sex, drinking, appearance, cars, motorcycles and so on.

Whenever I ask people about their kids who play Lego (as I give away many of my precious sets often to em); kids seem to phase out of Lego around 12; maximum 14 as well. And that's already just a small minority that is into Lego. Mostly they don't seem to be.

Though I know many people without age limit who are always into technic and the more adult builds from blue brixx (alternative "Lego" brand).

[MaximillianRebo]

I can't remember a specific point where I said 'I'm done' but looking at my Brickset list, around age 13-14 I was getting fewer and fewer sets, and then a big gap for 25+ years ...

[1963maniac]

I quit about my teenage years. But in the 1970s their weren't much themes for older kids. My kids stopped about the same time and went heavy into video games. My head was always into LEGO, especially with my kids. Once they were grown up, then my own collection and hobby and $$ took off. No holding back now, I'm an AFOL.

[Fuppylodders]

Quite typical for me apparantly. 1996 was when I went to my secondary school (11 years old), and also when I received my last (and one of my favourite) set before a 12 year gap, which was then broken by being gifted for my birthday 7672 Rogue Shadow, which then led to me getting 7676 incomplete (couple bits missing) off ebay right after it discontinued, which then lead into a terrible downward spiral of giving TLG my bank account for the rest of my life up until now 

[Alexandrina]

I think I'm an unusual case, because I had a very early Dark Age between the ages of five and nine (the only set I had between Dobby's Release and later the 2006 V-Wing Fighter was a heavily discounted Racers pack from TK Maxx, which iirc I built once then forgot about) but I was big into Lego then until I was about sixteen; I know from old Christmas lists and my Brickset account that between 2011 and 2013 I went from "I only want Lego all the time" to "I'll buy a CMF here and there, and ask for Lego for Christmas, but I don't even have the willpower to specify what sets I want".

My step-sister's son was HUGELY into Lego to the point that his bedroom shelves had custom-cut baseplates glued to them, and we were told "no Lego for birthdays, he has too much". His interest has died down a bit now, I think, and he's 11. Anecdotally from what I remember, my mates at school fell out of Lego in the first two or three years of secondary school, but a lot were never massively into it anyway, and it could just have been that we stopped talking about it at school.

[Jack Sassy]

Not much of a kid at that time anymore but I entered a brief dark age from 2017 to 2018, sure, I did buy some sets between but had absolutely no idea what was going on in the community and what new sets were released.

 

There is one thing I noticed, some friends I went to school with back in the day stopped playing with Lego around age of 10 if I remember correctly. Oh yes, that time was quite dark indeed, some people laughed at me because I hadn't let go of the hobby. 

[Peppermint_M]

Two of my brothers stopped at around fourteen, Playstation/Gameboy and Skateboarding/Sports  took over as their main interests and gift requests. I know the both of them still like LEGO keychains (Got my brother and his wife His'n'Hers Han and Leia keychains). My sister's never were interested as much in LEGO, the younger of the two liked mosaics back before but turned to being art obsessed, so all her gifts were materials etc for her art projects.

My other sister got back into LEGO between her husband and the introduction of Minidolls. My brother in law is a different case altogether; in his teens when most leave "toys" behind (or are peer-pressured into it) he was seriously ill and in hospital or stuck at home. So he carried on with LEGO as an escape and his Star Wars obsession meant family would get him all kinds of Star Wars sets (even now). 

My younger two brothers are different again. One of them is 13 years younger than me. I have never stopped building, buying and creating with LEGO, so when he was young there was my example  and as he got older he and his friends still enjoyed the complex builds of the UCS sets and the larger Ninjago offerings (The three of them initially made friends because they all liked Ninjago when they were 9). With an genuine bona-fide adult (me) travelling abroad for LEGO events and cheerfully buying myself "toys" there was not even any family pressure to give up these  toys (Our Dad was funny about it with me until my third trip with other AFOLs but no problems since).

The youngest? He was never into LEGO. Either it was his brother being rather possessive over the "kids LEGO" (AKA, not my collection) are a genuine personal preference for other things (He is an excellent chef for a 19yo now). 

So, that is my family, what can only be described as a sociologists dream sample!

[Mylenium]

8 hours ago, Lego David said:

So, I was recently wondering, on average, what is the average age kids grow out of LEGO?

Nothing to grow out of, because I was never into it. As a child of the Eastern block we only had PEBE bricks, anyway. I kind of left this behind when I was around 12, I believe, and then switched to "serious" plastic scale modeling, if not earlier even. Brick-building never was an obsession even way back then, though. I just have too many interests and other hobbies. Getting into LEGO in 2015 was more of an happy accident as well, but to this date I merely consider it a different way of expressing my artistic side and dabbling with engineering/ mechanics/ architecture, not so much as doing LEGO for LEGO's sake...

Mylenium

[robin_1456]

i know this is the opposite of the question. but what stopped me (i think) for leaving lego, is that as i got older i got into lego technic and i got my first technic set back in 2017, some PF tracked racer and then i was hooked       on technic and i still have so much to learn and so much to build and explore using technic.

im only 15 now but i cant see my life without lego. maybe i will leave lego be hind, but i hope not.

[Kit Figsto]

I'm on the younger end of fans on Eurobricks, so I guess I might have perspective on some people around my age.  I never really had a "dark ages" even though I may not buy as many sets as I used to.  I think most people that I knew probably stopped buying/playing with Lego stuff in middle school or so (ages 12-14, approximately).  At the very least, that's when it became less socially acceptable to talk about it.  So, if there are any people that still were into it later than that, they never really mentioned it.

[Toastie]

Going into "NOT LEGO" happened, when I fell in love with my wife; age 15 - A.D. 1977. It was literally over and out (and I did not even think about it, not one second). Over, as in "geblitzdingst".

1996 our first daughter was born. 1997 our second. The family moved to the US in 1998. For XMas presents, I thought looking into Duplo may be "interesting" - and it actually was for the girls.

Well, 1998 was also the release of the Mindstorm RIS 1.0 "box". It happened in the Tustin/CA Target store: I swear, I was teleported back to "my age <15"; memories were "reinstalled", was teleported back to 1998 ... and my wife, not realizing what happened, but looking at me said: "Yes, why not?" (I was an assistant professor at UCI on tenure track - there was not much money around these days) - and that did not "end" my dark ages, it was more of a "grinding full stop".

Since then, I (very) closely follow what TLG "does"; felt very good right after 1998 ... today does not appeal anymore to the extent it did then - but I am still on it. But things are having a bit less "luster" - and I am absolutely sure - because I am getting older. Or whatever.

Very nice topic, @Lego David!!!

All the best,
Thorsten

   

 

[MAB]

I reckon the average age a child stops playing with / building LEGO has dropped dramatically recently. With so many adult aimed builds now, I imagine if a kid gets to 14 and still plays with LEGO then chances are they will get to adulthood still playing with it and so they no longer affect any statistics. They didn't stop playing as a child. Which will mean the average then drops. Or do they count as stopping at 18 since they are no longer a child playing with LEGO at the age of 18, even if they continue?

Semantics aside, it will be a very broad distribution. I know of multiple kids that gave up building LEGO at about 5 or 6 after a single set. They just didn't get into it. It wouldn't surprise me if the average age is under 10, although it depends how you define whether a child was ever into LEGO in the first place, and also what it means by growing out of LEGO. I know of family friends whose kids main hobby is not LEGO, but they will still occasionally build something or continue to display for example Star Wars spaceships in their rooms that they build a few years before.

[Johnny1360]

The way it was for me and I always assumed most people, around 12 or 13 years old, I was done playing. It was just no fun anymore and I remember even trying to play with toys but it was absolutely no fun and seemed pointless. I did however get into seriously building plastic models even to the point of making small dioramas, that lasted a few years then I was done with that.

Fast forward 40 years, I needed a new hobby and on a lark I picked up a Millennium Falcon set, liked it so much I bought the Technic Fire Plane next, the rest, as they say is history.

Of course the changes to LEGO in forty years was huge and the building process had much improved as well, much larger and detailed builds. My entire way of "playing" with LEGO had changed as well. I used to build stuff and then incorporate it with other toys and actually play with it, now I am more about the build experience than the play experience.

I have always considered this to be how it was for most other adult LEGO fans as well, although I am sure there are many variations and reasons.

 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Johnny1360

[MAB]

5 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I have always considered this to be how it was for most other adult LEGO fans as well, although I am sure there are many variations and reasons.

 

I think there are many "trigger sets" or even whole themes, whether they are specific vehicles, minifig based like Lord of the Rings, nostalgia sets like LEGO's Barracuda Bay or licensed nostalgia like Nintendo or similar. And I guess that is what LEGO relies on, a trigger to get people in, then hope they stay.

[Borex]

It depends on how you love toys i guess. Kids are just like human beings, all different. Their way of playing can vary a lot. Some just build, some really play with it, some collect, some are allowed just to play with it if doesn’t make a mess in the house. There are so much reasons that anyone stops being interested in lego. I just think that lego did smart by producing licensed sets (star wars, batman) to reel in grown folks that stay attracted to the old toys and pop culture. 
once grown-ups cross that bridge we get hooked again :-)

[MAB]

50 minutes ago, Borex said:

Kids are just like human beings, all different. 

Not just like human beings, kids are human beings.

[Borex]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

Not just like human beings, kids are human beings.

Are you sure?

[MAB]

9 hours ago, Borex said:

Are you sure?

Mine are. Other people's kids might not be but they get their genes from their parents.

[Pinnacle]

I think that it is not only a question of playing or not playing with LEGO-parts, but that it also depends on character and other interests.

As a little child, I liked building very much. Wooden blocks, cardboard boxes, carts, everything that can be piled up.

LEGO was thus a godsend for me as a child, and I liked it very much. But I’m a little older, and in my childhood, LEGO was purely a toy. And in those times, it was not ‘cool’ to play with toys if you were about 14 years.

So, I put the LEGO in a cardboard box, stored it in the attic and forgot it for about forty years. Long ‘dark age’ indeed.

I started modelling in wood because building things was still my passion. 

It was only by chance that I found the box with LEGO on the attic that I found my interest in the bricks again.

Now,  I like LEGO not so much for the brand or the sets or the collectors’ items but for my it is an exciting construction material.  Clean, reusable, and you don’t need tools. And no noise pollution. And that is nice for the nabours.

In short, building is the passion and LEGO is a means to that end.  And not the other way around.

[AlexxInc]

My first LEGO set was the Octan 3180 Tanker Truck that my dad bought me when I was around 4 years old. About a year later my dad brought this massive 35-40 gallon bin of old LEGO bricks which my dad had as a kid, and it included many old and rare sets from the 70s. I played with LEGO until when I was about 11. After that I entered the video game realm for about 2.5 years and then lost interest in it. I started to go back to LEGO and have enjoyed it ever since and now I am a TFOL, needing less than 4 years to become an AFOL.