I’ve always proudly owned the title of “friki” (geek), surrounding myself with action figures, art toys, beloved comic books and now BEYBLADE X. My office still sits in Tsim Sha Tsui East, right in the old heartbeat of the global toy industry. But these days, my walks around the toy stores of Hong Kong and China tell a very different story from a decade ago.
Over at the K11 Art Mall, the retail landscape has completely transformed. I have seen queues of eager fans waiting for the doors of some stores to open. The line between a simple toy aisle and a social club has vanished. Welcome to the era of “New Retail” – where physical stores have evolved into discovery and experiential spaces, and social media acts as the super-fast engine driving everyone through the doors.
For decades, the toy store was essentially a warehouse. It was a place you went to grab a boxed item off a metal shelf, pay at the register, and quickly leave. Today, physical stores have transformed into places you go to spend your time. Brands have realised that modern consumers – especially the massive demographic of “kidults” who now account for roughly a third of all toy sales globally – crave an experience.
Look at the Pop Mart, Miniso, Top Toy and 52Toys flagships or the Toys “R” Us experience centres emerging across Asia. They aren’t just selling SKUs; they are curating a lifestyle. These spaces are designed with display in mind, not just play. They are beautifully lit mini-museums featuring gorgeous, photo-worthy displays that pull you in.
And crucially, Toys “R” Us experience centres are social spaces. You can buy a blind box, sit down at the dedicated rest and play tables with your family or friends, and discover the surprise together. It’s no longer a transactional errand; it is a shared social event. This shift taps into a deeply human need for connection and community in an increasingly fast-moving, heavy world.
If the experiential store is the beautiful destination, social media is the chaotic, hyper-speed vehicle getting us there. We are seeing the brutally short lifecycles of Gen Alpha trends, where organic playground memes explode overnight. Social media has completely transformed the marketing and promotion of the toy industry, turning casual discovery into global phenomena.
Take the Labubu (and by extension the whole Bag Charm Plush Pendants – the ‘Lisa Effect’) craze for example. What started as an intricate IP within blind boxes turned into a massive cultural obsession, with fans sharing their unboxings and rare pulls across Instagram, TikTok and Xiaohongshu in China.
This digital FOMO is a carefully designed loop that makes collecting both habitual and highly social.
But the internet always demands the next hit. In early 2026, the cultural hyperfocus has pivoted to the NeeDoh – a brilliantly simple, brightly coloured squishy sensory toy from Schylling. It is affordable, dough-like, and designed to relieve stress. TikTok creators have turned hunting for NeeDohs in physical stores into a viral sport, emptying shelves and creating intense artificial scarcity. The magic of these trends is that they aren’t forced by corporate focus groups; they emerge organically from the bottom up, fuelled by user-generated content that rewards raw enthusiasm.
So, how do these two forces – the gorgeous, experiential physical store and the relentless speed of digital trends – feed each other? They form a perfect, continuous feedback loop. When a toy like NeeDoh or Labubu goes viral online, you don’t just click “buy now” on a sterile website. You travel to the physical store because the store itself is part of the content stage.
Retailers know this. Packaging and store prompts are meticulously crafted for cameras with Instagram and TikTok in mind. You visit the store to experience the aesthetic, you capture the unboxing at the store, and you post that user-generated content online. That video then reaches thousands of other potential buyers, amplifying the digital buzz and driving a fresh wave of foot traffic back to the brick-and-mortar location.
Pop Mart’s omnichannel distribution proves this: every touchpoint pushes fans seamlessly to the next, keeping them in a constant loop with the brand.
At the end of the day, whether it’s a dedicated adult collector dropping serious money on an intricate 18+ LEGO set, or a teenager hunting down a rare NeeDoh because of a viral TikTok video, the underlying motivation is exactly the same. We are all just looking for a spark of joy, a moment of relief, and a meaningful way to belong to a wider community.
The toy companies winning right now are the ones that treat their audience authentically, acknowledging that our relationship with play has fundamentally changed. Growing up doesn’t mean you stop playing. It just means our playgrounds have evolved into immersive, beautifully designed retail stores, and our show-and-tell has permanently moved directly to our global social feeds.
Francisco can be reached on LinkedIn or at – francisco@toyspulse.com
This article also appeared in Edition 22 of The Toy Universe Magazine
