Now it's Lego's turn to get on the Pokémon hype train
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- Lego is tapping Pokémon's massive fan base for its new collection.
- The Danish toymaker announced a new collaboration with Pokémon, slated for 2026.
- This comes as Lego doubles down on drawing in adult consumers.
Lego is tapping into the groundswell of millennial nostalgia from the Pokémon franchise and giving the beloved Japanese brand a little love.
The Danish toymaker announced the partnership in an Instagram post with Pokémon and Pokémon UK on Tuesday.
The announcement video did not reveal much about the new line — it featured yellow Lego bricks coming together to make the lightning-shaped tail of Pikachu, Pokémon's most recognizable and beloved character.
"Get ready to electrify your imagination in 2026," the post's caption read. It did not specify when the collection will drop in 2026.
A Lego representative told BI that both companies have a "long history of pushing the boundaries of social play, which is at the core of this partnership."
Originally published as a video game in 1996 for Nintendo's Gameboy handheld — a mainstay of many millennials' childhood experiences — the Pokémon brand has since become one of the world's biggest media and retail franchises, replete with animated TV shows, mobile apps, and billions of dollars in merchandise sales.
The Pokémon Company said in March that it's since shipped over 480 million units of software related to the franchise and released over 64.8 billion trading cards.
Over 30 billion of those cards were created during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, which industry observers say drove a surge in millennial and Gen Z consumers spending more on their childhood passions.
The pandemic also helped fuel the rise of Pokémon cards as assets, with some mint-condition pieces fetching auction prices of up to $5.275 million.
Pokémon isn't the only popular media franchise that Lego has tapped for collaboration. It also has sets tied to the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises.
The collaboration comes as Lego posted an annual revenue growth of 13% in 2024, to DKK 74.3 billion or $10.79 billion.
Lego's CEO, Niels B. Christiansen, said in the company's annual report on March 11 that adults were increasingly buying their products.
"While kids will always be our main focus, we saw increased demand among teenagers and adults with our Lego Botanical Collection, which attracted new builders to the Lego brand," Christiansen said.
Lego, leaning into the "kidult" business, referencing the trend where adults invest in collecting toys. Lego has launched collections specifically for an older user base, like its Botanical Collections. In November, it also announced a collection in collaboration with Formula 1, which will be dropped this year.
Other toymakers are also hopping on the "kidult" bandwagon.
Chinese toymaker PopMart makes Labubu figurines, a toy that has taken Asia and, increasingly, the West by storm. It specifies that PopMart toys are explicitly for adults, with Labubu's product description reading: "Not suitable for persons under 15."
Representatives for Pokémon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.