Toys for big boys and girls

"There's a huge market for adult toys, while we say ages 9 plus or 4 plus, our actual target market is teens and adults," Savage says.

"To be honest, for the robotics stuff most of our customers are adults. We have robo-communities and a huge hacker community that buys our robots. I would say almost half of our customers that buy our robotics are adults."

Feng Feng, the general manager of Hong Kong Crazy Toys also says he's seen a shift in people buying toys. Feng's company makes designer toys designed from the ground up for adult users. Feng says his company targets Chinese white collar workers ages 30 up.

"Over all, during the last few years, we've seen a big increase in people buying our toy," Feng says. "Most of our clientele is made up of 20 to 40 year-olds who have an interest in design as well as extra spending power."

Of course, all the marketing and designing doesn't exactly explain why adults are buying toys at such a shocking rate.

Guan, who enjoys talking to many of his customers, says he thinks there are two major reasons why adults are interested in toys. The first reason is that they buy toys because they didn't have them growing up and are looking to fill a void. And the second, according to Guan, is that they have been collectors since they were children.

Kong Ni happens to be a little bit of both. A baker and co-owner of a Beijing-based cupcake company, Kong grew up playing with Barbie dolls. She's got a whole collection that includes play sets and accessories and she attributes her continual purchase of Barbie dolls as a past time that's been both beneficial and productive.

"I've always had this love for making crafts and baking, and I think it all came from my Barbie dolls," Kong says. "I used to make clothes and stuff for her and when I got older I started to collect clothes and accessories."

Kong says that Barbie ownership is slightly different than regular toys. She argues that Barbie has since become a collector's item with special edition designer dolls that are too expensive for children. However, she cannot justify her purchases of other toys such as an EZ Bake oven, apart from the fact that it was "cute and cool".

"Many of the people my age around me buy toys and they do it because they like them, the boys buy model kits and the girls buy Hello Kitty, I don't know why but I just like my toys," Kong says.

Contact the writer at Ericjou@chinadaily.com.cn.