All the pieces matter: How Lego is winning adult hearts and minds

As the toy giant opens its first ever Irish store on Grafton Street in Dublin, it’s clearer than ever that its enduring appeal has broadened out far beyond the children’s market

The Lego Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon on sale for £649.99 at the Lego Store in London. Hundreds of fans queued around Leicester Square to get their hands on the collectors’ set when it was brought out in 2017. Picture: Shutterstock

Tom Eastaway is a Lego fan, and one of the administrators of the Irish Lego User Group, whose WhatsApp group began buzzing with word of a major development: the Danish toy giant had announced plans to open its first ever Irish store on Grafton Street in Dublin.

Soon, messages began flooding in as other friends also rushed to appraise Eastaway of the good news. He was delighted: “I think every Lego fan in the country ...