Whenever I think of Steve Carell’s character from The 40 Year Old Virgin movie, one thing comes to mind first and foremost: he was a grown man who collected action figures.

Initially, the film portrayed Carell as a lonely dufus who had the ultimate loser’s collection: a bunch of unboxed toys.

But as we see later in the film, and often in real life, collecting toys can be outrageously profitable. And that’s why so many millions of people — adults, to be specific — buy more toys in adulthood than most kids do in childhood.

From comic cons to collection conventions, the collectable toys industry is red hot and driven by our deeply-retained positive feelings and emotions toward beloved toys. But the tshirt market for grown men and women who collect toys? It’s practically non-existent on Amazon.

Now, while you can’t name specific toys or brands in your designs, you certainly can and should reference the hobby itself. It’s amazing to me that such obvious tshirt ideas in this mega-millions collectables market aren’t available ad nauseum on Amazon. Some potential tshirt ideas?

  • Wanna See My Action Figures?
  • I Still Play with Action Figures
  • I Take My Coffee Black and My Action Figures Mint

The collectables market is enormous and action figures represent just one class of toys and games that you could make shirts about. From pinball machines to cereal box toys, there’s a market and a corresponding tshirt buyer for just about everything.