LONDON — Under threat from the global trade war, toymakers are looking for a tariff-proof consumer. Adult collectors with deep pockets may be the answer.

To attract them, companies are teaming up with artists to create exclusive, expensive toys like $350 Barbie dolls and $8,000 Lego sets. These are generally pitched as works of art intended for display rather than mass-produced products designed for children’s play. Hasbro, Lego, Mattel and others have created dedicated sites to sell these higher-end toys to collectors.

Tariffs loom over the toy industry. Nearly 80% of toys sold in the United States are made in China, which faces the steepest potential tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump. The president has played down the potential effect of tariffs, saying children “will have two dolls instead of 30,” adding that those two dolls would “cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.”

Global toy sales fell 0.6% last year, a second consecutive annual decline, according to the market research firm Circana. And that was before Trump’s tariffs, which industry sources predict may lead to product shortages and higher prices during the crucial holiday season.

But toys that appeal to adult buyers — or “kidults,” as Circana describes some of them — have been a bright spot: Sales of franchises like Barbie and Lego and collectibles like trading cards are growing much faster than the market overall.

“This really started to accelerate during COVID when we were stuck at home,” said Frédérique Tutt, an analyst at Circana. “This is a different type of consumer.”

Toymakers know that adult collectors who are willing to pay, say, $70 for a Hot Wheels car are less sensitive to changes in prices caused by tariffs. “They are trying to find those niche consumers who are prepared to pay a lot of money for their passion,” Tutt said.

Teddy Biaselli, a producer at Netflix in Los Angeles, is a longtime fan of Masters of the Universe. So when Mattel introduced toys designed by Madsaki, a Japanese artist known for his acrylic and spray paint works, Biaselli 49, readily paid $400 for a Day-Glo He-Man astride his armored tiger, Battle Cat.

“I wanted a piece of artwork,” he said, adding that he was looking for something that represented his love of those characters but in “an elevated way.”

The Madsaki piece, about a foot-and-a-half tall, sits on a pedestal in his living room. “You want it to be like a conversation piece,” he said. “People are like, what is that?”

The collaboration was one of the first for the toymaker after it started a site in 2020 called Mattel Creations aimed at adult collectors. Chris Down, Mattel’s chief design officer, called it an “experimentation platform” intended to stoke creativity.

The company has worked with a range of artists, including Virgil Abloh for Masters of the Universe; Daniel Arsham and Kenny Scharf for Hot Wheels; and Mark Ryden, who created a collection of surreal Barbie dolls that ranged from $150 to $500 and sold out in seconds.

One of the biggest draws has been the Uno card game, which has attracted a wide range of artists, including Gary Baseman, Shantell Martin and Takashi Murakami.

“Every card is a little, tiny canvas,” Down said.