The Toys That Made Us (Season 2)

I grew up with a lot of toys.  I don’t know if my brothers and I were ahead of or behind the curve in terms of numbers, but we did have quite a few.  That’s what caught my attention when I saw The Toys That Made Us.   Several of the toy lines I grew up with were featured in some of the episodes.  The show is split into two seasons, with the first season covering four toy lines like He-Man.

In the second season, four more toy lines are featured:  Star Trek, Transformers, LEGO and Hello Kitty.  All four of these toy lines have name recognition.  Star Trek is a well-known TV and movie franchise.  As for Hello Kitty, if you don’t know the name, you’ve probably at least seen the cute face.

I actually found this season a little more informative than the previous season.  Part of that is because I grew up with two of the toy lines.  We had all manner of Transformer toys.  As for LEGO, I think we still have a few hundred pounds of the bricks stashed away in closets somewhere.

Another reason for my increased interest is that I wasn’t really aware of the Star Trek and Hello Kitty toys. I’ve watched a lot of the Star Trek shows, although I never really got into the collectible end of it.  (Well, ok.  I bought the trading cards, but that’s it.)  Hello Kitty was never really my thing.  I had some passing knowledge, like the character’s name is Kitty White.  Most of the additional information was totally new to me.

This season also seemed to go into more detail, overall.  The first season seemed like it was jut a brief rundown of how the company rose to power and, in some cases, subsequently failed.  Here, the toys seem to be a lot more successful.  Star Trek is still around.  Even though LEGO and Hello Kitty have had problems, neither brand is going away any time soon.  I’m ot sure if Transformer toys are still in stores, though.

One good thing about the series is that each episode is independent of the others.  You could watch just one on the toy you liked.  You can watch them out of order or in order.  Each episode is under an hour, making it relatively easy to binge four or all eight in one sitting.

I think this show is banking mostly on nostalgia.  All of the brands have been around longer than the average college student.  In fact, I think most of them are older than I am.  I would imagine, though, that most people reading this have played with at least one of the brands in the second season, if not the first.  If you didn’t have LEGOs, you probably had a friend who did.  I don’t think you could make it through elementary school without seeing that cute feline face at least once.

I’m curious to know if there’s going to be a third season.  The opening theme states that it’s an eight-part documentary series.  This doesn’t preclude more episodes.  However, I’m not sure what they would pick for new episodes.  I can’t imagine any of the four brands in this season not being among the ten most recognizable.    I can’t think of any other name in toys that would match up to these.

If Netflix does want to do something similar in the future, it would probably be better to focus on a different product, like video games.  Around the 1970s and 1980s, home computers and video consoles were being introduced.  Atari and Commodore would both be good candidates if a series was done on electronics.  I don’t know that I’d hold my breath for another four episodes on toys.

IMDb page

The Toys That Made Us (Season 1)

Some brands are so ubiquitous, it’s impossible to imagine someone that doesn’t know what they are.   If you walked down a busy street in a major city, I’d imagine that everyone would know what Taco Bell is.  You’d probably be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of Microsoft.  The same goes for toys.  Netflix produced a documentary series about eight toy lines, dividing them in to two seasons.

The first four episodes deal with Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man and G.I. Joe in that order.  Even if you didn’t play with any of those toy lines, you’re probably familiar with them.  Most people my age either had some of those toys or knew someone who did.  That’s how popular these toys were.

Each episode details the history of the toy line.  We see interviews from key people, like designers and writers  In the case of Star Wars, they were made to cash in on the success of the movies.  With He-Man and G.I. Joe, the reverse was true.  The comics and TV series were made to promote the toys.  Either way, toy companies were talking about millions of dollars in sales every year.

Each episode runs under an hour.  There wasn’t much that I would consider new information.  You don’t really get to see a lot of the details.  It’s more like who the major players were.  Some people came up with the general idea.  Some people developed characters or art.  In the case of He-Man, the comics and TV show were one man’s quick-witted attempt to get the company to produce the toys.

I think most of it is the perspective  As a child, you can forget that there’s a business end to the stuff you want.  To companies like Mattel and Hasbro, these are how they keep the lights on.  Most adults won’t be surprised by this.  It’s kind of fun to see what people (and the companies) had to go through to get the products to market.

I don’t know that the series is meant for a general audience.  If you didn’t own one of those four toys, you’re probably not going to be interested in that particular episode.  Each line had it’s ups and downs.  I do remember playing with He-Man as a child.  That was probably the most interesting episode to me.  The others didn’t seem to have that same connection.  I knew people that were really into Star Wars and I think we had a few of the smaller G.I. Joe toys, sure.  I just didn’t feel like I took anything away from those episodes.

I think, if anything, the series is geared more towards collectors.  I might watch the next four episodes, mostly because it includes two toy lines (Transformers and LEGO) that I played with.  The opening theme indicates that this is an eight-part series, so I don’t know that there will be a third season.  I’d be interested to see what they might do with that, though.

IMDb page