Lift your fingers from your keyboard and head home with the speed of a cheetah, plus two. The Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us is back. I haven’t been this excited since someone told me new glasses might hide my bad hairline.
This season, The Toys That Made Us talks to the toy makers behind more heavy hitters from your childhood and beyond. We’re talking Transformers, Star Trek, Hello Kitty and LEGO. The series’ first season went behind the scenes of GI Joe, Barbie, He-Man and Star Wars toys. I’m personally hoping that we get the real story behind Power Rangers if the show returns for another season.
Yes, The Toys That Made Us is a nostalgia play. That being said, these stories are interesting from a business perspective. You’d think the woman who created Barbie was a pretty responsible, stand-up person. Turns out, everyone has some skeletons in their closet, including Mattel. The He-Man toys and cartoons have the most bizarre origin story I’ve ever heard of.
Each episode of the show features interviews with the people who worked on the toys and the executives in charge of managing them, meaning you hear what happened from the people who know these products the best. Despite being about toys, the show doesn’t sugarcoat a thing, including why some of these toys aren’t doing as well as they once did.
You can stream The Toys That Made Us now on Netflix. If by some miracle you don’t have Netflix already, a subscription costs $9.99 a month.
