The show might be called ‘The Toys That Made Us’, but what it really delivers is the people who made the toys that made us. This Netflix series has been a success and the third season just rolled out last week with episodes focusing on ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (and featured the reunion of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the concept’s creators who haven’t spoken in years), ‘Power Rangers’, ‘My Little Pony’, and wrestling. The previous episodes showcased ‘Star Wars’, Barbie, ‘Masters of the Universe’, ‘G.I. Joe’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Transformers’, LEGO, and Hello Kitty.
The show is composed of behind the scenes interviews with the creators, designers, fans, and celebrities that reveal how these various toys were created. The episodes follow these brands from inception, development, productions, the store pegs, and in some cases, decline.
Due to the show’s success, things have gotten harder for the production team.
RELATED: ‘The Toys That Made Us’ Season 3 Trailer Features ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’, ‘Power Rangers’, ‘My Little Pony’ And Wrestlers
Speaking to Newsweek, show creator, and director, Brian Volk-Weiss said:
“One of the biggest challenges we had was, because the show has been out already, a lot of the people we were interviewing love the show. They were giving us information based on what they assumed we wanted. Because people kept thinking all we wanted was funny stuff, we had to spend a lot of time asking them to just give us everything. That allowed us to do what we needed to do, but we obviously didn’t have this problem in Season One.”
I’m a big fan of this series. It’s fascinating! And if you like drama, the ‘My Little Pony’ episode might as well be subtitled ‘The Real Housewives of Equestria’ as (similarly to the ‘MotU’ episode) no one can seem to recall who exactly created this brand. (Or rather they all remember it differently.)
There are still many popular toy lines that have not gotten ‘The Toys That Made Us’ treatment. (Specifically, there have been no episodes devoted to DC or Marvel Comics toy lines or the legendary Mego toy company.) But we may not get any more.
As Volk-Weiss said:
“Season 3 must do amazing if there’s going to be another. I always tell everybody to not take [anything] for granted, so people need to watch all four new episodes and they need to go back and rewatch the past, and please be very vocal about their love for the show.”
You heard the man. Get to streaming!
In the meantime, the creators of ‘The Toys That Made Us’ have a spinoff (a first for Netflix), ‘The Movies That Made Us’ arriving next Friday (Black Friday, Nov. 29). These four episodes will spotlight ‘Home Alone’, ‘Die Hard’, ‘Dirty Dancing’, and ‘Ghostbusters’.
But if you want to see more ‘The Toys That Made Us’, make sure to stream the new and older episodes and spread the love!
