

A few days ago, while navigating through the vast Netflix catalog and wasting most of my available time to watch something, I found a documentary called The toys that made us, the 4 episodes series tells the history behind four of the most iconic toy franchises from the late 70s and 80s.



The four episodes (so far) are as follows: Starwars toys, Barbie, He-Man and GI Joe, each episode is interesting and worth watching, even if you are not familiar or don’t like the particular toy, due to excellent writing, editing or all the interesting stories behind this toys, like for example how Kenner ended up grabbing the Starwars franchise.





If you can get past the lame and cringy animated intro of the show (thanks Netflix for the Skip intro feature) you’re in for very fun and interesting ride, you’ll learn about the last minute decisions, the risk and the creative solutions behind the success of these franchises; for example how the He-Man TV show was practically an improvisation and the origin of Barbie.



If you grew up in the 80s and 90s this documentary series is a no-brainer for you, be prepared to be struck right on your childhood by nostalgia and to meet the people behind this toys and TV shows. Learning how some of the GI Joe characters were created was really satisfactory, it was like learning some cool secrets of an old friend.



I found the StarWars and He-man episodes the better of the four, but that’s probably because of how big of a fan I am of those franchises and it doesn’t mean that the other 2 episodes are less interesting.



There’s no denying that the 80s and 90s were two of the greatest decades of the toys industry and this documentary celebrates this great era in a very clever and inclusive way, capitalizing on the nostalgia of those who were kids In those days, while making it interesting and informative for the rest of the people.



A second season is already confirmed and it will include Lego, Hello Kity, Star Trek and Transformers.



This Docmentary is a 10/10 for me, go Watch it.































