Been watching this the past few days. Good show. Presented in a mostly humorous light. Lots of good history and nostalgia. Highly entertaining.
Some of my thoughts in a later post for mouseover spoiler purposes.
Some of my thoughts on what I’ve watched so far (I’m actually only 3 episodes in):
I didn’t know Kenner had such an amazing deal with Lucas for the original Star Wars trilogy line. I had heard long ago through the grapevine that it was Lucas who fleeced the studio and retained all of the merchandising rights because, as is mentioned in the show, nobody really made movie-themed toys before then because movies were fleeting; they were in the theaters a month or two, then they were gone. Nobody thought movie toys could be sustained. But apparently what I’d thought all these years was wrong: Lucas and the studio were splitting just 5% and Kenner kept the rest, almost instantly launching them from small midwestern toy company to a MAJOR player in the toy game.
The Barbie episode was fascinating as well. Strange that Ruth Handler was apparently so livid over the 1.5% she had agreed to pay Jack Ryan in lieu of a regular salary. And amazing that that 1.5% made Ryan Oprah-rich.
My favorite episode so far is the last one I watched, He-Man. It was really fun seeing all of those characters and remembering which ones I had. Also fascinating that I enjoyed it so much, in hindsight. I’ve watched episodes of He-Man on Netflix and they are objectively terrible, and I’m pretty sure I even recognized the low quality of it even as a kid, but I liked it anyways, and so did everyone else. The stories were stupid, the animation was rudimentary at best, Skeletor’s plots were ridiculous, and he was really only vaguely “evil,” but learning from this show that the toys (and animated show) were intended for children as young as 5, the simplistic plots, the silly dialogue, and the neutered villainy make a lot more sense. And also in hindsight it’s clear that the creators of the toys were just throwing absolutely anything at the wall and seeing what stuck, and for a while almost everything stuck. Among the crappiest ones I owned (I don’t remember their names), I had the stupid bee guy, I had whoever that was with the star-shaped helmet whose neck extended up when you twisted his waist, I had the lobster claw guy, I had the crab-headed guy whose eyes extended up on stalks, I even had Prince Adam, I mean what the fuck fun was he?
Anyways, great show! I didn’t know what to expect from it but I can’t wait to watch the rest.
I enjoyed the first set of episodes, and plan on watching the second set. The origin of GI Joe was interesting, if only because the inventor took the cash payout instead of the percentage, which would have made him a rich man. I was actually thinking of starting a thread about it- One simple idea that anyone could have had- double your potential doll market by selling solder themed dolls for boys- could have been a fortune with almost no effort at all on his part. What is the greatest reward for the least effort business decision ever made? (not counting straight up gambling, or cash rich investors throwing money at startups- do that enough and the few successes more than pay back your investment)
What show is this? I’ve never heard of it. I don’t have Netflix, but I’ll probably get it eventually and this seems really interesting.
I enjoyed all the episodes I’ve watched so far.
I devoured the first 4 episodes when they came out, and then this next set of episodes when they came out too. And then I watched the Star Wars and Barbie eps again!
This show makes me furious because I love it so much and there are so few episodes. Grrrrrrr!
It’s really fun and the interviews are great. I feel like they did a ton of research! I don’t even know anything about Hello Kitty and have never bought anything Sanrio but I still think the episode was great.
I can’t wait to watch this, DCnDC; thanks for turning us onto it. My dad was an exec in the toy business for years and I can remember him talking about the Handlers, among other Toy People.
It’s basically documentaries about the origins of popular toy lines of yesteryear.
Damn. This is actually one of the (very) few times I’m kinda mad I don’t have Netflix.
They do give you a free month. Sign up, watch as much as you can for a month, then cancel before they charge you.
Thanks! I didn’t see anything about this show. We’re very interested, since my wife used to be a toy reviewer and used to go to Toy Fair every year. Will definitely watch them.
Good series; I’m watching the He-Man ep. right now.
Overall, the series is nice combination of history (movie industry, toy industry, pop culture, the sexual revolution, etc.) humor, and cheesy nostalgia, with lots of interviews and commentary from toy designers, executives, movie industry insiders, etc.
I wanted to love this, but the unrelenting “cute” narration and editing is fucking unbearable. I got about ten minutes into the Lego episode before shutting it off.
It sounds interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
There was a BBC series a few years ago called James May’s Toy Stories. He took classic toys from his childhood and took them to completely absurd lengths. He built a Lego house (not single-handed) and spent a night in it. They created a model kit of a Spitfire in full size. It was great.
I remember that James May show. The Lego house was great. It also solidified my impression that James May is a complete tosser.
I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go round; to my way of thinking, you hit the highlights of what I liked about it.
It’s an unconventional style for a documentary, verging into Mockumentary; loads of Gilligan Cuts, Flat Whats, and Reaction Shots, and a kind of played-down variant of the Cozy Voice For Catastrophes in the style of narration.
Freakin’ loved it!
It’s kind of a, “Ya know, for years, my parents told me to quit playing with my food. Then what do I get for Christmas one year? A Mr. Potato Head!”
I did watch the entire Lego episode but enjoyed it in spite of this, not because of it. I largely agree with friedo. I didn’t find it unconventional at all, I actually thought this was a pretty standard editing format for these sort of “light” documentaries. It gets old fast, and I find it distracting from whatever actually interesting story they’re trying to tell. In my opinion, it shows a lack of confidence that you’re telling a story worth telling. I think in this case the content could have stood on its own. I guess other stories need the distraction attempt.
Maybe I need to watch more documentaries for a wider sample of their various styles; there’re plenty I could watch for their interesting subject matter, but they tend to lose me in overly dry, fact-based narration, and the deadly serious nature of the presentation (even on generally “light” topics, nature and what not, that aren’t dealing with crime, sexual assaults, political turmoil, genocide, etc).
I’m kinda with you here. The stories are great, but the editing is awful. I did still make it through them all, however.
I really enjoy this show, even for toys that I have no particular interest in. Just watched the Star Trek episode from S.2 and loved all the weird licensed junk that had almost nothing to do with the actual show!