There is a new docuseries on Netflix, "The Toys That Made Us." There are four episodes, about an hour in length. The first episode focuses on the history of Star Wars toys. The other episodes focus on Barbie, He-Man, and GI-Joe toys.

Also check out a documentary on the history of Star Wars toys, "Plastic Galaxy." This was streaming on Amazon at the time I watched it.

Finally, there is Mark Hamill's "Pop Culture Quest" streaming on Amazon/Comic Con.

I've watched Plastic Galaxy a few times and it's a great documentary!

I will have to watch that .

I’ve watched the Star Wars and MOTU episodes. Both fascinating in their own rights. Star Wars for the mind-boggling deal Kenner got off George Lucas for the toy rights and MOTU for the inter-wrangling over who came up with the He-man concept.

awesome im gonna watch the star wars one right now!!! thanks

Plastic galaxy is fantastic. I bought it when it came out to dvd as the creator was advertising them on rs before it was live anywhere to see. He did a great job on it. I will have to check out this new one.

I watched The Toys That Made Us: Star Wars episode yesterday and thought it was really good. It was informative for new and older collectors, fun, and a lot of cool toys were shown as well as clips from the movies and interviews with the people from Kenner.

watched it yesterday , loved it!!!!!!!

Only watched the Star Wars one so far, was a great documentary that I thought did a great job of explaining the toys and how they came about in a way that was interesting to none toy fans, I say that because at the end the wife said that she enjoyed that.
I’m looking forward to watching all the others.

Just finished the Star Wars episode. I really enjoyed it!

It had a handful of more information than Plastic Galaxy had, both great watches, though!

And the brown sock always gets me.

I did wonder watching this, that during the interviews with all them Kenner employees if all the Star Wars stuff around them was there’s or were they props?

Mike, I reckon most of that stuff belonged to the guys being interviewed. But yeah, who knows, maybe the producers did say: 'we'll just leave this playset here and these figures here is that okay with you'.
I wonder why they couldn't track down anyone to interview who had a real RF Fett, instead of showing a Poon repro?

I thought the MOTU episode was really enjoyable too. I also watched the Barbie and G.I.Joe one - again fascinating toy history from concept to toy shelves. The G.I.Joe was also enjoyable because they covered a lot of the 12 inch line as well as the 3.75 inch.
I was hoping they would have made some references to overseas licenses like Palitoy's Action Man and Action Force, but there's only so much they can cram into an episode I guess.

Anyone know what other toy lines they're planning on doing? Transformers? I hope they do Lego. Some die cast like Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi would be good too.

ArtooDetour wrote:

 

Anyone know what other toy lines they're planning on doing? Transformers? I hope they do Lego. Some die cast like Matchbox, Dinky and Corgi would be good too.

Hello Kitty, Star Trek (I heard John was a big influence on this one), Transformers and...

wait for it...

LEGO!!!

I watched this video about the history of lego, and I found the whole thing fascinating, how they started made of wood then evolved into what we know today.
Will post it here if anyone is interested.

I found all four episodes quite good. I am looking forward to the next four, and hopefully they get renewed for a second season. There are so many other toy lines they could cover. Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters and Kenner Batman lines would be great!