The Toys That Made Us (Seasons 1–3)

The Toys That Made Us (2017) is a Netflix documentary series you can watch online on iFILM. Each episode takes apart the story of a single toy empire — Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man, G.I. Joe, Star Trek, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The people who actually built these things do the talking: designers, marketers, factory founders. Where the idea came from, how the figures fought their way onto shelves, the licensing wars behind the scenes, and why some lines printed billions while others sank whole companies. Creator Brian Volk-Weiss keeps it irreverent — part genius brainstorm, part corporate disaster.

It plays like a string of great anecdotes, but underneath sits the real economics of late-20th-century pop culture. Made for anyone who grew up on these boxes and wants to know who dreamed them up. Stream The Toys That Made Us online on iFILM.