Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline In 1984, MCA Inc. subsidiary LJN outbid Galoob and Remco to become the first toy company to manufacture figures for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). LJN took the 1985 Toy Fair by storm with their WWF Wrestling… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline During the 1970’s, Hasbro was on the brink of bankruptcy due to the oil crisis. The company’s Advanced R&D Department came up with My Pretty Pony, which sold 500,000 units in 1981. A year later, My Pretty… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline Following the success of Kamen Rider, Toei Company and Bandai created the Super Sentai series in the mid-1970’s, later incorporating the giant robot element from their Spider-Man series. Finding a western audience for Super Sentai, however, proved… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline In 1984, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird released the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book. Their self-published work quickly grabbed the attention of Surge Licensing President Mark Freedman, who saw a potential gold mine in the… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline After leaving his job in the government, Japanese bureaucrat Shintaro Tsuji formed a toy and gift company in 1960 that would later be known as Sanrio. The company had success producing merchandise for popular manga such as… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline In 1949, after decades of making wooden furniture and toys, Ole Kirk Christiansen’s small factory in Billund, Denmark, moved to plastic and created the “Automatic Binding Bricks”, which would later be known as LEGO. When the company… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline In 1983, when Hasbro was looking for a fresh, new line to sell alongside G.I. Joe, they bought the license of the Diaclone and Micro Change toys from Takara, then commissioned Marvel Comics to come up with… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline Since the original series went on the air in 1966, the Star Trek franchise has had a history of ups and downs in the toy business – from AMT’s faithful scale model kit of the USS Enterprise… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline Introduced in 1964, Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: America’s Movable Fighting Man was the first action figure in toy history, but an oil crisis and declining sales led to the line’s demise in 1978. Desperate to hold their own… Read More

Introduction The Toys That Made Us is an American documentary web television series created by Brian Volk-Weiss. Outline Searching for a new toy line for boys to compete with Star Wars after their toy lines for Clash of the Titans and Flash Gordon flopped, designers at Mattel saw inspiration from Frank Frazetta’s artworks, as well… Read More