Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Greetings All,

I was just wondering if anyone had seen the Netflix documentary series: The Toys That Made Us? It premiered on December 22nd with 4 episodes (Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man, and GI Joe), and with 4 more to be added later (Transformers, Star Trek, LEGO, & Hello Kitty). The first 4 episodes, I thought, were highly entertaining and informative. I definitely recommend it for anyone who had these toys as a kid, or even has them now as a collector.

its on my queue. Now that i've heard someone mention it positively, I will move it up to the top of the list of documentaries to watch

I've watched a few. It's fun. Like traveling back in time. I'd be great to see the series expand to the more distant past as well as more recent decades.

It's a great look behind the curtain, and not all of it is sunshine and roses. Some of the guys behind Masters of the Universe line come across as, well, macho d-bags (makes sense, eh? ), and when one of GI Joe execs positively cackled when he thought about fleecing kids of the meager allowances I felt like he was a kid's movie villain come to life!

A few complaints? I also feel they give short shrift to Larry Hama - I mean, they mention him and interview him, but I feel they don't give him the respect he's warranted - and the narrater can veer into too much snark for my taste.

I've got this in my queue too. Haven't had time to watch it but glad to hear it's decent.

The guys behind Masters of the Universe really screwed up.
They went from $400,000,000 in 1986 to $7,000,000 in 1987!
I guess you could blame Buzz-Off, but really it was the decision to over produce secondary characters.

What's odd is I remember 1987 quite vividly. I was 11 and pretty much aging out of MOTU. I was still getting them but not as fervently as in previous years , and Transformers was my main "go-to" at that point. Still, when I go to websites now, I am really impressed with the 1987 assortment of action figures and accessories, they were some of my favorites as a kid, and I didn't even get them all. I actually liked that they did not make a new He-Man or Skeletor that year. Even though there was always a new gimmick, I only ever got the Battle-Armor versions of both (my parents said "one He-Man/Skeletor is enough...) heh.... I don't remember the tons of Buzz-Off overstock that the documentary mentions, but I still think the MOTU movie was mostly to blame for its downfall, not so much the toy line itself. Still such a dramatic drop-off is mind boggling though.

Conversely, with the 2002 line which is just touched on. The animated series was (AND STILL is) AMAZING! -The toys however offered way too many He-Man & Skeletor variants, I think more than half the line was dedicated to just them. But the saddest part was when they guy admitted... "I guess it just wasn't what the kids wanted at that time", which is 100% true, and I am still feeling the effects of it now, 15 years later. It was at that time, CN began its slide into a bottomless craphole from which it never came out because kids these days have horrible taste in TV shows.

Binged all the episodes Friday night, it only takes 3 hours . The Transformers one was very well done, It's just that it could easily have been 2 hours, hopefully they could get a 2nd dedicated episode in the future. The Lego one I pretty much knew the history of, and Star Trek I knew because I had some major Trekkie friends in high school. The Hello Kitty one was a little rough, but my daughter likes it, and there is a mall near us that has a Sanrio store, so we have to go there whenever we visit.

I know this series has been renewed for another season, but initially last year they gave us all 8 episode titles. There has been no announcement as of yet, how many episodes the 2nd series will have, or what they will be about.

The special feature everyone wanted: Todd McFarlane on LEGO!

I think there’s a reason those McFarlane bits were likely not in the related episodes.

Seemingly without Fanfare Season 3 of The Toys That Made Us dropped on Netflix this past Friday November 15th. As previously stated, the episodes are: TMNT, Power Rangers, My Little Pony, and Pro Wrestling.

While I do miss the *story intros* of the previous episodes, but these 4 new ones are chock full of great history about each brand and the ups and downs of the industry in general, definitely worth a watch.

Before watching I personally felt that the Wrestling one would interest me most, followed by TMNT, then PR, and finally MLP, I was a bit surprised....

The Power Ranger one turned out to be my favorite of the new season, despite my personal dislike of the franchise, they focused way more than I thought they would on the Japanese origins of the series, and paid respect to what came before, also Haim Saban was great in the episode. TMNT was probably my 2nd favorite, then Wrestling (which was a bit boring if I'm being honest, despite seeing all the colorful 80's characters again), and lastly, naturally MLP, because it of course was never my thing, but my daughter loved it.

Haim, from what I've heard, can be something of a dirtbag (yet, undoubtedly, an engaging interviewee), so I was afraid the episode would just be wall-to-wall him, but I was happy to see folks from the Japanese side of things nicely represented, as well as opening with a nice little intro on Japanese tokusatsu shows to give a little context.

... now to watch the TMNT one.

I am curious t know how fans feel about the Hasbro acquisition of PR. I mean I love Transformers, as the brand has always been with Hasbro/Takara, but, even as a non-fan of PR I can't imagine PR toys being distributed by anyone other than Bandai. They tried once to deviate from the Japanese toys, and that seemingly was a disaster. When you import the toys directly (and just place them in american packaging), things seem to go well.

Future episodes I'd like to see would be:

1.Voltron (since it has had three revivals in 1997,2011, and 2016, two of which had a toyline to support it)
2. A Combined episode about The Rankin/Bass animated series Thundercats, Silverhawks, and Tigersharks. I figure one episode could cover all 3, and the short lived revival in 2011
3. Hotwheels &
4. Care Bears (gotta have something for the girls, and its been revived a few times)