I giocattoli della nostra infanzia

I grew up on all of these toys and shows. I grew up collecting Barbie, and many of the Barbies I had show up in that episode. My brothers and I grew up collecting and watching Star Wars. Same with He-Man and G.I. Joe. It's fun seeing how the success of these toy lines came about.

My generation is busily building entertainment for the generations to come. So these shows show critical information on the formation of the current culture. I found these episodes fascinating. I love that they feature the people who were originally involved in the creation of these toys. I can feel their enthusiasm and passion. They're fun, quick, and compelling. I'd happily watch as many as they make. As Martin Hafer says, the intro is a bit silly, but I highly recommend these shows.

I liked best the episode about He- Man. The makers state that they knew that they had a totally ingenious idea and tyhat the kids would not stand a chance when He-Man shouted "I have the power!" And they are totally right, because I remember back when I was a kid in the 80's and play fought with my brother I would pretend I was He-Man and shout the same thing. The good thing about this documentary is that we get the inside story on how the figures and dolls were made and then we also get to see how in the end sales figures dropped and they entered obscurity. Of course among collectors many of them still are treasured.

The Toys That Made Us.... If you grew up in the 80s and 90s this documentary series is for you. The four episodes to this season are: StarWars, He-Man, Barbie and G.I. Joe. Each episode showcases the ups and downs, the history and the people behind each creation.

A theme I realized from each episode was the uncertainty of creating a popular toy. The risk these people took was something to easily admire. Personally I found the StarWars and He-man episodes the better of the four. I consider myself a pretty hard core StarWars fan and I was still surprised on some of the information given in that episode. The He-Man episode felt genuine and I connected easily with these people. The show and toys are really a product of the creators. While watching the GI and Barbie episodes, Although well done episodes I just didn't feel as connected to the history, toys or people as much. That being said, I think there's an episode for everyone that grew up playing with some kind or action figure/doll.

This is something worth checking out, easily watchable and generally fun. I will also mention the Editing in this series was fantastic, the jump cuts, the inserts of film clips and overall tone didn't go unnoticed.

The next four episodes slated are to be: Lego, Hello Kitty, StarTrek and Transformers.

The old footage and topics discussed are interesting but the show is unfortunately ruined by the editing. Constant use of the same clip over and over in an attempt to be funny. It's like a Tim and Eric episode that's trying to also be a documentary. I wish it stuck to the facts and history instead of trying so hard to entertain. It drove me crazy that every time someone seemed to have something interesting to say, they would cut mid sentence to an annoying past clip from someone earlier in the show. Or the narrator would say something like "but that didn't work out the way they wanted" and then they would show a clip of the creator of the toy just sitting there. It was just really poorly edited, I can't stress that enough.

"The Toys That Made Us" is a made for Netflix series that just debuted. However, while the intro to each episode indicates there are eight, so far only four have been released and IMDB only lists seven episodes. I am pretty sure we'll be seeing the other four soon and it will all be straightened out.

Apart from one of the most incredibly lame animated intros in the history of television shows, "The Toys That Made Us" is well made and enjoyable. Some of this is due to its power as nostalgia, but because there is depth and enjoyment to it the show works even better and is something I strongly recommend you watch.

The four episodes (so far) are as follows: Star Wars toys (the best episode), Barbie, He-Man (the worst episode...mostly because the team that made the toys seemed like cynical jerks) and GI Joe. All are worth seeing even if you hate the particular toys due to excellent writing, editing and focus. Well worth seeing and very well made.