Not quite a movie, I know, but I've been watching The Toys that Made Us a documentary series on Netflix about the iconic toys that we all grew up with, from Star Wars to Barbie to He-Man and G.I. Joe, and the the people behind them, the creators and marketers. I was surprised by this one. It is surprisingly informative and thought-provoking in its exploration of the subject matter, the successes and failures of the lines. This includes the fights and firings over Barbie (who knew she was inspired by a courtesan?), the conviction that He-Man failed because of the success of She-Ra (it didn't), that the Boba Fett with firing rocket never actually made it to market despite the belief it had.

There were some annoyances, the narration is fast-paced and too excited for the subject matter, too earnest even? Either way, I was annoyed. I also suspect that there was more to some of these stories that were left out but that makes sense, it is documentary after all. It was neat to see this episodic documentary series. I liked how they dedicated each episode to a different toy line and not to trying to mix them up or anything else they could have done. It allowed us to follow the story from conception through development, marketing, success and/or failure.

Overall, worth the watch, especially if you are quite into pop culture history.

-all photos via IMDb.com.