The Toys That Made Us (Netflix)

My wife and I watched all four and really loved it. We both hope they get picked up do more of them. Who knew there was such an interesting story in the making of the toys?

I knew quite a bit about the Star Wars line but I still learned a lot in that episode and it was interesting to learn about each of the different line ups. It's too bad there are only 4 episodes.
The next four episodes drop in about 4 months.
-Hello Kitty
-Star Trek
-LEGO
-Transformers
 
Watched the Barbie and He-man. Both were entertaining, but that chair in the Barbie episode was just about the creepiest thing I have ever seen. Its like a naked lady has melted into a chair! Beyond bizarre!
 
Watched the Barbie and He-man. Both were entertaining, but that chair in the Barbie episode was just about the creepiest thing I have ever seen. Its like a naked lady has melted into a chair! Beyond bizarre!

Makes you wonder what it was like to work for her.
 
Watched the Barbie episode tonight, and really enjoyed it.

Of of course I know what Barbie is, but being a guy I knew very, very little of the history of her. I particularly liked the part where they addressed why, exactly, Barbie's body measurements are something completely unnatural as far as a real woman is concerned.

I hope they get new episodes up quickly, as I truly loved all four of these documentaries.
 
The funny thing about Barbie's measurements: there was a special about Barbie on Comedy Central (I think) in the late 90s, and they made a convincing case that if you scaled up the figure to a real-life height (what they chose I don't know.... 5'10"?), she actually doesn't have egregiously impossible measurements. Not average, certainly, but (they claimed), feasible.

Speaking of scaling up, I'm still chuckling about the He-Man designer and him thinking Dolf was practically a shrimp. He himself said that He-Man, scaled up, would weigh 700 pounds.
 
The funny thing about Barbie's measurements: there was a special about Barbie on Comedy Central (I think) in the late 90s, and they made a convincing case that if you scaled up the figure to a real-life height (what they chose I don't know.... 5'10"?), she actually doesn't have egregiously impossible measurements. Not average, certainly, but (they claimed), feasible..
I thought they made a good case on this show when they said they had to make measurements at these dimensions because of the bulkiness of clothing. If they made the doll more realistic, then the clothing didn't look right on the doll. I can understand that.
 
Oh, that makes sense. I'd just like to see the scaling up of measurements done again to see what comes of it. I'd do it myself but I don't have a Barbie.
 
Just started watching this today. Loved Ep1 and currently on Ep2. Its really well done, but one thing I can't help but notice whenever they are talking to one of the former CEOs of Mattel...

What the hell is that?!?!

https://s9.postimg.org/h7e2mzjdb/What_The_Hell_Is_That.jpg

Today, the makers of the show have given this bit of info.....
053279FC-0E2C-45AF-8360-65533E6495D1.jpeg
 
Yeah. We now know the WHAT, but we'll never understand the WHY.

Is it something that the creators wanted in there to show what kind of a person she is? I get the sense she could have been a difficult person to work for. Imagine walking into her office and being forced to look at that during a meeting.
 
Then they should've shown it as a part of B-roll of her house when she was first introduced. When it's there for every soundbite, it competes for the viewer's attention.
 
It was to show the irony of Jill talking about dolls for little girls and her supposed understanding of the toy industry....and here's this deflated sex doll looking chair behind her. That whole episode was about the contradictions of little girls dolls and the backgrounds of the creepy people behind Barbie. I'm assuming the film crew saw the chair at Jill's house and sure enough (as she was a bit clueless at Mattel) she said go ahead and leave it back there in the shot. Agreed it took away attention from Jill but maybe that was the point?
 
I just thought it was kinda weird and funny. Thats why I pointed it out here. While I definitely took notice of the weirdness of Barbie's creators (one was a total perv the other a white collar criminal), I never thought there was any subtext to the chair. She seemed like lots of CEOs I've known.
 
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