The Toys That Made Us
The Toys That Made Us is a documentary series produced by Brian Volk-Weiss for Netflix, and aired as one of its "original series". Debuting on 22 December 2017, the series covers the histories of toy brands that have made a significant impact on the awareness of customers, collectors, and fans, as well as on pop culture in general. 

Three seasons of four episodes each have been produced to date, each episode (running approximately forty-five minutes in length) dealing with a specific brand. The series explores both toy brands proper, such as , , or , and toy lines based on popular media franchises, including Star Wars – its episode actually kicking off the series in 2017 – , , , and Star Trek.

"Star Trek"
The first episode of season two, released on 25 May 2018, focused on the history of the Star Trek franchise's various toy lines, looking in a chronological order at the companies Remco, AMT, Mego, Ertl Company, Galoob, Playmates Toys, Art Asylum, and McFarlane Toys. 

The documentary, paraphrasing Captain Kirk, details how the Star Trek franchise kept "missing the target" for over three decades by making decisions that demonstrated a persistent lack of understanding of the fan base, aggravated by questionable decision-making by the toy makers themselves in the early decades, AMT and Mego (initially) being the exceptions. According to the documentary, it was only with Playmates and Art Asylum that the Star Trek toy franchise started to hit its stride by releasing products that satisfied both children and the Star Trek collectors' desire for accuracy, or as it was put in the documentary, "Kids got detail, whether they wanted it or not". In this, the documentary made a clear and sharp distinction between the (mass) juvenile toy market and the (oftentimes much smaller, niche) adult collector market. The Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection from Eaglemoss Collections is featured in passing as an additional (niche market) example for the increased level of accuracy, demanded by its collectors.

The documentary repeatedly compares, in a humorous manner, the Star Trek franchise's toy merchandising to that of Star Wars; noting that, while Star Trek had a ten year head start on Star Wars, the Star Trek toy franchise never even came close to the levels of the latter. Highly successful right from its very inception, and with a reported US$14 billion worldwide aggregate turnover as of 2017, the Star Wars toy franchise is arguably the most successful one of its, media Star Trek franchise based, kind in financial terms, having become the second most important pillar of its entire Star Trek franchise after the live-action productions themselves. (S01E01; See also: main article) In comparison, a US$3.5 billion aggregate merchandise turnover has been reported as of 1998 for the Star Trek franchise – which is otherwise loathe to report revenue streams – , but that included all customer merchandise excepting the home video formats , whereas Richard Arnold has reported a US$10 billion total turnover in 2016, which constituted a Star Trek franchise total up until then, thus also including box office takes and home video format sales.  This meant that the Star Wars toys revenues alone, already exceeded the entire revenue stream of the Star Trek franchise as a whole.

A multitude of interviewees are featured throughout the documentary to elaborate on the subject matter, ranging from toy makers themselves through collectors (some of them scientists) to former Star Trek production staff. The documentary ends with the conclusion that, of all the Star Trek toys and models ever made, it was the various incarnations of the USS Enterprise – perceived as the real star of Star Trek – that captured the imagination of generations of Star Trek fans in particular.

Credits
Interviewees in order of identification:
Rod Roddenberry – Son of Gene Roddenberry
Doug Drexler – Special & Visual Effects Artist
Gene Roddenberry (archive footage)
Russell Meyers – Collector
Gene Winfield – Automotive Designer
Steve Dymszo – Co-founder of Master Replicas
Karl Tate – Collector
Steven Kelly – Author & Collector
Maria Jose Tenuto – Sociology Professor & Collector
John and Bjo Trimble – Fans
Mark Bellomo – Author
John Tenuto – Sociology Professor & Collector
Chris Byrne – Toy Expert
Marty Abrams – President of Mego, 1971-1983
Ian Roumain – Director of 50 Years of Star Trek
Marc Pevers – Former VP of Licensing, 20th Century Fox
David Galoob – Former CEO of Galoob Toys
Steve Varner – Sculptor Playmates Toys
Karl Aaronian – Senior VP of Marketing at Playmates Toys
Manny Jesus – Former Senior Art Director at Art Asylum
Nelson Asensio – Former Lead designer at Art Asylum
Zach Oat – Diamond Select Toys
Patrick Pigott – Sculptor Diamond Select Toys
Todd McFarlane – McFarlane Toys
David Vonner – Toy Designer
Production:
Donald Ian Black – Narrator
Tom Stern – Director, Executive Producer
Benjamin J. Frost – Writer, Executive Producer, Lead Editor
Anne Carkeet – Executive Producer
Neil Fellah – Line Producer
Michael Greggs – Producer
Robin M. Henry – Co-executive Producer
Cisco Henson – Executive Producer
Brian Volk-Weiss – Executive Producer
James Anderson – Co-editor

Content gallery

Other connections
In the first season episode dedicated to He-Man, a segment appears in which Filmation is introduced by quickly showing a number of fragments from its shows, including . 

In the episode on G.I. Joe, during the interview segments with former Mego president Marty Abrams Star Trek toys are visible in the background.

John de Lancie has appeared in the season three episode covering the  franchise.

See also
Star Wars vs. Star Trek: The Rivalry Continues

External links

Documentaries
Star Trek and pop culture