The Energon Pub

News Credits: 4877 · Mon May 28, 2018 8:42 am

Plus, each toyline is different. Barbie is baiscally only 1 toy so showing how she evolves through the ages makes sense. But Transformers is a line full of different characters. If the show was about Optimus Prime, then sure it could look more in depth at different eras. But with this being about the toyline and since it has such a cool backstory with contributions from tons of people and ideas, it made sense to focus on what it did. We can say it focused on G1 all we want but the truth is it focused on the creation of the toyline.

News Credits: 8 · Mon May 28, 2018 2:13 pm

william-james88 wrote:Plus, each toyline is different. Barbie is baiscally only 1 toy so showing how she evolves through the ages makes sense. But Transformers is a line full of different characters. If the show was about Optimus Prime, then sure it could look more in depth at different eras. But with this being about the toyline and since it has such a cool backstory with contributions from tons of people and ideas, it made sense to focus on what it did. We can say it focused on G1 all we want but the truth is it focused on the creation of the toyline.

And that’s a point I thought of but didn’t want to be too generalizing against the other Brands. LEGO has definitely refind and expanded over the years, but the basic blocks are all pretty much the same since the jump. Whaeas Transformers has reinvented itself and its play pattern over and over again many times.

Tue May 29, 2018 5:19 am

Some of the expectations in here :lol:

"But it should've talked about the colour app differences between Combiner Wars and Unite Warriors wave 2!!1!!". At least it covered some of the 21st Century, the GI Joe episode's narrative stopped dead at '94.

It was a good ep, not the most interesting of the series but fairly entertaining nonetheless.

One of the highlights was seeing Bob Budiansky seethe as he's forced to talk about a job from 35 years ago in which he clearly retains little to no interest :lol:

Tue May 29, 2018 10:13 am

The 1st half was really good explaining how the bots made their way from Japan to the States and how one man at MARVEL Comics had to name and give bios to 26 figures over the course of a weekend.
The second half seemed to skip around all over the place like they realized they were running out of time and just threw in some stuff.
That could be too because I am so well versed in the history of these toys that nothing really was new to me.
It was nice to see G1 getting love and some time in the spotlight again.
Folks curious about the history of Optimus and company are going to love it, if your a Hardcore fan you're gonna be left wanting more.
One things for sure...I'l never look at a can of Tuna the same way again.

News Credits: 25 · Thu May 31, 2018 7:05 am

Ryan's part is starting to make the screenshot rounds on Facebook.

News Credits: 56 · Thu May 31, 2018 10:44 am

I've watched the TF episode twice now. Though, admittedly the 2nd time I was doing other things, and it was my kids who were primarily watching. When they talked about the Valkyrie used for Jetfire. I know they used the word Macross, but it occurs to me now, that I believe they were very careful not to use the word "Robotech" or show any footage form the animated series...or even mention the controversy. Good call, HG is probably shaking their fists, but there's not a darn thing they can do

.

Thu May 31, 2018 7:44 pm

I finally got around to watching this. Was very interested to see how they were going to pack decades worth of toys into such a short amount of time. to be honest, I respect how they managed it, even if the toys they focused on weren't the toys that made me, personally.

I grew up on Beast Wars. Those toys made me. However, it was the G1 toys that made the way for the beast era toys, so with regard to myself, I guess I'd simply refer to the episode as The Toys That Made the Toys That Made Us. There wasn't a whole lot from the beginning that I didn't know, but it was entertaining how they built it.

I imagine they had a choice: 1) Make it primarily G1 with a nod to the bigger brackets (movieverse, Beast Wars, etc) and just make the first part clear and entertaining, or 2) Give a very minimal section for a lot of different things. If I'm to be honest with myself, the few seconds that they could have taken away from jokes regarding the Microman theme or replaying the same animations to reiterate information, clearly, would still not have done the rest of the lines justice. With that in mind, I appreciate that they stuck with the same line and made it both clear and entertaining for those who might not have been as well informed as I was.

News Credits: 102 · Sun Jun 24, 2018 1:27 am

Just recently, Anthony Brucale of TFU.info sat down to talk with Brian Volk-Weiss, the creator of everyone's favorite toy-history Netflix show The Toys That Made Us. Brucale served as Consulting Producer on the series, so has some interesting behind-the-scenes questions for Volk-Weiss along with more standard curiosities. Check out some highlights below, watch the full interview embedded beneath that, and discuss anything you find interesting on the Energon Pub Forums!

Reception of Season 2 overall: Even better than Season 1! More positive reviews, and no negative ones. The 'complaints' Volk-Weiss has noticed seem to be mostly wishes for even more content or depth, which he understands and sees it as a good thing that these are the biggest complaints about the new season.

Biggest challenge in making the Transformers episode? Some former Takara engineers were new to being interviewed, so that initial footage wasn't very good. According to Volk-Weiss many of them later grasped the idea better, and took their own initiative to re-shoot better interviews.

Why a lack of more "in-depth" material about Transformers? The Toys That Made Us aims for a "middle ground" sort of approach to their episodes; some things that fans might find interesting would lose non-fan viewers. This is why some things exciting to fans were glossed over, and why only Peter Cullen (arguably the most "iconic" Transformers actor) was interviewed for the episode.

Any cut material you wish you could've kept? The original cut for the Transformers episode was 90-100 minutes long, and among cut footage was an eight- to nine-minute segment on Beast Wars. Mentions of much of this cut material potentially being available on a DVD of the series, if/when that comes to pass.
An interview with Michael Bay was also filmed, but wasn't included in the final cut for various reasons, which Volk-Weiss can't elaborate on further (though he stresses that Bay was fantastic to talk to and nothing went wrong in the interview).

Season 3: Volk-Weiss hopes to end up getting to make around 20 episodes! The chances of, in those 20 episodes, coming back for another pass at a brand (like say, Transformers) are estimated at "0.001" but it's not impossible. Subjects for Season 3 will be revealed at The Toys That Made Us panel at San Diego Comic-Con... it's hinted that Power Rangers and Gundam may be among them!

News Credits: 8 · Sun Jun 24, 2018 10:42 am

I wanna know why the decision to cut to the 44 minute TV format when the VAST majority of Netflix stuff goes the full hour. Are there potentially palans to air this somehwere?

News Credits: 56 · Mon Jun 25, 2018 9:05 am

I'd definitely support a DVD purchase if it had the 90-100 minute length version of the TF episode.

News Credits: 22 · Mon Jul 02, 2018 5:53 pm

I just now got around to watching the TF episode. Above all, it made me wish I was back then in the room with Budiansky when he wrote the bios or with the Japanese designers when they first came up with Diaclone. Otherwise, it was nice to see the beginnings of the franchise laid out. Honestly, though, a documentary covering the 35 years of Transformers could easily be either around 3 hours long, or even have its own series, with each episode focusing on a different era.

News Credits: 6188 · Sat Jul 21, 2018 10:52 am

For thos of you keeping tabs at home, another reveal was made at San Diego Comic Con 2018, from the panel starring the creators of the Netflix documentary series The Toys That Made Us, which we knew had been extended to another season of four episodes (or half season, if you want).

The contents of this season 3 have now been announced, and they feature some of the brands that people had been asking for: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wrestling, My Little Pony and Power Rangers! The latter is paticularly interesting with its recent license acquisition by Hasbro and 25th anniversary this year (in the US, at least), but they all will surely strike a chord with fans. Let us know what you think in the Energon Pub Discussion boards!

News Credits: 293 · Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:01 am

I thought it was odd how TMNT wasn't in the second season, beat out by Hello Kitty (which I view more as a media icon than toy franchise).

News Credits: 41 · Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:04 am

This is great news! I really enjoy this whole series.

Sun Jul 22, 2018 3:03 pm

I personally find this series really interesting and look forward to the 3rd series, especially the turtles! I never did watch the Hello Kitty Episode though..

News Credits: 56 · Mon Jul 23, 2018 9:27 am

shajaki wrote:I thought it was odd how TMNT wasn't in the second season, beat out by Hello Kitty (which I view more as a media icon than toy franchise).

That whole second season moniker is a bit misleading. It was originally planned as a single 8 episode season (it's in the theme song...

)

It's just that Netflix changed their strategy about a year of so ago, after enabling a "binge" culture, to save time and money on new content, much of what they release now are half seasons, but they call them *full seasons*to save face.

Even though none of these 4 new categories are toy lines I was heavily vested in, it should be interesting to watch, especially the wrestling one. I never thought of Wrestling as having a deep toy market historically, except maybe in the past decade or so. All I remember from the 1980's were gimmicky things like thumb wrestlers and plush-type "wrestling buddy" , not really action figures per se, but I guess the producers would know best what they can make an episode out of.

Also I guess that theme song is going to have to change...

News Credits: 56 · Wed Aug 29, 2018 1:47 pm

For fans of this series, a similar single full length toy documentary entitled "The Power of Grayskull" was added to Netflix. It's very similar to TTTMA single MOTU episode but is a full 100 minutes long, with much more detail, backstory etc... It's pretty cool, and I give it my highest recommendation. For the record, if the full-length TTTMA Transformers episode doesn't ever see the light of day, I'd love if the same company that did "Power of Grayskull" did a Transformers full length documentary.

News Credits: 149 · Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:55 pm

o.supreme wrote:For fans of this series, a similar single full length toy documentary entitled "The Power of Grayskull" was added to Netflix. It's very similar to TTTMA single MOTU episode but is a full 100 minutes long, with much more detail, backstory etc... It's pretty cool, and I give it my highest recommendation. For the record, if the full-length TTTMA Transformers episode doesn't ever see the light of day, I'd love if the same company that did "Power of Grayskull" did a Transformers full length documentary.

Nice! Will check if this is on my UK Netflix. Cheers!

News Credits: 56 · Wed Sep 18, 2019 2:23 pm

While it seems Season 3 may still be a bit off in the distance, this kind of snuk under the radar, we will be getting a Blu-ray release of all 8 episodes (S1 &2) IN just a couple of weeks 10/1/19. The good news is, some of the bonus content at least appears to be TF focused:

https://bloody-disgusting.com/home-vide ... llectible/

Amazon Pre-order

https://www.amazon.com/The-Toys-That-Ma ... PDKIKX0DER

Screen Media has announced today a Blu-ray Special Edition of Netflix’s first two seasons of “The Toys That Made Us” an 8-episode documentary series that focuses on the history of important toy lines. The first four episodes focus on the Star Wars, He-Man and G.I. Joe toy lines with subsequent episodes featuring LEGO, Transformers, Hello Kitty, and Star Trek.

Set for release on October 1, 2019, the Blu-ray set comes boasting 15 new bonus features as well as a limited edition collectible of the series logo.

ADVERTISING

inRead invented by Teads
Extras Include:

Featurettes
Featurette with Show Creator Brian Volk-Weiss
Barbie 80’s Marketing
More Stores That Made Us: GI Joe the Story of COBRA
More Stores That Made Us: Us Selling the Show
Jim Swearingen Extended Interview
Peter Cullen Extended Interview
Todd McFarlane on LEGO
Todd McFarlane on Star Trek
Hideki Yoke/Takara Tour
+9 Deleted Scenes

News Credits: 4877 · Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:28 pm

While it seems Season 3 of the Toys that Made Us may still be a bit off in the distance, we will be getting a Blu-ray release of all 8 episodes (S1 &2) in just a couple of weeks. It will be released on October first and some of the bonus content appears to be Transformers focused, as you can see below. You can preorder on Amazon.com. The Blu Ray is $26.99 USD and comes with a limited collectible in the form of the logo. We thank fellow Seibertronian O.Supreme for letting us know of this.

Here are the list of extras:

Featurettes
Featurette with Show Creator Brian Volk-Weiss
Barbie 80’s Marketing
More Stores That Made Us: GI Joe the Story of COBRA
More Stores That Made Us: Us Selling the Show
Jim Swearingen Extended Interview
Peter Cullen Extended Interview
Todd McFarlane on LEGO
Todd McFarlane on Star Trek
Hideki Yoke/Takara Tour
+9 Deleted Scenes

News Credits: 56 · Sun Nov 17, 2019 9:16 pm

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.

Transformers may not be the focus, but they do show up in passing in the first 3 episodes actually whether in reference to competition, or trends of the times. I do miss the *story intros* of the others, but these 4 new episodes are chock full of great history about each brand and the ups and downs of the industry in general, definitely worth a watch.

News Credits: 25 · Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:24 pm

I got some dust in my eye during the ending of the TMNT episode....

News Credits: 56 · Tue Nov 19, 2019 5:10 pm

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.

I am curious to 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)