The Toys That Built America (2021)
This four-part docuseries showcases visionaries such as the Parker Brothers, Milton Bradley and Ruth Handler who transformed a small toy company into the billion-dollar empire now known as Mattel. It reveals the little-known stories behind groundbreaking innovations like the Frisbee® and accidental discoveries like how the Slinky was created.
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Episode 1 - Masters of Invention
Release Date: 2021-11-28During World War II, a naval engineer accidentally creates an iconic spiral toy that walks downstairs. At the same time, an engineer is trying to invent a synthetic rubber for the war effort and instead creates a strange putty that becomes another world-famous toy.
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Episode 2 - Clash of the Toy Titans
Release Date: 2021-12-05As the post-war baby boom creates unprecedented demand for toys, Ruth Handler turns her greatest gamble into the most recognizable toy in the world. Meanwhile, rival Merrill Hassenfeld, at the reigns of a company that will one day be one the most famous brands in the world, tries to capitalize on Handler's success to launch a military doll for boys--which is brilliantly rebranded as the world's first "action figure," and eventually spawns a tv series and a movie franchise. For decades, these two companies battle each other to dominate the toy industry. But when the cultural landscape shifts, they are forced to make desperate choices that ultimately earn their toys immortal status.
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Episode 3 - Toy Car Wars
Release Date: 2021-12-12As car culture cranks up in the early 1950s, a young machinist in England invents one of the world's most successful toys when he creates a toy car small enough to fit inside a matchbox for his daughter to take to school. In Los Angeles, Elliot Handler creates one of the biggest toy rivalries in history when he brings on a former missile designer to make a toy car behemoth of his own.
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Episode 4 - Board Game Empires
Release Date: 2021-12-19After failing to make a living selling lithographs, Milton Bradley creates one of America's first board games, which will go on to become one of the biggest of all time. But the Parker brothers threaten Bradley's reign. But it's a game about Monopoly that will upend the business. And in its earliest days, it might have been pirated from its true creator, who has been largely lost to history--until now