Nacelle Returns to the Toys That Made Them: “The Toys That Made Us” Season 4 & 5 Announced.

At conventions like San Diego Comic Con, in every interview, and throughout social media, one question The Nacelle Company’s founder and CEO Brian Volk-Weiss is always asked is… Will there be more episodes of The Toys That Made Us? For years Volk-Weiss has answered with vague answers like “Stay Tuned” or “I would tell you if it were dead”. BUT NOW, at SDCC2024, while Marvel was holding their announcements in Hall H, The Nacelle Company was in room 6A announcing the line up for the next two seasons of The Toys That Made Us.

Check out the Trailer for Season 4 & 5

That list again is:

Super Hero Toys

Covering a phenomenon more than a toy line and the companies behind it. From Mego to ToyBiz and Kenner. Anyone who knows me could guess that this is what I am most excited for.

Nerf

Something Brian Volk-Weiss didn’t think would have that special it factor for an episode. But after he learned that for over 30 years Nerf has been the top selling toy he changed his mind.

PokeMon

Fascinating story about many companies who failed before becoming probably the biggest intellectual property of the last few decades. As a bonus the Nacelle team gets to go back to Japan for “research”.

American Greetings

Fascinating story about a greeting card company that makes a range toys. From the phenomenon of Care Bears to the craziness of Madballs and My Pet Monster.

Hot Wheels

This episode will cover Matchbox and Tyco and other die-cast cars.

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Ghostbusters

There might be no crazier story in toys. Ghostbusters had more lawsuits and more almost lawsuits than probably any toy in history ghostbusters. “Find the lawyers, because they know what happened at every company”, said Volk-Weiss about this episode. Editor Nick Ferrell explained his excitement for this specific episode saying “don’t threaten me with a good time” and stating that this episode will feature many toys from his personal collection.

Polly Pocket

A big applause in the room to this brand. Which the panelists were not surprised by. “We can’t call ourselves The Toys That Made Us and not do Polly Pocket” said Volk-Weiss while explaining that they have already started shooting this episode. Savannah Goss the Director of Development at Nacelle went on to explain that Polly Pocket was always high on the list of brands for them to cover and they were fortunate enough to interview creator Chris Wiggs before his passing.

Fast Food Toys

This one got the biggest reaction. A surprise to be sure, but should it be. McDonald’s get all the attention but Taco Bell probably goes the hardest with their toys. Editor Benjamin Frost said that this will be the episode he will have to learn the most about but added that it was the one that Volk-Weiss has wanted to do since the beginning.

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Nick Ferrell added “Everybody got a happy meal toy at some point.” You can’t say that about other toy lines. Some families could’t afford some of the toy lines covered in the past, others didn’t care about a certain towline as a kid, some kids didn’t care about toys (weird), but every kid had a happy meal toy and knows the suspense of opening the box to see which one they got.

A little background on The Toys That Made Us.

It was Netflix first unscripted show, and The Movies That Made Us was the first spin off in the history of Netflix. The success of the first three seasons launched a toy company, and thus the NacelleVerse. “But sometime you have to go back to where it all began…” a slide during the presentation simply stated.

The last episode was released 5 years ago, since then they have released The Movies That Made Us and six seasons of the show A Toy Store Near You (with Season 7 coming later this year). Talking with Nacelle Company CEO Brian Volk-Weiss at their display at SDCC I asked him if the show will evolve much like their toy store show has over the seasons. He assured me it will be the exact same show.

“In our society now everyone wants change, but keeps forgetting if something works, unless you can change it with something better… everybody seems to like The Toys That made us. We’re not changing anything. Only thing we are changing are the IPs (Intellectual Properties) we follow. “

– Brian Volk-Weiss

The San Diego Comic Con Panel had one of their best turnouts. Volk-Weiss was joined on stage by series Executive Producers and Editors Benjamin Frost and Nick Ferrell and Savannah Goss, Nacelle’s Director of Development. During the panel Brian Volk-Weiss let the audience know that the day season one was green lit he might have had 400 toys and today he has probably added a zero to his collection. When producer/editor Nick Ferrell came aboard the project for season 1 he already had 1000’s of toy in his collection, and now has even more zeros.

Talking to Brian the day before the presentation I asked if the toy lines covered would include RoboForce, Biker Mice, and Sectaurs? “Wouldn’t that be a dick move… naw” Volk-Weiss replied.

I also asked him what was the toy that made him. Apparently it was covered in their very first episode. His answer: “The Millennium Falcon.” More specifically The Return of the Jedi Millennium Falcon.

During the panel a theme emerged from the show creators. A lot of episodes naturally intermingle. The American Greetings episode for example will make other episodes even better. Nacelle has been pulling of this trick during the first three seasons. Each episode obviously stands on its own, but when they are watched as a series they really come together.

Having been to the last bunch of convention panels I knew that he is always asked about when the show would make its return. Well now that the world knows it’s coming back I wondered what question panel goers would replace it with. “When is RoboForce? When is Biker Mice?” Are the two that Volk-Weiss think will take the lead.

Soon The Nacelle Company will also release a Toys That Made Us coffee table book. But there could be a few more surprises to come… Said one of the final slides of their panel. Brian Volk-Weiss mentioned to me that new announcements coming in September and November that will be equal to what’s happening at San Diego. He said with a tone that he is understating what’s to come. I will imagine that there will be big announcements for both The Toys That Made Us and the NacelleVerse, maybe even something out of left field.The idea of a show or episode about toys that shouldn’t have been made was mentioned with Brian saying, “Maybe one day.”

In the days since the Season 4 and 5 announcement I relearned one thing: Toy nerds are insatiable. The number one comment I’ve seen is that the super hero episode can be multiple episodes. Well I’m in that boat. I’d watch an Icons length documentary on that. Icons being another show that Nacelle produces usually about movie series or television shows, normally spanning about five hours in length.

Since the last season of The Toys That Made Us was released a lot of other production companies have started jumping on the band wagon and covering toy history. And they have covered some of these properties like nerf. Personally I can sit and watch and enjoy all of them. Ever go to a party where two people tell the same story but one can just tell it better.

Article by: Dave at Toy Store Guide
@toydelorean on Instagram

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