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Toy History

Anonymous Tue 20 Jan 2026 17:48:05 No.11682272 View View Reply Original Report

Are there any books or documentaries about Toys you guys find interesting?
Stuff like how toys are made or how certain companies were invented?

I'm really interested in learning more about the Japanese figure industry in particular. I wanna know how they became so advanced. They went from simple die cast and plastic toys in the 70s to figures that can now move like a human, I'm interested in how that happened

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 20 Jan 2026 17:52:45 No.11682279 Report

Quoted By: >>11682517

>>11682272
there was a show called "The Toys That Built America". I didn't watch all episodes but I liked the one about board games and the toy car wars.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 20 Jan 2026 23:02:19 No.11682517 Report

Quoted By: >>11682521

>>11682279
Never watched it but I remember my cousin telling me about Kenner and Star Wars, describing it as a tiny irrelevant toy company that made it big with the license. Either he was misquoting it or they didn't exactly show that Kenner wasn't a backwater company, it was wholly owned by General Mills during its diversification era. They already owned Play-Doh and were merged with General Mills' other subsidiary (Parker Bros.) when they got spun off as an independent company in the late 1980s.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 20 Jan 2026 23:12:26 No.11682521 Report

Quoted By:

>>11682517
>Honestly no bones about it but America revolutionized how toys in this day and way work

Oh so we can blame Americans for labubu as its no different than what cabbage patch dolls were in the good ol' days

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 21 Jan 2026 01:36:28 No.11682648 Report

Quoted By: >>11682820

>>11682272
The LEGO documentary was enjoyable. While not specifically about toys, the Wonder Women documentary spent a fair chunk of time talking about the male collectors and so there was some interesting action figure and other collectibles coverage there.

Even though it's soulless garbage and some of it is now badly dated given all those videos of entire cases of Funko being crushed in landfills, the parts about collecting were interesting in that documentary.

I actually would read a book about design and engineering but I think you need to be specifically into a line or type (say trains) to get into a book like OP's image.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 21 Jan 2026 04:37:45 No.11682820 Report

Quoted By:

>>11682648
Man it seems like this kinda thing is an overlooked subject, might just have to do my own research on it.

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