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After the U.S. video game crash of 1983, a Japanese electronics company single-handedly resurrects the industry with a game featuring a jumping plumber.

The Toys That Built America

Plumber Bros vs. Hedgehog

From a first-century Roman emperor who created an early version of the whoopee cushion to modern materials that emulate human body fluids, gross equals big bucks for toymakers; examining innovative toys designed to shock.

Gross Out Icons

The Christmas crazes that helped transform holiday shopping into the frantic, no-holds-barred $1.1 trillion frenzy that it is today; each season's must-have toy sends desperate shoppers to unbelievable lengths just to buy it.

Christmas Crazes

A former amusement park employee combines his animatronic knowledge with the cassette tape to create the world's first realistic talking toy; a NASA engineer invents an entirely new toy segment stemming from the boring old squirt gun.

80's Tech Toys

Martha Nelson creates a one-of-a-kind doll to sell at local Kentucky craft markets; a visionary young entrepreneur uses her artwork as inspiration for a mass-produced doll that sparks a multi-billion-dollar toy craze.

Cabbage Clash

Hungarian professor, Erno Rubik's 3-D puzzle takes the world by storm; Leslie Scott stops at nothing to bring an iconic building block board game to market; Alexey Pajitnov risks everything to launch a video game obsession based on a puzzle.

Order Out of Chaos

At the height of the industrial age, Alfred Carlton Gilbert goes all in on a revolutionary steel building toy that inspires generations of Americans to build bigger; decades later, a struggling Danish carpenter creates the world's biggest toy empire.

Brick by Brick

A visionary named Marvin Glass oversees the creation of many of the most iconic toys of the 20th century; from chattering teeth to a legendary game based on a mouse trap, Glass pushes the boundaries of what a toy can be and inspires generations.

The Idea Man

Defense contractor Ralph Baer invents the world's first home video game console, but it is soon eclipsed by a new table tennis game; when a third pioneer, Jerry Lawson, creates a console featuring swappable games, the video game industry explodes.

The Birth of Video Games

After passing on the biggest deal in toy industry history, Mattel President Ray Wagner finds himself a step behind former colleague-turned-rival Bernie Loomis.

Masters of the Toy Universe

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Against the backdrop of major events in American history, like the Civil War and the Great Depression, a story that brings new products and nostalgic toys to the forefront as driving forces behind untold cultural and economic shifts.

S2 E2 | The Birth of Video Games