The Toys That Built America Episode Rating Graph

Thanks to the industry-defining innovations of three men through the creation of games like Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon, Nintendo goes from a struggling playing card company to a video game juggernaut.

In the 1970s, the board game industry was aimed almost entirely at children, until a literal game changer came along in Trivial Pursuit; redefining the possibilities for adult fun, it opened up a whole new genre.

After the U.S. videogame crash of 1983, a Japanese electronics company single-handedly resurrects the industry with a game featuring a jumping plumber. But a rival rises to challenge their dominance, setting off a two-way war between video game superpowers. In the process, the two companies will humiliate a third, transforming the fight from a two-player matchup into a three-way brawl...that will change the video game industry forever.

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. From his windowless fortress in Chicago, Glass reinvents the way toys are imagined and invented...building himself a toy empire. But his tyrannical style will set him on a collision course with his own designers--in a clash for control of the most important element of the toy universe: ideas.

Before World War II, board games are mostly simple, but postwar peace and prosperity reveals a demand for more challenging pastimes. After decades of struggle, three different innovators break the mold to release games that combine fun with an intellectual challenge: Scrabble, Clue and Yahtzee.

As toys become increasingly complex in the early 1970s, two unconventional inventors risk their homes and careers to bring revolutionary twists to classic games; together, Uno and Connect Four unleash a wave of family-friendly games.

At the height of the industrial age, as America's cities go vertical for the first time, a Yale educated medical doctor and Olympic gold medalist turns his attention to toys. Leaving his profitable magic business behind, he goes all in on his revolutionary steel building toy that will inspire generations of Americans to build bigger. Creating the first-ever national ad campaign for a toy, he'll go head-to-head with a British rival who sells a remarkably similar building kit. But after decades at the top, a struggling Danish Carpenter emerges, whose passion for innovation leads him to a new building material--plastic. With it he'll create the biggest toy empire the world has ever seen.

Hungarian professor, Erno Rubik, ignites "Cube Mania" with his 3-D puzzle that takes the world by storm. Hot on his heels, Leslie Scott will stop at nothing to bring an iconic building block board game to market. And, working deep behind the Iron Curtain, Alexey Pajitnov, risks everything to launch a video game obsession based on a puzzle, and it will become one of the biggest-selling video games on the planet...if he can ever get it out of his country. Together, they revolutionize the puzzle industry and stump some of the world's greatest minds.

From the velocipede to the Schwinn Stingray, or even pedal cars to Power Wheels, viewers will roll their way through the history of the hottest toys on wheels and the surprising stories behind their creations.

Gross-out humor is as old as human society itself, and so are the toys designed to capitalize on it. From a 1st century Roman Emperor who created an early version of the Whoopee cushion, to cutting edge, modern materials that emulate human body fluids, gross equals big bucks for toymakers. These are the stories of America's most innovative, groundbreaking, and profitable toys designed to shock--and how they grew to claim a bigger piece of the 100-billion-dollar toy industry than you would think.

During 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.

The Christmas crazes that helped transform holiday shopping into the frantic, no-holds-barred $1.1 trillion frenzy that it is today. From a hit doll in the Great Depression, to a $5 plush reselling for a thousand times its value, each season's 'must-have toy' makes the top of Santa's list for its own improbable reason... and sends desperate shoppers to unbelievable lengths just to buy it.

From Furbys to Pogs, the 1990s were full of unforgettable fad toys; it was a decade where old school toys like Beanies Babies went head-to-head with high-tech wonders like Tamagotchi, and parents would do anything to get their hands on them.

In the 1980s, groundbreaking technology doesn't just improve adult life, it redefines classic toys. For the first time, childhood staples are reimagined by innovators pushing the boundaries of entertainment technology. A former amusement park employee combines his animatronic knowledge with the cassette tape to create the world's first realistic talking toy, while a NASA engineer invents an entirely new toy segment stemming from the boring old squirt gun. It's an era when technology redefines how we live, and these toy innovations are at the forefront.

Santa Claus is one of the most beloved figures -- and famous faces -- on Earth, a symbol of hope and goodwill for all; this is the story of the creative minds, brands, and major events that shaped the image of jolly ol' St. Nick.

For six decades two silly, but savvy entrepreneurs--S.S. Adams and H. Fishlove--turned their love of a good joke into a booming prank toy industry. Their heated rivalry produced hundreds of tricks and gags that entertained generations of Americans.