SDCC 2025: The Toys that Made Us – An Interview with Brian Volk-Weiss

SDCC 2025: The Toys that Made Us – An Interview with Brian Volk-Weiss

Are you a collector of toys and have oodles all over your house? If so, then the show “The Toys That Made Us” on Netflix is for you! I interviewed the brainchild behind the show, Brian Volk-Weiss, at San Diego Comic-Con and it was fun, and very interesting. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties (the video did not record any sound!) I am unable to share the full video of the interview with you, but I took good notes and have some of the highlights here.

Question from Nerd Initiative: What is something you have always dreamed of directing?•

In the Nachelle universe we are planning for a shift from animation to live actionwhich will be Star Wars. Roboforce was a huge success, imagine that live and that is the goal. Question from Press Interviewer (sorry, I didn’t catch his name): What are some things you have learned from filming the seasons?

• The first thing that comes to mind is these two guys from Ghostbusters. I think it will be the funniest episode we have done because, for anyone who doesn’t know about Ghostbuster toys, there were huge legal issues about who owned the rights to name. There was a Ghostbusters TV show that came out before the movie and the TV show producers and Sony couldn’t figure out a deal that worked for everyone.

There werea lot of legal gray areas and a fair amount of lawsuits between the two companies. The “original” ghostbusters (not the one with Dan Akroyd), had a dog as the main character, there was a talking gorilla, they worked in a police station, and it had nothing to do with Sony’s Ghostbusters. The situation could have been resolved if the two battling companies had talked but egos got in the way. The end result was reflected in the toys.

If you see something that doesn’t make sense in the toy line,then it was probably due to the lawsuits. While making the movie they used the ghostbusters logo in many shots but were not sure if they would have to re-do the takes if they didn’t win the rights to the logo.

Question from Mary Gillespie – Skewed and Reviewed: Have you always been into toys? What got you into this?

• If I had to guess…I was an only child, didn’t like being an only child, I bonded with my toys. I don’t play sports, I’m a horrible athlete, so I didn’t have that. Mom was dominate force in our family so we didn’t watch sports at all. In college I bought my first toy that would go on a shelf. An All Terrain Scout Transport (AT-ST) from Star Wars

. • Toys That Made Us was green lit in January of 2017. At that time I had 400 – 450 toys. Today I have at least 5,000! All on display at my house. I do not buy stuff just to buy stuff. If I buy it, it goes on the shelf for display. The room is my “fortress of solitude”. Ican walk into the room and feel my blood pressure go down. It is home. Mary Gillespie – I told him it that is awesome and I would love to see his room!

• He responded, “my wallet doesn’t though!” I told him but you buy them over time so it’s not so bad, he pantomimed a phone and said “can I call my wife and have you tell her that”! He said her response would probably be it’s only worth something if you sell it. But I said it was “intrinsic”, and he agreed. He said he has told his wife “when I’m dead you sell it!” LOL!

• I shot this yesterday.. There is a company called Eagle Moss that sold beautiful star trek ship replicas. I bought them for $25-$80 each and have well over 200 of them.One day I got some good news and called my wife to tell her, “I have some good news!”. She asked if Eagle Moss went bankrupt lol! That’s how big of a talking point this is in our family.

• Yesterday on the sales floor, an Enterprise model I paid 50 bucks for was selling for $275.00. The vendor said that is cheap! You can go on ebay and they are selling for $500 – $600. So, I did a quick interview with him and asked him if somebody bought this for $60.00 five years ago and now it’s going to $275 – $600 would you say that’s a good investment? The vendor said “well yes, of course” and I asked if he would tell my wife that there is value to this? The vendor replied “You’re a genius sir. Ma’am, your husband’s a genius!” “You hear that baby? I’m a genius.”Nerd Initiative: What were some of the surprises in your panels?

• Next year is the 60th anniversary of Star Trek and with that our third wave of toys. There will be the original cast in their famous uniforms and also a 2 pack yet to be announced. None of the Star Trek fans in the audience were able to guess what it was and no-one even came close. Watch for this one to make its appearance!What about Polly Pocket?

• The fan base for Polly Pocket is old, and deep, and wide, and the reaction from fansduring the panel was very emotional. We screened real footage from the show at the panel for the first time. We did an interview with the creator Chris Webb which we showed during the panel and he died about 6 months after the interview. This was his last interview and the fans were tearing up as they knew that was the creator andwas his last interview. This type of thing happens more than you know. We interviewed Michael Madson and Jim Lee and they both passed away less than a week after their interviews. Press Interviewer: What do we have to look forward to with Icons Unearthed?

• We just shot Karen Allen yesterday. In season 10 we changed it up a bit and focused on Tom Cruz movies. This was the best rated season out of 10 seasons. We are nowin the works for Quinton Tarantino, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a Transformer season similar to prior seasons.

Mary Gillespie: What is the oldest toy you have featured in the show?

• That’s a great question! The oldest toy featured would have to be GI Joe. He started in the 40’s. We also own Garloo which is from the 1930’s and is the oldest anything.Press Interviewer: What is the most valuable toy you have featured?

• The most valuable toy would be the Jack Nicholson as the Joker, prototype.

• We did a shoot in Japan at the Takara headquarters. These toys are worth millionsand they had them in their basement in plastic containers wrapped in napkins! Itwas the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Not to be cliched, but that stuff should literally be in a museum. Museum people would pay $50 bucks a ticket to see and it is in their basement wrapped in napkins in plastic containers. This was the end of the interview and I loved it! Brian was engaging and you could feel his passion for the show, and toys.