ABC News/Steve Iervolino(NEW YORK) — The Netflix series The Toy Stores That Made Us comes from one of the streaming service’s most prolific producers, Brian Volk-Weiss. The guy behind The Movies That Made Us, The Holiday Movies That Made Us, and The Toys That Made Us, is, not coincidentally, a toy collector himself.

As he gave ABC Audio a virtual tour of his collectibles-laden office shelves, he explained how the second season of the show isn’t just playing around. 

Season two deals in part with COVID-19’s effects on small businesses like the esoteric private shops profiled in the series, he explains. “…We literally did it as to try and bring something back of a positive nature to the stores that are so important to me and many other people.”

He adds, “The majority of the profit is going directly to the stores, and if you ask the stores, as equally important to them as the money, maybe even more so is the exposure, because it just drives people to their online stores. So that’s why we did it. And that was our motivation. And it’s ended up just being a ton of fun making it.”

Speaking of, shooting at the shops had a major perk, Volk-Weiss confesses. “I’m always worried this could be some sort of like show business insider trading, but almost every episode I like, I’ll be watching a rough cut and then I’ll text the owner. I’ll be like, ‘Is that E.T. Finger light still available?’ Like, ‘Is that that Megatron Man from U.N.C.L.E. gun Transformer still available?”

He says with a laugh, “…So yeah we’ve locked 10 episodes. I think I’ve got six things from those 10 episodes.”  

Unwrap the second season of The Toy Stores That Made Us on Christmas Day.

By Stephen Iervolino
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