MADE, MISTAKES WERE
Why there’s no li’l Yoda toy (yet)
It’s this year’s hottest Christmas gift, but it doesn’t actually exist.
“Star Wars” fans are clamoring for toys of the so-called “Baby Yoda” — the breakout, unnamed star of the new Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” — under their trees this year.
But the playthings aren’t available for the festive season because the show’s creators wanted to keep the character under wraps before its Nov. 12 premiere on Disney’s streaming service.
“Where is Baby Yoda? I’m sad,” said Sophie Orenstein, 17, a Manhattan high-school student who was browsing the “Star Wars” section of the Times Square Disney Store on Friday.
“It’s crazy. Everyone’s going crazy over Baby Yoda and there is no Baby Yoda,” she lamented.
A clerk who identified herself as Belle said shoppers have been demanding toys of the character, an adorable tiny version of the classic “Star Wars” Jedi master that has only been referred to so far on the show as “The Child.”
“Yes, people are asking for them. But we do not have them,” the clerk said. “He will be coming eventually.”
The galaxy-size missed marketing opportunity was likely a choice by the makers of the space western series to avoid merchandise-related spoilers, showrunner Jon Favreau told “Entertainment Tonight.”
“The way the cat usually gets out of the bag with that stuff is merchandising and toy catalogs and things like that,” Favreau said.
“We really wanted to have it be that you had to watch it yourself, so that every time you watched the show there’d be new twists and secrets coming out. But that requires a lot of restraint from the people footing the bill. Part of that was holding back on things like merchandise.”
The lack of toys based on the huggable character has given rise to a black market for the gifts on Web sites such as Etsy and Amazon, mostly made by crafters and artists.
Official plush and plastic toys based on the doe-eyed alien would likely have needed to be in the works by October to be ready in time for the holiday season, according to the Web site Polygon.
There’s little doubt the toys will be a hit when they eventually arrive.
“Everybody loves babies. Everybody loves Yoda. It’s a no brainer: Baby plus Yoda equals dollars,” Richard Gottlieb, CEO of Global Toy Group, told the outlet.