Everybody adores Baby Yoda. Humanity collectively wants to squeeze her tiny granny cheeks and cradle that small green baby more delicately than Mando, the Mandalorian, himself.
Well mortals, Mattel has some great news for those disappointed with Disney’s original offering of Baby Yoda merch: a $25 plush doll of The Child (which is Baby Yoda’s official moniker) hit Walmart’s website on Tuesday — for pre-order only. The toy is expected to ship in May 2020, meaning parents everywhere, err, Santa’s elves will have to work some serious magic to fulfill the wish lists of kids asking for a Baby Yoda doll.
Baby Yoda has entranced the internet, perhaps filling the void left by recently-departed influencer kitties like Lil Bub and Grumpy Cat. So it’s no surprise that when Walmart quietly listed the Baby Yoda plush online and CNET site Comicbook.com reported on the toy’s existence, the news evidently broke the Walmart website.
The link to pre-order a squishy green surrogate for the real Baby Yoda disappeared shortly after it was spotted. It’ll reportedly be back online at 12pm PT (3pm ET), at which time shoppers will have to act fast. These toys are gonna fly off Walmart’s digital shelves faster than a Mandalorian can deploy a flock of whistling birds and take out four Storm Troopers in one fell swoop.
The first batch of Baby Yoda merch, being sold on Disney’s site as well as Amazon, was lackluster. Comicbook.com said the t-shirts, iPhone cases, and coffee mugs printed with The Mandalorian logo and a picture of The Child looked “borderline bootleg.”
Disney’s halfhearted attempt at merch is befuddling, because everything else about The Mandalorian is quite honestly top-notch. The show, starring Pedro Pascal and streaming on Disney+, is a visual feast of moody desertscapes and pulse-quickening fight sequences. Minimalist hypebeasts could learn a thing or two from the show’s Burning Man-chic costume design. The Mandalorian takes its time telling Jon Favreau’s story of a contract killer gone rogue and his adorable, wrinkly bounty.
Conversely, we wish Disney, Mattel and all the other toy sellers would hurry up and deliver on the Baby Yoda plush the world wants and needs! But please, not at the expense of international labor standards… Baby Yoda wants us to shop sustainably, she does.
