The holiday season may be officially ruined. Disney made official, after several waves of rumors, that merchandise and toys for the beloved Baby Yoda character on the hit Disney+ series The Mandalorian will not be available until at least February.
Baby Yoda, or “The Child” as it is officially dubbed, is the breakout star of The Mandalorian and has been helping the show trounce both its competition and even 2020 Democrats in web traffic since its debut. While the character gained a massive organic following in November, it hasnât been without its critics. For some fans, Baby Yoda represents a long-running suspicion that Disney only has one mission: to make everything it touches nauseatingly cute and packaged for toy store shelves.
So the news of Disney foregoing the 2019 Christmas shopping season must come as a welcome surprise to these detractors. Perhaps, there was more to Disney than shrewd marketing.
LucasFilmâs senior vice president of licensing Paul Southern said, âIt was important to us that the reveal of the new character, the Child, be a special moment for fans, and we could not be more thrilled with the response.â By this, Southern means that Disney was worried the merchandise would have spoiled the big reveal of the character at the end of The Mandalorian‘s pilot episode. There is plenty of reason to believe this, as retailers donât have a great record with helping to control spoiler material that is being prepared for their shelves. For example, before The Force Awakens was released, images of the toys for Rey leaked, clearly showing she had Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. It was a relatively large spoiler for the time when the trailers were teasing that Finn, not Rey, would perhaps be a Jedi-like character.
In this scenario, you have to imagine the team responsible for the story of The Mandalorian and the team managing its marketing being somewhat at odds with tactics to promote the show. In the end, the almighty dollar did not win out over preserving the experience of watching The Mandalorian for the first time. That decision has clearly paid off with the success of the series driving subscribers to Disney+.
Walmart set much of this consumer chaos into motion when they accidentally preempted Disney in previewing their merchandise for our hero, Baby Yoda. As soon as their plush toy went up for sale, it came down. Only hours later, Disney made its own announcement with a line of shirts, mugs, hats, cellphone covers, and dolls that you can pre-order from various vendors, including Walmart.
Whatâs odd about the whole ordeal is that Disneyâs merchandise for the little green star of The Mandalorian is somewhat basic in its appearance. The items largely feel like they were done overnight by an amateur designer or knock-off artist, making Baby Yoda T-shirts using screen grabs and press photos of Baby Yoda on each product. It is surprising to think that Disney may have chosen to pass on Christmas sales of Baby Yoda toys and also been underprepared for the demand for such products. It appears that both things are true, and it has historical precedent.
When Star Wars first hit theaters in May 1977, Kenner Toys (General Mills) owned the license for Star Wars toys since Mego Corporation had passed up the opportunity first because they didnât see any chance for profitability. Hard to imagine isnât it? Kenner was also not bullish and did not have toys ready in 1977 for the four main characters: Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, and RD-D2. Instead, toy stores sold empty boxes that Christmas, which could be redeemed for toys the next year. By the end of 1979, sales for Star Wars toys had hit $100 million and George Lucas used those very funds to finance the next two films so he could have creative independence from major studios.
All of that, and here we are once again. Itâs 2019, and there is a Star Wars toy crisis happening ahead of the holidays. You may not have a merry Christmas cuddled up with a Baby Yoda doll or adorned in a frightening Baby Yoda onesie, but at least the toy bootleggers and Etsy miracle workers will make a fortune.
Stephen Kent (@Stephen_Kent89) is the spokesman for Young Voices, host of the Beltway Banthas podcast, and an entertainment contributor for the Washington Examinerâs Beltway Confidential blog.
