‘Begun, the toy wars have’: Disney empire crushes Baby Yoda rebels
Disney was shockingly late with merchandise for its show The Mandalorian and now it is turning the Death Star on enterprising sellers who are making their own Baby Yoda toys.
Movies
Don't miss out on the headlines from Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Why you won’t recognise these classics on the big screen
- Why Kristen Stewart survives dive into deep sea disaster zone
In what sounds like the plot for the next Star Wars movie, Disney is turning the full force of its empire on to a bunch of rebels who have dared to create their own Baby Yoda toys.
“Baby Yoda” is the internet nickname of a character from Disney+ show The Mandalorian who is officially called “The Child”.
But, seeing as he looks like a baby Yoda ... well, the internet cleverly renamed him.
He’s adorable, funny and the subject of about a gazillion memes — but no toys. Disney, the masters of merchandise, decided not to spoil the reveal of “Baby Yoda” and didn’t make any. Even now, if you want an official doll, you can only pre-order it from Disney, with an expected release date of April 20.
Disney also refuses to embrace the Baby Yoda tag, calling it instead “The Child”, with T-shirts and phone cases only featuring this wording.
Or you can go on to Etsy, an online marketplace, where there are more than 200 pages and thousands of listings for Baby Yoda items, all calling him Baby Yoda.
There’s everything from Valentine’s Day items (Baby, Yoda one that I want), to cuddly toys, stickers, T-shirts, phone cases, mugs and even sex toys.
Yes, you can buy Baby Yoda butt plugs. Goodness only knows who wants one of those but I am not surprised Disney is pulling out all the stops to extract these from sale.
Disney is also trying to stamp out others, with Etsy stores such as 100AcreWood and YourStuffedMemories forced to call their items “baby alien” dolls.
One customer of YourStuffedMemories wrote on its shop page: “Ah, screw Disney! Find a way to keep making and selling them because they are top tier!”
It seems that, as fast as Disney’s lawyers send out notices, other items pop up.
All this for a show that, while highly rated by critics, doesn’t have a mass audience because it is on Disney’s streaming channel.
Disney probably should go back and watch the original Star Wars, where Princess Leia warns Grand Moff Tarkin: “The more you tighten your grip, the more Baby Yodas slip through your grasp”. Or something like that.
Naturally by the time the second season of The Mandalorian is out, there will be more official merchandise than you can poke a butt plug at. Probably not any of those though. Still, Disney is hamstrung by refusing to call him Baby Yoda.
I know that is not his name and the series is set several years after Yoda’s death. I realise the origin of the character is shrouded in mystery and will probably be a key plot point in later seasons. But Disney is missing out big time because of it.
This is a classic marketing fail that will probably serve as a case study in exams. Meanwhile Disney has its lawyers flailing away, trying to stop grandmas knitting Baby Yodas.
Forget butt plugs, I think Disney has its head stuck up its ass over this issue and the rebels, while legally in the wrong, are not going away.
As Yoda himself said in The Clone Wars: “Begun, the toy wars have”.