The year 2020 will go down in infamy, and centuries from now historians will undoubtedly look back and wonder why, amid all the social turmoil and a bona fide pandemic, humanity was so obsessed with a tiny green puppet. If they stumble across Tested’s first look at Sideshow Collectibles’ life-size the Child, they just might understand.
Months after The Mandalorian helped launch the Disney+ streaming service, the series’ most memorable character remains an obsession for collectors. Back in February, at the New York Toy Fair, toy makers and companies specializing in high-end collectibles revealed a mountain of the Child ” aka Baby Yoda ” merchandise, including a 16.5-inch tall life-size replica from Sideshow Collectibles that’s just about as close as you’ll ever get to caring for a 50-year-old toddler who wields the Force.
Norman Chan, from Adam Savage’s Tested, visited Sideshow Collectibles’ headquarters where the company is showing off all of the merchandise that would have otherwise been on display at its San Diego Comic-Con booth, had the convention not been cancelled due to the pandemic. The piece that would have undoubtedly had fans lining up to see is a prototype of Sideshow’s the Child, which Chan gets to see up close in detail in this video, thanks to Amy Chase, Sideshow’s Content Coordinator.
The collectible isn’t designed to be played with or even posed, it’s designed to be a show piece stashed safely away in a display case. With a price tag of $US375 ($535), collectors undoubtedly aren’t going to want anyone poking or prodding at the piece, which is tempting given how incredibly lifelike it looks. Sideshow Collectibles actually worked with Legacy Effects, the visual effects studio who created the animatronic puppet for The Mandalorian, to ensure its recreation of the Child was as accurate as possible.
As revealed here, when you get really up close and personal with the piece, you can see all the individually punched wispy hairs on its head, the porous texture of the simulated skin on its ears, and the wrinkles around its eyes. Nearly four hundred bucks is quite a few parsecs away from being an impulse purchase, but once you stare deep into the Child’s eyes, you’ll probably find that money disappearing faster than Obi-Wan when he finally confronts Vader.
Sideshow Collectibles’ hasn’t decided how many of the Child collectibles it plans to produce, though the company says it will keep making them until the demand is gone. And while delivery is expected anywhere between August to November, it’s first come first serve, and those who’ve already pre-ordered one will be among the first to score their bounty.