I Have Secured the Baby Yoda Build-A-Bear

Many of us are still obsessed with baby Yoda—or, I suppose, “The Child” if you want to call him by his Christian name. The Mandalorian gave him to us in a nice little coat and a whole lot of Force powers, and thus our love for the tiny, adorable, ferocious being took root. But then Build-A-Bear had the audacity to make a plush toy of my green baby son and make it almost impossible to get.

This is a toy that is—somewhat surprisingly—now a hot topic for a segment of adults on Twitter. We’re all trying to frantically buy a Build-A-Bear as though this is the summer of 1998. The sad part is, we’re trying to order a pre-made version of the Child, not even one that can be crafted in stores, which is kind of the whole Build-A-Bear point, but I digress. Ardent fans of The Mandalorian still want to buy a stuffed version of baby Yoda, and it’s been incredibly difficult to get one from the store since March. Trust me, I tried. I’ve had Build-A-Bear emails being sent to my phone so I could try and buy him.

Today the company released more of the Child and, in doing so, they put people in an online queue for over an hour. No, seriously, it took like an hour and a half to just get to BUY IT, and even then, you ran the risk of it not being available anymore when your long wait was over. Baby Yoda is clearly a rock star, since this was as difficult as scoring popular concert tickets.

Build-a-Bear has created a monster with this release. Not only have I anxiously checked my email (and missed two releases on accident) for this doll, I’ve also been searching a lot to see where I can purchase it. The quest never seemed like it would end. Luckily, I happened to look today and see that the sale was happening. I got in the virtual queue at 12:30 PM EST and finished buying it by 3:30 PM EST. Yes, that’s how long it took to buy this stuffed animal.

But, can you blame anyone for wanting this? Look at how cute he is.

You can only buy one at a time, and so the struggle will continue for the baby Yoda-less. I have a niece on the way, but she can wait—this baby Yoda is mine. Maybe the fact that a bunch of adults have fought to get a stuffed animal from Build-A-Bear should say something negative about us but guess what? It’s baby Yoda and if adoring him is wrong then I do not want to be right. While I know this all might sound silly, the frustration of trying to attain a fan-popular product is a real thing that impacts many of us, especially when it comes to comic con passes and con-exclusive merchandise. If you don’t have a ton of money to buy something from a reseller, that means you often miss out, while others leapfrog past the inconvenience of long and uncertain queues.

It’s 2020, the world is on fire, and I just spent too much to buy a baby Yoda doll that makes noises and has the theme from The Mandalorian inside his body. There are just some things you can’t fully explain and this is one of them. I know that it makes me happy, and there’s little enough that’s happiness-provoking these days. I can’t wait to cuddle my son and accidentally set off the theme song at random points throughout my life and scare myself in doing so.

(image: LucasFilm)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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