Unproduced Talking Yoda Doll Prototype: The talking Yoda doll is among the most legendary unproduced toy prototypes from the vintage Kenner Star Wars line. It was considered as a toy concept in 1980 and got as far as sales samples and finished packaging, but was cancelled just prior to release. Early versions of the talking Yoda doll are known to exist with slightly different outfits and alternate rotocast heads with open mouths. Even an electroform mold for the conceptual talking Yoda head has turned up, but all of these items are significantly different than the final production sample shown above.

The toy features rubber hands, feet, cane, and head with a durable cloth outfit. The pull string activates the voice box to produce random sounds among the eight expressions in Yoda's repertoire. These sounds were sampled directly from Yoda's lines in The Empire Strikes Back (Frank Oz's voice):

• "You seek Yoda"
• "Beware the Dark Side"
• "A Jedi uses the force"
• "Feel the force"
• "Size matters not"
• "So certain are you"
• "Try not. Do."
• "Use the force"

From the side view, you can see the cane, belt, and some detail in the cloth outfit. From the back view, the pull string is visible to the bottom left, and by releasing the string, Yoda says one of his eight random expressions.

It's amazing that Kenner decided not to produce the talking Yoda doll. Even by today's standards, the toy is impeccable in quality and the voice mechanism stands the test of time. Less than a dozen prototype samples of talking Yoda are known to exist.