Unproduced Talking Yoda Doll
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):

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.

Description by: Gus Lopez
Photo: Gus Lopez
From the collection of: Jessica Newsom
Country:United States
Film:Empire Strikes Back
Licensee:Kenner
Year:1980
Category:Toys / Plush


  


Checklist by Duncan Jenkins, Gus Lopez, and the Star Wars collecting community
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All information © 2014 Star Wars Collectors Archive