A new Baby Yoda animatronic puppet by former Mythbuster Grant Imahara is incredibly realistic. The Mandalorian's breakout star is ready for his chicken nuggets, just like the many memes sharing his likeness floating around the internet. By now, we should all know that this isn't really Master Yoda as a baby, the name just fits better than calling him the Child. Plus, we don't know the name of their species at the moment, so Yoda just seems to work.
Baby Yoda's popularity exploded back in November when he was first revealed. Since then, Star Wars fans have been clamoring for any official merchandise of him. The official toys don't hit the shelves until May, so a lot of fans have been taking matters into their own hands. Former MythBusters Grant Imahara is one of those fans who took things one step beyond what anyone else is doing. The robotics wizard created a fully animatronic puppet of Baby Yoda that he plans to start touring children's hospitals with, beginning next month. You can read what he had to say about it below.
"Pleased to present my newest creation: a fully animatronic Baby Yoda. Special thx to Saltiest Hime for silicone skin/paint/hair, Lindsay Jane for the coat and Project 842 for the digital model. Touring children's hospitals starting in April!"
Grant Imahara posted a brief video of his Baby Yoda animatronic in action as it wakes up to the sweet smell of fresh chicken nuggets. Imahara is definitely well-versed in The Mandalorian memes online as his video is a direct reference to several memes involving Baby Yoda and chicken nuggets, or chicken tenders, or chicken nuggies. Hasbro has an animatronic version of the Child hitting the shelves in May, though it is nowhere near as cool as what Imahara has done. Hasbro created a toy, the former Mythbuster created something that could be used in a movie.
Baby Yoda has been spreading joy to Star Wars fans for months now since making his debut on Disney+, but Grant Imahara is also taking that element one step beyond. Taking his animatronic to children's hospitals will be huge for some of these kids. Like The Mandalorian, Baby Yoda also brings in non-fans too, which will likely be the case when Imahara introduces him to kids and even adults. Hopefully we'll get some footage of Baby Yoda working his magic in the coming months. As for the real Baby Yoda, he's on his way back to the small screen.
The Mandalorian season 2 will premiere in October on Disney+. The highly anticipated second season will feature Mando and the Child on the run from Moff Gideon, who survived the final episode of season 1. Other than that, not much is clear about the new season or who will be in it. The same can be said about who is behind the camera this time around, though we should get some official news about that soon. For those looking to get a small Baby Yoda fix, you can check out Grant Imahara's Twitter video below.