Ever wandered off during a conversation thinking about how you just want to hug The Rise of Skywalker’s Babu Frik? Well, the Force may be with us after all! Soon fans of the Star Wars character will be able to have a plushie of the fan-favorite. A Babu Frik has been crafted by Mattel but, according to its designer, it wasn’t an easy feat.
Mattel senior product designer Alexander Lathrop said the process of turning Babu Frik into a toy took six months from concept to its “completed sculpt.” To Star Wars.com, Lathrop detailed the difficulty in getting the toy just right. In his words:
Babu was tough because, even though he is so cute, from a toy perspective we aimed to soften him up a bit without losing his essence. Basically, we wanted to portray what people see when they think of Babu Frik, not a carbon copy of the amazing puppet. One of the things we really focused on getting dialed in just right is the subtle asymmetry in Babu’s face. Incorporating that into our sculpt really brought him to life in a wonderful way I think!
The nine-inch Babu Frik plushie is currently available for pre-order exclusively at Target for $24.99, and it will be shipping as early as October 17. Take a look at how it turned out below:
So cute. His body is soft and huggable and his head is vinyl, with the details of his face that matches the character that made a huge impression on Rise of Skywalker audiences back in December. The original Babu Frik was achieved through puppetry by voice actress Shirley Henderson, who got to improv on set with her performance.
The character shows up in a scene where Rey, Poe and Finn need C-3PO’s memory banks to be translated from the Sith language since he is forbidden to do so with his programming. Babu Frik breaks the tension in a high-flying, fast-paced conclusion to the Skywalker Saga. And yes, I’ll take one for every room in my home. Babu Frik needs to be squinting at me everywhere I look!
The best part about this Babu Frik plushie might be the fact that he says six different phrases. And he’s also holding a blow torch. Babu took twice as long to hit shopping carts than The Mandalorian’s Baby Yoda. When the series premiered on Disney+ in November, everyone instantly became obsessed with the cute character, but the studio didn’t start selling plushies until February. And of course, they were sold out immediately.
Still, we hope there’s more to Babu Frik’s future than a cute plushie we can hold. Star Wars fans, including Josh Gad, have been hoping for a spinoff series for the little guy. We’ll update you here on CinemaBlend on what’s next for Star Wars and other movies and television shows you care about.
