Talking Yoda - Talking Star Wars Figures

Oh no! Disney Stores have taken a step back with the Talking Star Wars Figures line. It’s evident right out of the box that Talking Yoda is different on so many levels from the previous characters released in this format. He lacks articulation, he lacks proper scale. And he comes with a feature that we just haven’t seen added to this line to date. Talking Yoda certainly comes across as eerie to us. But then again any Star Wars toy that “talks” while “mouthing” the words, turning its head and blinking its eyes are notorious for giving people the willies. (Thank you very much Child’s Play….) Anyway, Talking Yoda isn’t without merit, but he is still a bitter pill to swallow because we were certain that Disney felt that scale was a huge part of this series. But when your Talking Yoda is about half the height of your Talking Chewbacca, well, let’s just say that something has definitely gone awry here. Talking Yoda still looks good, but it feels like he should be part of another line instead of the Talking Star Wars Figures line. You may have varying opinions on this, but for us Talking Yoda seems out of place more than anything else. Still part of the $29.99 price range, Talking Yoda takes a different approach than all of the other characters so far released in this line.

With all of that being said, Talking Yoda is a pretty nice toy when assessing it outside of the Talking Star Wars Figures line. He severely lacks articulation. He only comes with two swivel shoulders (each with inhibited movement) and the electronics move his head left and right, blinks his eyes open and closed ad opens his mouth to speak and all of this is powered by a battery. A press of the button on his chest activates this as well as the ignition of his permanently attached lightsaber. Talking Yoda says over 20 phrases from the films and Disney did a remarkable job of synching up his phrases with the animated movement of his face. The face has a “skin” that is pliable and moves quite easily with the animatronics underneath. If you remember during the Star Wars “Saga” and The Original Trilogy Collection eras Hasbro releases their own talking Yoda figure (thanks to the Furby rage/craze at the time). The same principles (and, our guess, materials) have been used here to bring Talking Yoda to life. Talking Yoda is about creepy as he is cool. His voice is loud, but you can still hear the gears and whatnot underneath the “mask” working as they animate him to make him look like he is really talking.

Perhaps even stranger than his “real feel” skin is his rubbery cloak. We didn’t try in fear of breaking the lightsaber blade, but it looks like his outer cloak is removable. But the material it has been cast in is so bizarre. It seems as if you could crumple his cloak into a tiny ball and when you let it go it would spring back to its normal shape instantly. It is definitely manufactured from a strange material, but it has a nice drape and suits Talking Yoda very well. We should probably talk about the scale of Talking Yoda a little bit more too. Disney Stores have done a remarkable job thus far with keeping the Talking Star Wars line in nearly perfect scale. Talking Chewbacca is the tallest and Talking Luke Skywalker was the shortest (until now of course). While Talking Yoda is significantly shorter than the rest, he is still much too tall for this line. He comes up to Talking Chewbacca’s waist. This is what makes us believe that Talking Yoda is really meant to be a different figure and maybe not part of the true Talking Star Wars Figures lineup. With all this being said however, there is no doubt kids are going to love this thing. The lightsaber brightly ignites and Yoda is interactive. Even movement is supposed to wake him up. We think this will be a strong seller. (Editor's Note: The blurry images represent movement when the button on Yoda is pressed.)