Seeing Guardians of the Galaxy on opening weekend during the summer of 2014, everyone had the same thought on their minds: “We NEED that dancing Baby Groot!” It’s cute, dances and grooves to Jackson 5’s catchiest tune. It was almost too obvious that this concept would be a big seller in the world of toys and collectibles. Much like Darth Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber, it’s obvious toy bait! Think of the potted plant your cubicle partner might water every day for zen, wouldn’t it be great to have your own that dances to an iconic song you’ll probably never get sick of?
Audiences in August 2014 left the theaters straight to the toy store to seek out their very own Groot. A Baby Groot they could glance away from as they sharpen their knives and plot revenge for the unjust murder of their beloved family members — or maybe that was just Drax? Audiences, however, NEEDED this toy. I cannot stress enough. There wasn’t just a WANT for it, but a NEED! A strong love and desire for something that so delightful that graced our screens in an age of nothing but sequels and completely unnecessary remakes (such as RoboCop*shakes fist*).
Toy stores across North America, such as Toy Traders & Collectibles in Langley, British Columbia, a store that is proudly Canada’s largest independent toys and collectibles shop, and where I work (**yes, a shameless plug, I know), were among those left responsible to inform hopeful Baby Groot buyers that the toy they wanted did not exist…at least not yet. It wasn’t long, however, for toy company Funko to announce the first release of this concept in their Funko Pop! vinyl line. While many saw this as a surprise Christmas release, the hold on development left customers with the grim reality: a planned release for January was how long they’d have to wait.
Working retail at Canada’s largest independent toys and collectibles shop, it became a common occurrence to witness parents having to explain to their children that Santa’s development of the most requested toy of 2014 was delayed. For Toy Traders & Collectibles, this meant a great deal of Trader Bucks (in-store credit, like a gift card, that can be accumulated through trade or purchase) being distributed in anticipation of the January release. I can only imagine other collectible stores had to give out many gift cards or gift certificats as well. Why you ask, all of it was for dedicated assurance that Baby Groot would be theirs!
So why was there a delay on such an obvious money grabbing toy release? Why not make it a Christmas release or stick one in a collector’s edition of the DVD/Blu-ray release? There was only one man to blame: Director James Gunn.
In mid-November 2014, Gunn did an interview with Vulture.com regarding the lack of a Baby Groot toy release. “While we were still shooting the movie, I brought up putting Dancing Baby Groot out as a toy,” Gunn told Vulture.com, “The reason it didn’t happen is because you have some control in the film industry over secrets getting out there, but the people you don’t have much control over are the toy people, unfortunately. Those toy designs get out, always! And people definitely would have gotten a hold of the Baby Groot if we had started manufacturing it in time for it to come out after the movie, so that was the biggest reason we didn’t push on that particular element.” The original interview can be read in full here. So, it was for the sake of surprise…which in the big scheme of things makes sense that development of a Baby Groot toy did not happen right away.
Additionally, many sites exploded with commentary on the announcement of not one– but TWO Baby Groot toys. Most of which anticipated and announced an unconfirmed release date of Christmas. Come on, guys! You made it hard on us collectible stores to break the hard news as you set up some unrealistic expectation. That being said, having finally released this January hundreds of homes, car dashboards, and work desks now happily feature their own bobble headed Baby Groot from Funko, myself included. Like I said, there was a NEED for it as it just makes you smile. So, if you don’t have one yet, I ask you one simple question: “What are you waiting for?”