Remember the Baby Yoda frenzy? When people wanted anything, everything Baby Yoda, but the mystery around the character meant it took ages until we all started having a bit of a freakout about t-shirts and onesies like it was extremely normal behavior? Well, Baby Yoda might be in theaters in a couple months, but the frenzy is happening all over again—it’s just that it’s not about Baby Yoda at all.
Yes, TV’s top baby has been outpaced by the hot new thing: a rock in a polyhedric bubble, thanks to Project Hail Mary‘s roaring success, as Rocky fever is already beginning to rise with hopes for potential sequels. But alongside fan-made attempts to bring the cute critter home, we’re already starting to see the little Eridian that could become the face of an adorably consumerist campaign faster than you can say “Baby Yoda.” Or even “Rocky,” which has half the syllables.
When the film was coming out, we got the now-inevitable popcorn buckets, and there was already the surprising Lego set. But now, we’re already moving on to the “plush rapidly selling out online” stage of the mania, too. This week an officially licensed 8″ plush collector’s figure of Rocky went online at Amazon only to, of course, promptly immediately sell out ahead of expected shipping in the middle of next month. Can’t get that? How about a plush keychain from ToyNK instead, including some of the other Eridians? How about a t-shirt that says “fist my bump”? Or a pin badge?
It’s almost fascinating, or novel even, to watch one of these sensations happen in real time. Of course last year there was KPop Demon Hunters, but the stratospheric success of that came so far out of the left field that merch-makers were left scrambling to acquire the license, and we’re only really now starting to see the effects of it as toys begin rolling out throughout the rest of this year (and presumably until the sequel drops). At least from the get-go, someone behind Project Hail Mary realized that people were going to go nutso over a five-legged rock-spider-friend and got their foot in the door quick.
After all, it’s not just toys; the character’s appearing alongside Ryan Gosling in promotional reels for the film, doing everything from having a nap to declaring himself as buying as many tickets for the film as he can with “Ryan Gosling money!” The film made a tactical decision to show Rocky off early on in the marketing, rather than keeping the alien encounter a secret at first like the book does—and it’s clearly starting to pay off for MGM.
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