The merchandising hit of 2020 , The Child from The Mandalorian, launches as a perfect silver miniature statue

We’ve been extremely impressed with the New Zealand Mint’s silver miniatures over the last few years. They’ve issued some superb pieces in the Disney, Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, and now they’ve added smash-hit TV show ‘The Mandalorian’ to the mix. To be honest, it must have been the easiest decision they’ve ever had to make…

That results of that decision have manifested themselves in a s150 gram sterling silver miniature of ‘The Child’, also known incorrectly as ‘Baby Yoda’, and correctly as ‘Grogu’. This character was, to put it mildly, an absolute phenomenon last year, and into 2021. It seems to have captured the imagination of countless millions, and has spawned a huge range of merchandising, from plastic toys (definitely), to nasal hair trimmers (maybe not….). None will top this though.

Alejandro Pereira Ezcurra has sculpted almost all of the NZ Mint’s statues and is clearly an extremely capable artist. The Child is perfectly realised, full of fine detail and instantly recognisable. We really can’t find fault with this on the evidence of these images. We’ve seen five or six of the past sculpts in hand and they’ve all been first class, so we expect this one to be as good as it looks.

Cast in 0.925 sterling silver, just under five ounces of the stuff, it comes with a removable base on which is inscribed the serial number. Just 1,000 of these will be produced and we’re betting they won’t hang around for long. It stands about 55 mm in height, the sculpts are not consistent in scale. The packaging is nicely done and it sells for $750.00 USD, although we’d not be surprised if that rose quickly on the aftermarket. An impressive piece, it’s hard to imagine the character getting a better tribute. Available now.