D23 2026: Hasbro Shows Off its Ultimate Grogu During an Informative Panel About the High-End Interactive Toy

Yesterday morning at the Anaheim Convention Center during the final day of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, the popular toy company Hasbro hosted a panel all about its much-talked-about new interactive (and undeniably expensive) interactive animatronic toy called the Star Wars Ultimate Grogu. I attended the panel in person, and below is my recap (along with photos and video) of what took place.

The panel was entitled "The Force of Innovation: The Magic Behind Hasbro's Ultimate Grogu Animatronic" and it took place on the Hyperion Stage at 10:45 AM Sunday morning.

The panelists included Hasbro's Fan Marketing Expert Emily Bader, Principal Innovation & Design Engineer Mel Hershey, Senior Manager of Product Design Adam Ostegard, Principal Product Designer Melissa Panzica, Electrical Engineer Claire Goolsby, and Ultimate Grogu himself (according to the slide, "He's Grogu [from] Clan Mudhorn").

In the social media video embedded below, you can see the in-person demonstration of how Grogu toddles around, makes noises (sourced directly from The Mandalorian's audio files), and interacts with his environment.

Around this point in the panel I started to notice that my iPhone's camera did not want to take color-accurate photos of the screen in the room, so I apologize for the distortion of what you see immediately below. This is a history of Hasbro's moving Grogu toys, from The Child animatronic in 2020 to Galactic Snackin' Grogu in 2021, to Wild Ridin' Grogu in 2022, and finally Action Buddy Grogu, which came out this year in conjunction with the Star Wars: the Mandalorian and Grogu movie.

At long last, I figured out how to take a proper photo of the screen (I couldn't use either of my phone's zoom lenses, so instead I took wide shots and cropped them down). This next slide showcases how Hasbro's team created "a unique emotional connection with Ultimate Grogu" by duplicating defining character movements and sounds from The Mandalorian Disney+ series, recreating Grogu's instantly identifiable personality.

Here we have some of the many functions that Ultimate Grogu is capable of. First of all, this slide points out that this animatronic toy is indeed life-size at a 1:1 scale with the Grogu puppet that is used in the production of The Mandalorian and the new movie that continued the story of the series. Ultimate Grogu also sports, crystal clear eye lenses, screen-accurate teeth and tongue, 340 individual wisps or hair that have been individually rooted in Grogu's tiny green head, soft skin and flexible ears, a premium plush collar and hidden chainmail detailing underneath, a removeable "Beskar" rondel armor piece with Mudhorn signet and belt / buckle details, an also-removable satchel with snap closure, frayed fabric edges on his clothing, location printed weathered detailing, and motorized feet that are hidden under his robes. Ultimate Grogu also includes an interactive magnetic blue cookie with motor movement and a grav charge straight out of the series with light and sound effects, all of which were demonstrated during the panel but difficult to capture on-camera from my seat. As an alternative, you could check out close-up video I got of Ultimate Grogu during Hasbro's media preview breakfast at San Diego Comic-Con 2026.

What I most enjoyed about the panel was learning about how the team studied The Mandalorian in order to make Ultimate Grogu (of which there were two on stage, as you can see in the photo below) as accurate to the acclaimed series and the beloved character as possible.

The team also shared a series of photos of Ultimate Grogu traveling around the United States and the world. According to one of the slides, he has thus far visited four different countries and seven U.S. states. In one of the images below you can see his trip to Steve Sanswett's Rancho Obi-Wan in Northern California, in addition to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. And the photo immediately below this text was taken on a hand-build beach set specially created for a shoot with the animatronic.

After the panel ended, attendees were distributed an exclusive "I Met Ultimate Grogu" button for the occasion. This is different from the one that was given away at the Hasbro booth on the D23 show floor or at SDCC, as in this image he is holding his blue cookie.

Hasbro's Star Wars Ultimate Grogu sells for $599.99 and is available for pre-order right now via the official Hasbro Pulse website.