Dancing Groot is the breakout star of this summer's megahit movie, "Guardians of the Galaxy," and fans across the Internet are clamoring for merchandise based on the beloved character.
Less than a week after the movie's August 1 opening, fans were creating their own Groot figurines, T-shirts, and fan art, paying homage to the film's epilogue scene in which the young sapling is seen dancing to "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5.
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Some of the unlicensed merchandise was available for purchase on craft sites like Etsy, while others were simply shown off for nerd cred.
Amid the craze, fans began calling for officially licensed, mass produced merchandise featuring baby Groot. Hope flourished on Monday when Marvel's Executive Editorial Director of Digital Media tweeted that the company is well under way with discussions about that very thing.
Excitement kicked up again on Wednesday, when
SideShowToy.com announced that it had partnered with Hot Toys, a Hong Kong-based collectible production company "specializing in Sixth Scale collectibles featuring actual likenesses of film based characters," to mass produce a Groot figurine set that included adult and baby versions of Groot, as well as his partner-in-crime, Rocket the raccoon.
In addition to announcing the set, Sideshow also announced a dance-off contest in which one lucky fan would be chosen to receive a free set. Almost immediately, fans started posting their submissions to Twitter, resulting in a delightful digital dance party in celebration of everyone's favorite anthropomorphic tree.
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