In July 1999, Pepsi / Frito Lay partnered with Target stores on a Guess-and-Win Contest with a glued LEGO Yoda statue as the prize. The contest ran from July 11 to 24. To win, the contestant had to submit a form containing their contact information and a guess as to the number of LEGO brick required to build the LEGO statue.
Interestingly, the Yoda statue is a different build compared to the Yoda – UCS statue that was released in 2000. For one thing, this model uses green bricks as opposed to the sand green bricks used in later Yoda statues.
The contest ad indicated that the average retail value of the Yoda was $185 and that the total prize pool was $158,915, implying that 859 Yoda prizes were available.
Register to win Yoda, only at Target! Guess the number of LEGO bricks required to build the 14" tall Yoda figure shown, and you could win a permanently assembled, special edition Yoda. Look for the Pepsi/Frito-Lay display in your local Target store.
Target Store Display for the Yoda Guess-and-Win Contest
However, that number does not include the statues found inside the Target Store Displays for the contest. Logically, the display count may be the same as the prize count (one display and prize per store); however, since the displays were not sold or given to consumers, we would expect fewer of them to have survived after the contest.
All in, I estimate that between 1,200 and 1,500 total Yoda statues exist.
I would strongly encourage buyers to explore the provenance of the item before purchasing one. The build is not particularly complex and unsavory individuals could easily fake the build.
Since this will likely be hard to acquire, I plan to attempt building my own replica based on the photos and videos I can find online.
Additions / Corrections
As always, my goal is to provide accurate and complete information about the topics presented on this site. If you have any additional information, please leave a comment below. For one thing, does anyone know the correct number of pieces in the set?
