Lost Yooka-Laylee Statues Resurface in Local Markets

'Tens of Thousands' of Missing Yooka-Laylee Statues Reappear in The Philippines


Published: January 19, 2021 5:16 PM /

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Lost Yooka-Laylee statues cover

Back in 2016, "tens of thousands" of Yooka-Laylee statues were lost after a company shut down. Now, these missing pieces of merchandise have mysteriously resurfaced in The Phillippines at surprisingly-low prices.

Yooka-Laylee is a game that arrived in the mid 2010s that aimed to revive the 3D collectable platformer in the style of Banjo-Kazooie and similar games. It was soon followed by Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. As with some games, the developers created some merchandise for fans to buy, but a portion of these collectables were presumed lost — until now.

Missing Yooka-Laylee Statues Mysteriously Resurface

According to Andy Robinson, tens of thousands of Yooka-Laylee statues were stored in a warehouse somewhere. Unfortunately, the company that held these items "mysteriously went bust" and the statues never made their way into the appropriate hands. Now, it appears that they are now being sold on the open market in The Phillippines.

"I should say, these were never officially released. One day the company just went dark[.]" – Andy Robinson, Former Writer for Yooka-Laylee and Ollie the Trolley Voice Actor

Robinson (and several other people) report that these statues have started popping up in the Philippines for the crazily low price of just $10 a pop. Judging by the picture he posted on Twitter (and used as our header image), these missing statues look pretty darn cool. Several other people have posted their pictures of the statues and they seem to be no worse for wear despite the fact that they've been missing in action for years.

These statues were supposed to be included as part of the Yooka-Laylee Collector Boxie. As Andy Robinson said, one of the involved companies confirmed that they were unable to deliver the statues as promised, ultimately resulting in Playtonic Games putting out a "final update" on the matter.

"Despite our best efforts in communicating with Project Triforce to try and secure a solution, the company has now verbally confirmed that it will be unable to honour its obligation to deliver the statue to customers as per the Licencing Agreement Playtonic has with it," the statement read.

"We’re extremely disappointed in this outcome and we would advise those who have pre-ordered from Project Triforce to contact their payment merchants. We have requested that Project Triforce remove all Yooka-Laylee branding from its social feeds and website and recommend not to pre-order the Yooka-Laylee Collector Boxie from its website at this present time."

It's unfortunate that these statues never got delivered to expectant fans. Some of you might want to buy one, but that's going to prove to be a challenge — some people in the Twitter thread note that several online sellers do not offer international shipping. If you're not in The Phillippines, it may prove very difficult to secure one of these statues for yourself.

So what happened? Somewhere, a company went bust — either the company producing the statues, the warehouse storing them, or both. At that point, these items are in a weird sort of legal limbo that has to be resolved. It's possible that they could have been auctioned off to pay off the debts of a company that shut down, but something else entirely could have happened, too.

For now, we don't have much in the way of firm details beyond what Andy Robinson publicly posted. We've reached out to Playtonic for more details and will update this article when we receive a reply.

What do you think of the lost Yooka-Laylee statues mysteriously resurfacing after so many years? Would you want to get one of these collectibles for yourself? Let us know in the comments below!

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A photograph of TechRaptor Senior Writer Robert N. Adams.
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One of my earliest memories is playing Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I've had a controller in my hand since I was 4 and I… More about Robert N

More Info About This Game
Learn more about Yooka-Laylee
Game Page Yooka-Laylee
Developer
Playtonic Games
Publisher
Team17
Release Date
April 11, 2017 (Calendar)
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