And as such, it was perfectly representative of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise that spawned it – a Super Hero team so different, so weird, that they’d been skirting the fringes of the Marvel Universe for 45 years before James Gunn’s 2014 movie catapulted them to fame. Groot-mania, viewed at some distance, was wild, as if it had dropped into the public consciousness from another dimension. READ MORE: 7 big reasons to play ‘Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy’.Should you wish, you could also have bought a Baby Groot – for that was the dancing sapling – mask, plushie, costume, alarm clock, bobblehead, Hot Wheels car, planter… you name it, in 2017 it had an anthropomorphic tree on it. In 2017, the hit toy of the year was an adorable, doe-eyed sapling in a plant pot that would shake its bark-covered booty along to any music playing in its vicinity.
