Some fans have noticed that the statue in Anakin’s Skywalker’s bedroom resembles Maz Kanata. I have received a lot of e-mails from readers and friends pointing out how the statue looks like Maz. It kind of does have that general look about it. I think it is a coincidence and a fun chance for a retcon (kind of like how Quinlan Vos is in The Phantom Menace because an extra looked a lot like him).

You can see the statue to the left of Anakin:

Then we got this Maz Kanata character in The Force Awakens:

My friend Tony takes it one step further as his father (not little Anakin Skywalker) has this in his house and it is kind of painted like Maz:

So there you have it. In your head canon, Maz can be in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace as a toy the little Darth Vader played with while building See-Threepio.