New Remote Control BB-8 Replica From Sphero
With Force Friday upon us and a veritable galaxy of new Star Wars: The Force Awakens toys being released, we wanted to highlight one of the most impressive ones of the lot—Sphero’s app-enabled BB-8 replica. Sphero was kind enough to send us one to check out for ourselves, and we’ve got more details and a video of the little fellow in action waiting for you after the jump…
BB-8 is poised to become one of the newest stars from our favorite galaxy far, far away once The Force Awakens opens on December 18th. We’ve already caught a few glimpses of him, of course. The two short teasers for the film have featured him, and during the TFA panel at Star Wars Celebration this past April, Colorado-based Sphero made quite a splash as they debuted their full-sized remote-control version of BB-8, designed specifically for public appearances.
And now, Sphero has created an interactive miniature version of the rolling gyroscopic astromech that you can operate from your smartphone. Take a look for yourself:
As you can see in the video, Sphero has incorporated voice control into BB-8, as well as a number of built-in emotive reactions that reflect BB-8’s personality in TFA. With most of the film still being kept a secret until its December release, the emotes included in the initial version of the BB-8 replica will be limited. However, Sphero expects to add new content once the movie is out.
Here’s Sphero’s official press release for the toy:
Meet BB-8™ – the spherical, loyal Astromech Droid™ of Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. The app-enabled BB-8 is as authentic to the Star Wars™ galaxy as it is technologically advanced. Set it to patrol and watch your Droid explore autonomously, make up your own adventure and guide BB-8 yourself, or create and view holographic recordings. BB-8 has something unlike any other robot – an adaptive personality that changes as you play. Based on your interactions, BB-8 will show a range of expressions and even perk up when you give voice commands. BB-8 is more than a toy – it’s your companion.
With a suggested retail price of $150, Sphero’s app-enabled BB-8 may be one of the pricier Star Wars toys of the Force Friday wave, but it’ll also be a pretty tough one to resist. They’ve done a fantastic job in creating a working replica based on the same technology used in the full-size model that we saw at Celebration. And though we still don’t know much about what BB-8 will be like in TFA, Sphero seems to have captured a lot of the personality of the little droid—no mean feat, considering that it’s essentially a plastic ball topped with an astromech dome!
The little fellow is a lot of fun to send rolling around and exploring your home, and with the prospect of additional content being released for him once the film is in theaters, it will be interesting to see what else he’ll be able to do as time goes on. (We’re also looking forward to hearing about your experiences with BB-8 should you choose to pick up one of your own.)
The BB-8 App Enabled Droid by Sphero will be available starting Force Friday in the US at: Disney, Sphero.com, Apple, Brookstone, BedBath&Beyond, Best Buy, Marbles, Sprint, Amazon.
First on Force Friday! 🙂
This looks very cool! One note in the blurb… It’s Poe Camerons Astromech droid, yet he’s only been seen in the trailers with Rey – possible spoiler?!
It’s no spoiler. BB8 belonging to Poe has been known and for quite awhile now. JJ isn’t even trying to hide that.
Do we know that? I’ve only every heard that he was Rey’s droid. I’ve only ever seen pictures of him with Rey, in fact, I thought I heard that Rey built him. I’m not sure *we* knew BB was connected to Poe.
I want one. There’s another less expensive version that follows voice commands. I think I want that one. I went to Walmart and the shelves were empty. I was not expecting it. I had to order my “12 kylo ren on eBay.
I’ve seen photos off full size ones in US shops on twitter,don’t know if they are display or real deal.
The one I saw at Target was a full sized display only.
Good f#$%ing luck finding them in stores!
best place to get them is barnes and noble. I went there after work today to buy AFTERMATH and they had a bunch of them.
Brookstone had plenty
Want one but chances of finding one in Australia is simply not going to happen. We only just got the inter web down here.
JB hifi have them in store and online now and same price as US too 😉
Just got mine… it’s so awesome
Not only humans are gonna enjoy this. I know for a fact my dog would go nuts playing with this also. Double the fun.
Mine would kill it in seconds…..Jack Russell,greatest droid hunters in the galaxy.
Are these big uns real?
https://twitter.com/StarWarsJunk/status/639858834945765376
It’s for display only.Saw it at Target. At the bottom of BB8 on the side you can see some letters that read DO NOT TOUCH FOR DISPLAY ONLY.
Target is selling a larger r/c BB-8 but it is not full size. As far as I know it does not have some of the features as this version.
And the Target one uses a tonne of batteries.
Can’t wait to pick mine up after work today. Ready for pickup at my local Best Buy. Beep bo beep! 🙂
I was looking for this today, but my local Toys R Us only had a handful of figures and the local Smyths hadn’t got any of the new stock yet (insert nerd rage). I did however notice that the prices of the 3.75 figs were £9.99 yet they’re priced at $8 in the US. That makes them about double the cost in the UK (nerd meltdown).
If you missed it, in the story above, Toys R Us is not listed as one of the retailers selling this. I know, cuz I made the assumption they had it too. They do have another BB-8 remote controlled droid which I picked up. Uses a lot of batteries, but it’s pretty fun, and much bigger than this one.
Had to order mine online. But thats all cool. Now I just wait for him to arrive!!! My new lego millenium falcon will keep me busy in the meantime
Just got mine and one fact that I didn’t knew, was that the sounds don’t come from the droid but from the tablet/phone which is kind of disappointing…other then that it’s still cool
Wow, that is disappointing.
I love mine: https://instagram.com/p/7MZZ-Hpbck/?taken-by=puggish
Isn’t he supposed to be a little closer to Artoo’s size though?
Sorry Artoo, you will be sadly missed 🙁
Unrelated but cool. I picked up a few of those Air Hogs X-Wing remote controlled toys. We had LOTS of fun with them. Wish there were Tie Fighters.
We’re currently drafting a letter to NERF for them to collaborate with Air Hogs and give this ships some kind of fire power. That would be cool.
And about five minutes ago, one of my guys came up with this awesome idea for a simulated trench run. It’s about two feet long with a button at the end of the trench. If it’s hit, it simulates a Death Star explosion sound.
We’re sending it in pronto. This would be mega fun.
You got one for free?? You son of a biscuit! I’m jelly.
The music of this video is awesome!
The driving takes a little getting used to. The hologram playback is pretty cool when you watch it from your phone. The random roaming mode is fun, though, BB-8 keeps getting stuck places and I’ve got to pick it up and move it. The only thing that comes to mind to me is that BB-8 is clearly going to be a marketing sensation in toys, clothing, media, etc. How they came up with this design I don’t know, but it is genius as a prop for the movie and as toys.
BB8 is genius. Absolute Genius.