Yes, you read that right. You can get your own adorable, magical, functional BB-8 droid from Star Wars starting tomorrow from Apple stores (he’s Android compatible too), Best Buy, and the Sphero website for the fairly reasonable price of $149.99. There’s no word yet on how that translates to galactic credits.
If there’s one arena where Star Wars has always reigned supreme, it’s merchandising, and this toy exemplifies that like no other—if not in how it replicates the wonderful little droid, then in how much we want to buy one without even having seen the movie yet.
BB-8 first rolled into view and Star Wars fans’ hearts on the first trailer for Episode VII. Its cute noises and strange look – a round sphere with a little bowl always balanced on top – immediately made him the star of the short video. The authentic reproduction of the BB-8 droid has been created by Sphero, in partnership with Disney. It allows owners to roll it around, go through pre-created routes and send messages.
Sphero’s recreation of the character is much the same. The company already makes rolling balls, and managed to get the head permanently stuck on top using magnets.
The functions are largely similar, too. But the company has added a special message mode that adds the opportunity to “create, send and view virtual holographic videos” that are then projected onto the floor using augmented reality and a smartphone app.
Like the other Sphero balls, the BB-8 is controlled through a smartphone app. The company hopes that the app can become more than just a remote control, however, eventually building in different games and ways of controlling the ball.
In addition to the normal driving functions, the robot will respond to Star Wars-specific commands like shouting “it’s a trap”, whereupon it will panic and run away.
BB-8 by Sphero, which arrives in stores around the world on Friday, is not a cheap droid. It lists for $149.99, which is $20 more than the Sphero 2.0. However, I suspect that Sphero and Disney won’t have any trouble selling these.
Watch it in action below:
