BB-8 from STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Gets a Remote-Control Toy!!!


I think we’ve found a new #1 Christmas gift.

Sometimes when it comes to popular movies, its merchandising can be an absolute no-brainer. There are characters or situations which are just begging to be turned into the next cool toy. One such character is BB-8, the cute little ball droid who I’m pretty sure is gonna be the most iconic thing to come out of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

You’re probably aware that tomorrow is Force Friday, the day where all the awesome merchandising for the sequel is officially released. To celebrate, Disney have been streaming an 18-hour live feed on YouTube (which is over now, but you can still check out the whole thing) and there were a lot of awesome reveals, but the coolest has gotta be the remote-controlled BB-8.

This isn’t just a crappy little toy that your kids will be entertained by for a few days; it looks cool as fuck and actually has a personality, which is a major new step for merchandising. Yes, you are the one who can control him (via an app on your smartphone) but so long as he’s switched on BB-8 will be doing something or other and can even respond to voice commands, physically or vocally. It’s a brilliant little toy and I’m sure as shit buying it at Christmas. I mean, I will be at Walt Disney World then…

It’s unfortunately not huge – about the size of a tennis ball – but don’t be shocked if we get a much bigger version in the next year or so. The droid is the work of a team-up between robotics company Sphero and Disney and they definitely didn’t disappoint. I’d like to see them try and make a remote-control R2-D2 next, and then you could just pit the two droids against each other and see what happens!

To take a look at all those things and more, watch this awesome video from CNET with a demonstrations of just what BB-8 can do.

Like I said at the beginning of the article, BB-8 is gonna be the thing which will embed itself in pop culture alongside Stormtroopers, Darth Vader and lightsabers. Right now we can’t really tell whether Finn, Rey and Poe will go on to be the next Luke, Han and Leia, however I hope they do. Just from how things stand now, BB-8 is the one that millions of people went crazy over from the first two trailers (along with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber) and now he’s going to drive people even crazier for years to come with this awesome toy.

Well done, Disney.