Tonight at midnight in your city’s time zone, Force Friday will officially commence and a slew of new Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens toys will land on stores shelves. There are toys and then there are toys, and of all the toys hitting the market my money is on the BB-8 Sphero toy to become one of the hottest gifts this holiday season.
BB-8, as you surely already know, is the new astromech droid that J.J. Abrams is introducing into the Star Wars universe. Rather than looking like a walking trash can as his predecessor R2-D2 does, BB-8’s body is a sphere that rolls along the ground while his head smoothly glides on the sphere as if it were slightly hovering above it.
A company named Sphero that has been selling a remote-controlled rolling ball partnered with Disney and Lucasfilm to develop a new version of the technology based on BB-8. The results, as seen in the video below, are absolutely amazing. I’m predicting the app-controlled little droid with bluetooth, virtual hologram video messaging, autonomous driving, inductive recharging and more will fly off the shelves even at $150 a pop.
The BB-8 Sphero toy is scheduled to go up for sale starting at midnight. Amazon.com is one of the retail partners and it will be available for sale here once Force Friday officially begins.
