Popular toy company Sphero unveiled their new droid forForce Friday IIand it’s the evil twin of BB-8 as featured inThe Last Jedi. Sphero released the popular app-controlled BB-8 to coincide with the release ofThe Force Awakensalmost 2 years ago and it works mechanically just how you would imagine BB-8 to work, rolling around and interacting with his surroundings. you may even watchThe Force Awakenswith the toy and it reacts to certain scenes in the movie, which the new evil twin will most certainly do when the movie comes out.
The new droid is calledBB-9Eand was unveiled bySphero’s website. BB 9-E is just like BB-8, the rolling robot who melted everyone’s hearts inThe Force Awakens, but with a flat head that vaguely resembles a probe droid fromThe Empire Strikes Back. Just like BB-8, he’s a droid whose magnetic head sits atop a rolling spherical body, and he makes robot noises except this time he’s black and gray to represent being evil. It’s like he started listening to Bauhaus and started wearing only black while BB-8 more than likely only likes to listen to happier tunes.
The Last JedidirectorRian Johnsonjoked on Twitter that the BB-9E name is a lot better than what they called the droid on set. Johnson explains.
“Just be thankful we didn’t stick with his obscenely adorable on set nickname, BB-H8.”
BB-H8 is actually quite a good name for the evil twin of BB-8. The BB-9E droid is reportedly a First Order maintenance worker who keeps all of their starships and machinery operational. It could become disgruntled with its position and join the Rebellion likeFinn, but it’s too early to make such an assumption.
The new goth BB-9E will be sold for $149.99 while BB-8 will get a discount of $20 in honor of Force Friday. If the BB-9E is anything like the BB-8 that Sphero makes, it will be awesome. The app-controlled droid rolls around using physics and a magnetic head that can do a number of different commands and is almost life-like in the way that it interacts with its environment, which makes the steep price tag reasonable. Sphero also makes a Force Band that allows you to control your droids with the wave of your hand after you learn the ways of the Force.
ForStar Warsfans who are on the fence about buying newStar Wars: The Last Jedimerchandise in fear of spoiling any of the upcoming movie’s plot, fear not. Rian Johnson also took to Twitter this morning to reassure fans that Lucasfilm and Disney worked really hard to not include any spoiler forThe Last Jediin the new merchandise and marketing campaign. The only things that are revealed now are new characters and starships, which is hardly a spoiler. Along with the rest of the Force Friday materials, the BB-9E droid will officially be available tomorrow, September 1st. In the meantime, check out some video of the BB-9E in action below.
