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Legions of movie fans collectively rejoiced last Thursday when the rolling droid featured in The Force Awakens trailer was revealed as an honest to goodness, working robot.
Those cheers are likely to reach reach a deafening crescendo as the company behind the BB-8 droid has announced it is making a toy version folks will actually be able to buy.
Sphero, the robotics firm in charge of the project is teaming up with Disney to make a consumer BB-8 that’ll probably end up being the hottest movie tie-in toy since Buzz Lightyear crashed his space ship on Andy’s bed.
The partnership will ”deliver an incredible and authentic BB-8 experience,” Sphero says, but there’s no word on pricing and availability. The company has set up a landing page for anyone interested in buying a BB-8 toy (i.e. everyone) to register their interest.
Read more: Star Wars Battlefront release date confirmed
If you can’t wait until the new droid arrives, you can build your own using a first generation Sphero and a few magnets.
You can check out industrial designer Christian Poulsen’s methodology at Makezine while the video is below.
Meanwhile, we'll have to add this to our new 5 bits of Star Wars tech that are actually happening feature.
