![]() ![]() The toy uses the same app as BB-8 - you can just keep adding droids to the lineup, and once all the firmware is in place, they’ll be able to interact with one another and the films while you watch. But the toy does leverage a lot of the technology it built to make the original BB-8 far more well-rounded and lifelike than it had seemingly any right to be. Still, the sound effects are pulled entirely from Episode IV, meaning the R2 unit isn’t all battle worn from tangling with Jabba the Hutt and the like.Īs with other recent Sphero toys like Spider-Man and Lightning McQueen, R2 is a step away from the core tech on which the company was built. In fact, the startup’s CCO tells me that the team got full access to the Star Wars sound archive. Naturally, the company didn’t run into any of the same issues when looking for sound effects for its other new creation, the Sphero R2-D2. Instead, the company offers up a rough approximation of the sorts of beeps the robot will ultimately get, with a firmware upgrade bringing movie sounds down the line. In true Star Wars fashion, Disney has decided to leave something up to the imagination here. ![]() That’s not to say that it doesn’t work perfectly well (it does), it’s just that the droid doesn’t sound like it will in the movie. ![]() That means, among other things, that the company can essentially ship an unfinalized version. Like BB-8, the new droid will be updated regularly over the air. I should note that the version we got isn’t completely finished - nor is the version that goes on sale tomorrow as part of Force Friday. As with BB-8, controlling the little sphere takes some getting used to. There are some pre-programmed moves, or you can drive it around with controls on the smartphone app. We’ve been playing around with the BB-9E here at the office, and the experience is pretty much exactly what you get with its predecessor. That will also start shipping with new BB-8s starting today. The droid also ships with what the company calls an “augmented reality platform” that is essentially a recessed piece of plastic that allows the robot to roll in place so you can play an AR game around it without it actually having to move. For the most part, creating the dark side droid just involved some aesthetic changes - though the company has included some nice new touches, like illuminating lights on the head that are powered via induction from its base. From Sphero’s standpoint, this one wasn’t much of a leap. ![]()
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