Sphero BB-8 Star Wars robot: "the drone you were looking for", but tiny

Sphero just revealed their brand new BB-8 robot, a tiny replica of the droid being used in the next Star Wars movie. It is truly the cutest little tech gadget we have seen in a long time, and it will drive fans of the franchise completely nuts. I have personally never been so eager to spend $149 on a toy!

Remember the second Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer? We caught a glimpse of a tiny robot that happened to look very much like an overgrown Sphero robot (otherwise known as the ball thingie you can control with your phone) with a head on top of it. It turns out it actually was pretty much a large Sphero, as the company later revealed they were responsible for the making of this intriguing character.

The head has its own set of wheels and uses them to stay on top of the sphere. Just like any other Sphero toy, the BB-8 android can be controlled with your smartphone, but it goes far beyond that type of basic functionality.

This little guy is as smart as these toys get. The BB-8 can learn as you interact more with it. The BB-8 can literally recognize your voice and react to it. In addition, users can set it on patrol mode and tell it to follow a certain route. Not enough features? There’s also a messaging mode, which would allow you to create, send and receive digital holographic messages using your phone’s camera.

All of this fun won’t come cheap, though. As we mentioned above, the Sphero BB-8 will cost $149. We are not sure when you will be able to buy it, but you can register to get notifications straight from Sphero’s website. Who is buying one? Maybe later on they can make a bigger one. Now, that would be interesting.