BB-8 By Sphero Review Part II: 3 Months Later
Believe it or not, BB-8 remains part of our everyday lives three months after we published our first review. This little guy sits charging next to my television – I'm just a few feet away from him right now. That's a real rarity when it comes to reviews of oddities. With a smartphone, sure – it's not unheard of that I might stick with a smartphone for months and months. But a toy? In this case, even though I've reviewed products galore in the meantime, this BB-8 by Sphero toy has remained in heavy circulation.
This is one of those devices I call a survivor. When I first reviewed BB-8, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was still three months away. Today – the day this review is being published – the film has been in some theaters for 24 hours already.
BB-8 by Sphero Review: the best Star Wars toy ever made
Why – besides the fact that this toy is the best Star Wars toy ever made – is it that this little guy has remained a toy to be played with here in my household?
Partially because my 4-year-old is in love with him. Mostly because he keeps changing. Sphero has been great about sending updates to the device, and not just updates to the device's ability to function properly.
When we started with BB-8, he was able to project a single hologram – an X-Wing starfighter from The Force Awakens. Now he's able to project a whole collection of awesome messages. One of these was so awesome we had to make it its own article – Captain Phasma herself!
BB-8 can drone about by himself, deciding which way he'll roll based on what his sensors (mostly involving running into things) tell him. You can control him remotely, too, but his remote rolling around and reacting is what makes him feel alive.
This is as close to a real-deal fully-operational BB-8 you're going to get (unless you're the sort of person that can make a real one, of course.) And it's still very easily going to be the most must-have toy on every Star Wars fan's list for quite some time to come – of that you can be sure.
Now you'll just need the droid's luck to find one in a store. Cross your circuits and hope!