BB-8 Interactive Droid By Spinmaster Is The Perfect May 4th Companion

Celebrate May 4th aka May The Fourth Be With You, with this perfect little companion, the BB-8 interactive droid by Spinmaster.

BB-8 rolled into our household and took over in the cute department. His screen-like accuracy fit in right with the rest of our Star Wars collection. His realistic movements, lights, and vocal responses feel like they’re straight out of The Force Awakens.

Straight out of the box, the BB-8 interactive droid requires his head and body to be charged for at least three hours. After that, the only hard part is learning how to put his head on correctly. The trick is putting his head on and rolling it around until you feel the magnets in the head and the magnets in the body line up and secure to each other. It takes a bit of practice but don’t worry….you will get plenty, unfortunately.

The Good of the BB-8 Interactive Droid

• BB-8’s follow mode is worthy of a Jedi and he doesn’t follow you so close that if you stop he runs into you.
• BB-8 is a pretty close replica to the screen version with his head movements, lights, and sounds.
• Droid Please! is my favorite voice command because it makes me laugh. BB-8 does this funny motion with his head like an annoyed teenager.
• The batteries last for a few hours of play time. If you don’t touch BB-8 for three months, it’s recommended you give him a full charge to keep his battery at optimal performance.
• If you want to play with BB-8 without controlling him, BB-8 has a roaming feature where he just takes to the room by himself with some preset animations. It’s like having a dog or a cat just wander around the house.
• BB-8’s other neat features include the follow feature, vocal responses to where’s Rey, Where’s Poe, Stormtroopers, and Do you know Kylo Ren?.

The Dark Side of the BB-8 Interactive Droid

• The body is smooth plastic and that makes it difficult to control BB-8 on anything that isn’t carpeted. I’ve run him through the gauntlet on tile and he works okay but he has a tendency to spin out if you go to fast with him.
• Apparently, BB-8 can lose his head easier than a purple lightsaber to a bounty hunter’s neck. This can be a pain when you’re learning to drive BB-8 because if he runs into any walls, his head pops off without much effort.
• If you do run your BB-8 on anything but carpet, he will scratch up easily. In cosplay, we call this weathering. Personally, I feel a little scruffs and scratches makes him more screen accurate.

After seeing the hours of fun my family has had playing with BB-8, I’d say he’s worth $94 (the current price on Amazon). The interactive droid stays charged long enough for some decent play time and he makes a fun conversational toy when people come over (especially if you have him on “roam” when they arrive).

Disclaimer: GeekMom received a review copy.