It's no secret that the first breakout star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a little droid named BB-8.
Like R2-D2 from the Star Wars movies and Chopper from Star Wars Rebels, BB-8 is the latest adorable droid to make a splash in the Star Wars universe, and based on just two brief teaser trailers, the little rolling droid -- who looks to be made up of one big ball and a half-ball -- has quickly become one of this year's most popular movie characters. (We're sensing a real Rocket Raccoon and Groot vibe here.)
One of the coolest things we've learned about BB-8 -- other than the fact that the droid belongs to Daisy Ridley's character in the movie -- is that BB-8 is all practical and not digital, meaning they actually built the little dude (or dudette), revealing a version of the droid in the flesh (so to speak) over the weekend at Star Wars Celebration.
How BB-8 works
It's still a bit of a mystery as to how the droid actually works, though we know it was developed by Colorado-based tech start-up Sphero, which creates stuff like this.
The website Jalopnik has its own nerdy theory, as shown in the below graphic.
That's all great, but when can I own the toy?
Of course BB-8 is bound to be one of the year's most popular toys, and a hot holiday item at that. There will be many different kinds of BB-8 toys heading our way in the near future, but one of the coolest options was just announced via the New York Times, which confirms that Disney worked with Sphero to create a BB-8 toy the size of a Granny Smith apple that you remote-control through an app on your mobile device.
While there are no images or video of that toy yet, there is this video of someone who created a BB-8 using the Sphero technology. (via Slashfilm).
No dates have been revealed just yet (and we're still curious to see what BB-8's Halloween costume will look like), but we'll hook you up with those details when they're available.
Oh, just let me watch the teaser trailers again, please
Sure, here they are as one combined mega-teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which arrives in theaters on December 18.
