Let’s face it: we all have our Star Wars memories. Whether you’ve been a fan from the beginning or a recent one, we have those close to our hearts. Ever since Star Wars came back to us, Disney pushed all kinds of merchandise to the moon! It became an event called Force Friday that started two years ago before The Force Awakens came out. Despite the controversy with the lack of Rey-related merchandise, Disney came back with Force Friday II to coincide with The Last Jedi. Because of that, I decided to find out the 5 best Star Wars gadgets to come out around this time!
Sphero BB-9E
After the success of Sphero’s BB-8 App-Enabled Droid and the Force Band, it’s now time for the First Order to have their way. Sphero announced the BB-9E App-Enabled Droid! It’s basically the same as the BB-8 one except for two distinct features. First, the rolling base is actually connected to the head via magnets. This means that power can go to the head which lights up the LEDs. Second is that it’s ALL BLACK. I honestly like my gadgets in black and the BB-9E really looks sleek in black. This is available for $149.99 in the Sphero store.
Sphero R2D2
BB-9E’s not alone! Sphero also announced the R2-D2 App-Enabled Droid! It may not roll around the room like BB-8, but it helps that it’s one of most iconic parts of Star Wars! You can let the R2-D2 droid move the same way as in the movies! Like the BB-9E Sphero droid, the R2-D2 droid has LEDs on its head that lights up the same way as the movies! It even waddles like the R2-D2 in the movies! All Sphero Star Wars droids have the Watch With Me feature that lets them react to things that happen while watching the movie! This one’s a bit expensive than the others at $179.99. Get this from the Sphero store HERE.
Hasbro Force Link
Do you still collect Star Wars action figures? Then this one’s for you!
Hasbro released new Star Wars: The Last Jedi action figures that have NFC chips in them. Force Link uses a special wristband that detects those chips. Just put the figure near the wristband and it makes sounds! If it’s a character, it speaks phrases. If it’s a vehicle, it puts out sound effects of the vehicle.
You can get the Force Link Starter Pack for $25 or the BB-8 Playset for $200. More info on the cool action figures including that Kylo Ren one HERE.
Star Wars Jedi Challenges
I have to admit that I really want to know what it feels like to wield a lightsaber! With the power of augmented reality, Lenovo brings that experience to life with Jedi Challenges! Using a headset, a tracking beacon, and a controller that’s shaped like a lightsaber, you can now feel like you’re a Jedi! Despite the many things you need, it’s still pretty cool to do this!
This is personally MY pick for one of the best Star Wars gadgets ever! Here’s more info on how it works HERE.
Lenovo Yoga 920 Star Wars Rebel and Imperial Editions
I can’t believe that we’re still talking about laptops in 2017. Well, I don’t really mind since this one really looks gorgeous! Besides the Jedi Challenges experience, Lenovo put out special edition versions of the Yoga 920. They are both Star Wars-related: the Rebel edition and the Imperial edition. The special thing about Lenovo’s Yoga laptops is that you can move the screen up to 180° for use as a tablet! It also has far-field microphones so that this laptop can hear you command Cortana! Here’s more info about it on The Verge.
And there you have it! Those are the 5 best Star Wars gadgets in 2017 that I found! Anything that I missed? Let me know in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!
I love many items from Sphero.. i saw their cute lightning mcqueen remote control car recently and I was so amused by it .. not really i die hard fan of star wars but I would like to have that R2D2… my friend has their BB-8 and it looks amazing
I love Star Wars and I definitely need more Star Wars gadgets. R2D2 is definitely my favorite character from Star Wars. By far. Haha. The sphero looks great. Can’t wait for the new star wars movie!
This reminds me of the Bb8 robot my son asked me to buy for him. I didnt buy him one because it is too expensive. But when we visited HK disneyland, he saw the same robot and asked my mom instead to buy it for him. My mom, who loves to spoil her apos, bought the BB8. What I would like to drive at is that sometimes, tend to buy items because they reflect or remind us of our favorites. These gadgets are no exception. If I have the money, I too would buy one because as youve said, we all have our Star Wars memories.
I agree with Berlin. Even though we have Star Wars fans in the family, we still need to weigh if we really need to buy these kinds of items for them. This is true especially if we have young kids. It’s not practical. Kids sometimes break expensive items in just minutes.