With its real-life debut at Star Wars Celebration last week, BB-8 is already bound to be among the top-selling Star Wars toys when The Force Awakens is released later this year. While a startup made the robot come alive, tech-savvy fans are already creating their own versions of the instantly lovable new droid.
Industrial designer Christian Poulsen wanted his own BB-8, and instead of laboring over the project for weeks, he completed it in about a day. Taking a leaf out of Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger’s book, Poulsen looked to Sphero, a company that makes a robotic ball controlled by smartphone, for the largest chunk of his model.
Using a Sphero 1.0, polyurethane foam with spackle, and neodymium magnets, he photographed the step-by-step process, and it’s only a matter of splitting the ball, inserting the proper magnets, and putting it back together again. From there, it’s mainly in the painting detail.
And look at it go!
Where do I sign up to buy one?
H/T Make | Illustration by Max Fleishman