Always wanted to build your own Star Wars droid? Now it’s your time! The New York-based startup littleBits is known for their STEAM products which often have a positive educative effect on the subjects Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. They have now packaged a Star Wars DIY bundle so you can build cool droid like R2-D2.
It’s called the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit, and while one could think it primarily for kids, I am quite confident that adults would also have a lot of fun building droids with it. It looks quite sophisticated, to be honest. The robot-building kit comes with more than 30 parts (batteries included), and it works with a free app that is available for iOS and Android devices. It could be yours for roughly about $100.
What’s in the box?
When you open the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit, you get some cosmetic items and some technical items. If you combine them all, you can build and program your own Star Wars droid. This often seems to be an R2-D2 replica, but you can customize your droid as well. It even comes with a soundboard, loaded with authentic droid sounds.
The technical components consist of a control hub, a DC motor, a power unit, a proximity sensor, a servo, and some wiring. All these can be reused and reconfigured to build different kinds of droids. There are three sticker sets included, with the primary colors there being blue, red, white with a bit of black.
What’s the app for?
The app includes instructions and tips for building your DIY Star Wars droid. Beyond that, it comes with more than 16 missions to complete. Some of these missions are about building a self-navigating droid, sending secret messages just like that legendary “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” from Leia Organa, and completing an obstacle course.
There is a lot to do, and every mission needs some thinking and tinkering to complete the challenge. If the kids don’t have an own smartphone yet, you can lend them yours, but other than that they can do everything on their own and don’t need a parent to figure out some of the technical stuff for them.
Of course, you need to pay attention that the smallest of padawans and younglings don’t try to eat the little parts but that’s a given all the time, right?
Summary
I think this is a rather neat product and while it might not be cheap, I think it’s still good value looking at the tech that is included. Love it and keen on more Star Wars goodies? Have a look at our recent article “10 Star Wars Fan Items You Might Love” for more and don’t forget the Lenovo Star Wars AR game which will be released shortly.
YouTube: Build Your Own Star Wars Droid (DIY Kit by littleBits)
Photo credit: littleBits
