Sphero Star Wars BB-8 Wars Toys, App Enabled Droid Robot White/Orange,R001ROW

Nice option and great qualityThank you it was a great birthday surprise for my 7 years son.

I don't like it Alot it dosent have interactive features and you will get bored within 1 day

Very fun, kids love it

Nifty toy to have, but setting the app you ise to control it is a little funky.

This was obviously used not brand new

I waited impatiently to get my own Sphero BB-8 App-Enabled Droid! I had watched the Sphero product videos and was amazed at what this cute little guy can do. I'm a gadget nerd and had to get my hands on this! Unfortunately, my expectations were too high.First, let me start off by saying BB-8 is very cute. That part is true. I love the look, the design and the shiny finish. It is made of plastic, but appears to be good quality. It's very user friendly and you can be playing with BB-8 within minutes. The only set-up required is to charge BB-8 and download the app.What can BB-8 do? Once you download the free app, you can:"Drive" This feature of the app lets you control BB-8 as if you were using a joystick."Message" Record and play holographic messages."Patrol" When you select patrol, BB-8 goes exploring on his own.BB-8 has the capability of responding to 10 preset voice commands by going to the settings in the app, such as "wake up", "watch out", "go explore" "go to sleep". I was expecting more than 10 voice commands. Siri has spoiled me. I have heard, but cannot verify, that the voice commands only work with iOS devices. If this is accurate, that's a huge drawback for anyone without an iPhone or iPad.BB-8 is very cute (I know, I'm saying it again), has a great personality and is entertaining to watch as he rolls across the floor. That is about the extent of the entertainment.I feel I was misled by the promotional videos. I was under the impression that BB-8 can "detect" when he is going to run into an object, stop himself and change directions; or, perhaps, adapt to his surroundings and learn where objects are. My impression of this came from the part in one of the promotional videos where BB-8 rolls up to a fishbowl with a goldfish in it, stops before hitting it and changes direction.When I set BB-8 to "patrol", he wobbles around a bit, rolls quickly across the floor, hits a wall or other object, wobbles around again, rolls across the floor, hits another object, etc. It's entertaining to watch and the expressive sounds are fun, but after about 5 minutes I'm bored. The worst part of this is BB-8's head falls off frequently when running into an object so I'm constantly following him around to put it back on. Also, if you have stairs in your house as I do, watch out! BB-8 will roll right down the stairs and I'm not sure if he's sturdy enough to bounce down the stairs and land on a tile floor without breaking. I've "saved" BB-8 an untimely death a few times now. Again, this falls under my misunderstanding of thinking BB-8 will adapt to his surroundings or detect a drop off. I have a robotic vacuum that didn't cost much more than BB-8 and has that very capability. It knows to turn around to avoid crashing down the stairs. It also vacuums right up to the edge of walls and furniture, but never actually touches it. Hmmmm.......Next is the issue with the sound. Again, my expectations being different than reality. I thought the sounds would come from BB-8, when really the sounds all come from your smartphone. Very disappointing! I'll set BB-8 on "patrol", set my smartphone down in one room and let BB-8 go explore the house. I don't get the enjoyment of hearing the sounds if I don't carry my phone with me and it's not as realistic even if your phone is right next to BB-8 because you can easily tell no sound is coming from him. This is perhaps the biggest disappointment.Finally, the holographic messages. I thought it would be like in the movie and BB-8 would project a recorded message onto the wall or what-not and play the recorded message. The message only shows up on your smartphone. When using the app through a Motorola smartphone (and others), this feature doesn't work at all. I don't know if it's something that there will be a fix for in the future? It does work on an iPhone and other devices, but is still disappointing that BB-8 isn't really projecting anything.This is a very expensive toy and the novelty wears off very fast, especially if you're expecting something more and it doesn't deliver. If you're a Star Wars Memorabilia collector, you've probably made up your mind and probably should purchase it. If you're like me and love Star Wars but aren't a collector and/or your a gadget nerd like me, you'll probably be disappointed. There's not much to it besides watching it roll around the floor, crashing into things.To summarize the Pros:Very Cute!Realistic looking miniature version of BB-8Great novelty item for Star Wars CollectorsCool GadgetEasy Set-UpFun Sound EffectsTo summarize the Cons:Entertainment won't last longDoesn't detect obstacles or objects in it's wayHead falls offDoesn't sense drops to prevent it from falling down the stairsSound doesn't come from droidHolographic messages are really just a video on your smartphone ~ if your smartphone is compatibleOnly 10 voice commandsVoice commands may only work with iOS devicesPrice is too high for what you really get

Bought this for grandchildren and think they will have fun with it. Reason for three stars is that I find on thick pile or even some thin carpets that it slows to a crawl if it moves at all. I have wall to wall carpeting with orientals and it has trouble climbing from the wall to wall onto an oriental. But on hardwood or other had flooring it is a speedy little droid. No instructions come with the droid other than pictures that do not tell you much. You can go on their site and click on links and only then will you find some useful information e.g., that you are supposed to set it on hard surface and attach head until magnets find it, that you need a full charge before first use, that it has a lithium battery so unlike NiCad does not need to be drained before recharging. That there is a reset button the side of the base. Have not had to use it but only found reference to that in comments under their link, not in link itself. That the charge to play ratio is 3:1 e.g., 3 hours of charging to 1 hour of play. The user manual unfortunately is filled with little but warnings and cautions and while that is useful an operating manual would be very helpful. I am still not sure I have found all the features. Sent an e mail to support about this and got no response other than an e mail telling me issue was solved! Not terribly supportive! I printed out the page from the links on their support page on the voice commands but an operating manual with all these that you could print would be a big help. Obviously you cannot be looking at their links at the same time you are operating the droid. Some have pointed out that it is small but I have no problem with that. Younger children will find easier to handle and on hard floors it does run like crazy. Wondered what my dog, a Jack Russell, would think of it but he tends to ignore it. Watches it go by but does not find interesting enough to chase. More curious than anything but leaves it alone. Have not had problem of head falling off that others have mentioned but can see if hit a wall or table leg at top speed how that could happen. I agree with comments that camera on the droid would have been nice feature but I do not find the fact that sound is on the app device bothers me. The hologram feature is interesting but limited in the built in features. I agree with those commenting that it does not seem to have any learning or adaptive features; if so I have not found them. True it will change directions if runs into an obstacle but it does not seem to learn anything in the process. Not sure what they are talking about when they say it learns and adapts. On the whole it is a fun toy even though pricey. Will be interested to see how my grandchildren like it and whether it is something they will play with or tire of it quickly. They say they will be adding features and will look forward to those upgrades.Added post Christmas. Gave this item to my adult son for Christmas to play with his young daughters. Found that they have added some added features. Before the only hologram was a figure but now they have added a starfighter. Of course you can add your own. Also they have added several new features in the drive setting. Wish they had BB-8 talking or making sounds more than it does. Know some are bothered by sounds not coming from BB-8 but the device used to control it but while that would be nice it does not bother me. The adults had fun playing with it and grandkids enjoyed watching and eventually they will learn to use it as well. Dogs (more than one at Christmas) just ignored it which is probably good! I was bit concerned that for the price this would be a one hour wonder. Fun for first hour and then put away. But that was not the case so far. As for size we all liked the smaller size. One thing we did find that it was easiest to wake up BB-8 either on its stand or on a table. Putting on floor you have to bend over too long for it to initialize. You have to hold the control app close to BB-8 to get it started. Once it is wake and ready to go putting on floor then works fine. As noted above works best on hardwood or other hard flooring and on some of my thicker carpets it would not go at all.Because of the fun my son and my daughter's boyfriend had with this at Christmas I am raising my stars from 3 to 4. Reason for only four is that support needs to be better and they need an operating manual although perhaps until they finish adding features you would have to update that but even an operating manual now with occasional supplement and revision would be helpful. Not all the features are intuitive or covered on their site. And using your app device to control it you cannot be going back and forth to the links for information if needed. Plus not everything is included there.

My child loved it

Good quality and on time

This is the coolest toy I've ever had, and I'm 33. The folks at Sphero clearly were in a rush to get the product out the door for the movie release, but they've kept their promise to update him, and I expect that they will continue to unlock the immense potential of this little guy in the coming months.Pros:-Sooooo cute! The little autonomous head movements make him feel alive. He's just full of personality.-Good battery life. I've yet to have him run down on me during a play session (though I don't think I've tried to push the hour mark)-Durable. The body is made of very thick plastic. He's taken some tumbles, and though the head will sometimes fall off in an impact, he doesn't have a scratch on him. He takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.-Controls are easy to learn and use.-Sphero continues to update the actions and sounds available.-Compatible with other programs like SPRK Lab and Tickle (iPhone only) for infinite programming and customization. This allows you to use BB-8 like a regular Sphero. He's more versatile this way, but not as cute. It's the head movements that really make him special, and older Sphero programs don't account for that added motion.- Voice commands are pretty fun, though there are only a few to choose from.Cons:- The current interface is very limited. There are 12 programmed actions, and you can of course drive BB-8 freely. There's no light functions to play with, and Sphero cannot put the program on an open platform because of the Star Wars licensing agreement.- BB-8 runs a bit more sluggish in his specific control program than he does in custom programs like SPRK Lab.- Patrol mode is worthless. BB-8 does not "remember" when he bumps into something, so he just keeps running into the walls and getting stuck in remote corners. Annoying. It would be so much better if he could somehow use distance from your phone or GPS to actually navigate spaces, like a Roomba does. This just may not be possible, but I hope to see better functionality in updates.- Hologram mode does not work that well on my Samsung S5; the image often doesn't line up correctly with the robot, so the image just randomly projects in space. The record function is pretty cool, though. It's just kind of glitchy right now. Hopefully Sphero will update this function.- No "follow me" or "come here" function. This seems like it would be pretty simple to implement. Another function I hope to see in an update.-It would have been SUPER COOL to have a little camera in the head. I know, power issues, it would be too heavy, etc. But I can dream, can't I?Overall, this is a really excellent little piece of technology, but its capabilities are not even close to being fully utilized at the moment. With some added voice and command functionality, and improvement of the patrol mode, I might just never put him down. Well done, Sphero. I look forward to your next updates for my little droid buddy.