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Spin Master's life-size BB-8 is too cute and too real
We all fell in love with Sphero's tiny BB-8 droid when it launched last year. But, after you finally saw The Force Awakens, maybe you found yourself wishing for something a bit... bigger? Spin Master has answered that desire at this year's Toy Fair with the introduction of a life-size BB-8 droid. It might not be controlled with an app, but it makes up for it with voice control.
Star Wars: The Old Republic handing out free astromech pets
The internet and geek culture sure love its made-up holidays, doesn't it? And so, as we are on the verge of Star Wars Day ("May the fourth be with you"), Star Wars: The Old Republic is preparing to celebrate by giving away adorable blue astromech droid pets to its playerbase. Players who log in any time from April 29th through May 4th will be able to claim the MT-4T droid minipet. SWTOR will also be hosting a double-XP weekend starting Friday, May 2nd, at 2:00 p.m. EDT and ending on Monday, May 5th, at 3:00 a.m. EDT.
R2-D2 Dark Roast Edition makes your coffee astromech-style, puts brew into 'homebrew' (video)
Has there been a gaping R2-D2-shaped hole in your gadget life ever since the Motorola Droid 2 R2-D2 Edition bowed out? The good crew at Instructables knows your plight and has designed the R2-D2 Dark Roast Edition to give your astromech desires an almost literal jolt of energy. The team's do-it-yourself project modifies a BUNN industrial coffee maker -- no slow-drip home unit here -- with a float valve and a generous mix of aluminum, brass, copper and steel welded on top. If you're particularly ambitious, you can even make R2 bleep his delight when you've got a fresh pot lined up. Constructing a Dark Roast Edition requires a good amount of electrical and metalworking savvy, but it might be worth your time while you wait for C-3PO to reach stores.
SWTOR finds a companion for the Jedi knight
In SWTOR's Deceived trailer, there was an odd shot of the Jedi leader giving a signal to an astromech droid. Per usual, the writers at BioWare do not put anything into their trailers without a specific reason. This past Friday, that little droid was revealed to be a companion for the Jedi knight class, named T7-O1 (tee seven - oh one). This little bot calls back to both T3-M4 of Knights of the Old Republic and, of course, R2-D2 of the Star Wars movies. In fact, his attitude is very similar to R2-D2's. According to the companion page on SWTOR's official site, he considers his owners to be more like partners and less like masters. T7-O1 was activated over two centuries before the Treaty of Coruscant and has yet to be memory-wiped in that whole time. He remembers every organic he has ever worked with, from the petty smugglers, to Senator Oodora of Manaan, to Captain Nico Okarr, and to Jedi Master Ven Zallow, whom we witnessed being killed by Darth Malgus in the previously mentioned trailer. For your Jedi knight character, you can expect this droid to be an invaluable source of information. His surveillance, cartography, and data-slicing skills are unmatched. BioWare has not revealed where your Jedi knight will meet T7-O1, just like every other companion mentioned for this game, but rest assured, he's waiting for you somewhere in that galaxy far, far away.
The Game Archaeologist and the Star of the Galaxies: My expedition
After cracking open the history textbooks on one of the most famous (and infamous) MMOs of the past decade and talking to two groups of crack veterans, it was finally time for the Game Archaeologist to strap on his lightwhip, kick over the nearest Astromech droid, and dive headfirst into Star Wars Galaxies. Although I've been interested in Star Wars Galaxies since 2003, its apparent complexity scared me off back in the beginning (when I made the choice to scoot over to the equally complex Anarchy Online during that time). Later on, I felt as if it was too late to jump on the SWG bandwagon, feeling as if the entire Galaxies playerbase was finishing up their Master's degrees and I'd be entering the equivalent of preschool. Fortunately, this article series gave me an excellent excuse to stop coming up with excuses and simply go for it -- and with the counsel of several friends and Massively writers who know the SWG ropes, I found my footing just fine. Click on the first picture of the gallery to join me on my journey to the stars -- and don't forget to read my impressions under each screenshot! %Gallery-95887%
