However much we may love Star Wars, it is largely a merchandising juggernaut, and the latest addition to that juggernaut has arrived due to “Force Friday II“.
It’s an evil BB-8.
You can tell because it’s awash in Imperial/First Order monochrome and not as rounded as Poe Dameron’s copilot. Also because its name is BB-9E and the “E” clearly stands for “evil.”
Also maybe because its sensor eye is weirdly reminiscent of HAL, and its head looks like an upside down cereal bowl.
Or maybe it’s just evil because Sphero has created another smartphone-controlled version like their BB-8 model, and people will have to shell out $149 bucks all over again if they want to start a droid battling ring like the one that C-3PO and R2-D2 get thrown into in that one Clone Wars episode.
No, honestly, I’ve figured it out–this is the seed of a TIE fighter. It will slowly expand into a ship if you leave it in a cargo bay for a lengthy period of time. Before it’s allowed to grow into its potential, it has to do a lot of espionage, probably.
I wonder if it’s mean to all the mouse droids.
Odd that an evil droid has a name that partly sounds like “benign.” (Robot B-9 is the name of the Lost in Space Robot — actually the Class B-9-M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot, to give its full name from the script. The android prototype B-4 in Star Trek: Nemesis was also going to be called B-9 at first, as a pun on “benign” instead of “before.”)
It sorta reminds me of V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. from The Black Hole.
It just wants you to think he’s on the right side.
Apparently the working name for this droid was BB-H8, which is maybe too on-the-nose, but still much more fun than random BB-9E. (io9 just had a little article about this also)
Maybe it should’ve been BB-0N. As in “Bad to the B0Ne.”
@@.-@ LOL,
Just another way to separate people from their wallets :) You think Disney has made back it investment money yet? Don’t answer that was a rhetorical question.
I will say that the design (the round body with the kind of boxy head) actually is a pretty neat blending of OT Imperial style and the more modern look we see n the sequel trilogy droids.
“I want that” -said with a Preston Idaho Accent
So, black is evil… hmm…
No, black is the color of some uniforms from the Empire and the First Order, and this droid follows their color scheme.
Sure, it’s just a utility droid, but it repairs your starship evilly…
So its name is “Be Benign-y”. Hmm.
The Rebel forces have defeated the Death Star with R2D2, then they defeated Star-killer with BB-8. It was an eventuality that they would build their own droid soon. Nothing else seems to be working to beat the rebels.
FWIW, there’s a short animation (“Hey You”) with a show-down between BB-8 and BB-9E on the Disney XD YouTube channel, part of the “Star Wars Blips” series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJw1W7UZUL4
And if you looked at the minifigs associated with the new super-gigantic Millenium Falcon LEGO set and wondered “what’s a porg?” there’s a video for that, too (“Keep Away”).
@10KirthGirtsome, I read that in Dr. Doofensmirtz’s voice, just saying. ;-)