Star Wars fans to get their own (near) life-size BB-8 drones

Star Wars: The Force Awakens fans will soon be able to take the film's biggest star home with them: a near life-sized BB-8 robot. Spin Master revealed the remote-controlled drone at this year's Toy Fair, held in New York.

Spin Master's BB-8 stands 19in (48cm) tall and has been designed in conjunction with designers at Lucasfilm to make it as close to the droid of the films as possible. Tech website Mashable reports that the BB-8 will come with a controller, but can also follow voice commands allowing its owners to call the robot to their side and tell it to follow them around.

The first rumours of the Spin Master BB-8 came from the Disney enthusiast website Inside the Magic, but Disney and Spin Master both kept silent about the droid until the show.

Biggest BB-8 yet

This is not the first BB-8 robot to appear on shelves. Sphero – which created the BB-8 robots used in the filming of Force Awakens – released its own miniature model. This little drone runs automatically, rushing over floors and beeping endearingly. However, Spin Master's voice-controlled model – while smaller than the real thing – is the closet fans are likely to get to have Poe's best friend run (or rather roll) around after them.

The Spin Master BB-8 is due to be released in the US in autumn for $180 (£125).