How fans will build their own droids on the grounds of Star Wars at Disney

When fans arrive on the new Star Wars-themed Disney Parks grounds, they will be able to create their own custom droids. From a height of about 18 inches, these toys will be fully remotely controlled. With additional improvements, these droids will also be able to react to the park itself.

Disney Park staff was present at this year's Star Wars celebration in Chicago to introduce the new toys. They explained that guests will be able to build them at Droid Depot, a new store that will open at Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in Anaheim, California on May 31. An identical store will also open at Galaxy's Edge, in Orlando, Florida. 29.

Guests can build a R2 or BB droid. A remote control will allow the droids to move forward and backward and turn left and right. Remote controls will also trigger additional accessories, such as sandblasters and a small collection of dummy tools. The entire system works with AA and AAA batteries.

The experience will allow customers to fully customize the look of their droid with multicolored pieces, including an badortment of panels, stickers and leg supports. In addition, the droids will also accept a tiny card called a personality chip. The original droids will always sound like R2-D2 or BB-8, but personality tokens can be added to modify these sounds. Three tokens will be available, one for the Resistance, Smuggler and First Order factions.

Once installed, the personality chips will also allow the droids to react to their journey through the theme park. For example, staff stated that droids with Resistance personality chips would be happy when they were in areas of the park controlled by good forces and frightened in areas controlled by the First Order.

Additional accessories include a drink tray, identical to the one that R2-D2 carried on the sailing barge of Jabba Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. There is also a child-sized backpack with a small flap at the top that will allow the droids to look and whistle directly into your ear.

The team also introduced three non-customizable droids. The first was a little black mouse droid, with a more limited set of features, including a set of hidden toy missiles. R3-X, best known to fans of Disney Star Tours under the Rex name, will also be available. As he will work in the Edge's Galaxy canteen as a DJ, his fully functional robot will also act as a Bluetooth speaker.

Finally, Galaxy's Edge will offer a bigger toy based on C-3PO. Standing next to a R2 unit, it seems to have the right size. Goldenrod has a lot of cool features, including removable members. The best part, however, is the button on his chest. When pressed, he tells the entire Star Wars saga in Ewokese, as he did in the iconic scene of Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi.

Price information was not available.

Photograph of Charlie Hall / Polygon