Droid Depot at Black Spire Outpost on Batuu

Mattopia Jones and the Black Spire Outpost

Black Spire Outpost, Batuu (Photo taken with the iPhone 12 Pro Max)

All photos taken with the Sony A7R4 unless otherwise noted in the captions

Droid Depot
Black Spire Outpost, Batuu

“Right now, Droid Depot is a miss. But, as these immersive experiences evolve, it’s exciting to think about what Droid Depot might offer a few years from now.”
Mattopia Jones

Droids 'r' Us

At first, Matty thought Droid Depot was really cool. Make your own R2 or BB unit.

To think, it was only four years ago when he went to Disneyland and it was “cool” to make custom droid action figures.

Old-school droids from Disneyland
Photo courtesy of the Mattsonian Archives

Those droids could be designed for laughs, with Mickey Mouse ears and Star Wars baseball caps. Truly a novelty.

Now, the Droid Depot at the Black Spire Outpost takes that concept to a whole new level.

The droids are much larger, electronic and remote-controlled; they light up, make sounds and roll across the floor. Plus, the optional bundled package includes a nifty, branded Industrial Automation backpack with a flap that can open to allow the droid to view what’s going on around Batuu.

And, from what Matty overheard, those droids can interact with certain elements in the Batuu environment.

Nifty.

But then Matty started to think about it a little more.

Those are old-school remote control units; single purpose, to control the droid.

That’s when a harsh observation set in. It was so sad to think this is the state of things after the immaculate job Sphero did with R2-D2, BB-8 and other droids. They were app-controlled and could be programmed. Granted, they were — at least originally — twice the price of the Droid Depot droids, which go for $99 in the base package (droid only) and $165 with the backpack. Plus there are other options to purchase, including an assortment of “personality” chips (the sounds they make, basically), a bar unit for the R2 unit (similar to R2-D2’s unit on Jabba’s barge in Return of the Jedi) and jet and gun extensions for the R2 units.

Still. Nothing on the order of what could be done with the Sphero units.

So, after almost taking the plunge, Matty realized the utility of the droid would wear off quickly with a couple Sphero droids already at home. Plus, Savi’s workshop was calling his name.