Since 2017, the Vespa-maker Piaggio's Fast Forward division has been exploring a unique way to cut down on car trips: Building robots that can follow you around and carry your stuff. We called its original Gita (pronounced "jee-tah," Italian for "trip") robot an attractive rolling porter, but its size and initial 3,250 price made it more of a robo-curio than something you'd actually want to buy. The company followed that up with the Gitamini, a smaller and slightly cheaper 1,850 model, but even that remains niche. Most people just don't have thousands of dollars to spend on a cute follow bot -- but the calculation may be different for Star Wars fans. So it's not a huge surprise to see Piaggio Fast Forward debut a special Star Wars edition robot: the G1T4-M1N1. It's basically just a 2,875 version of the Gitamini (which now sells for 2,475) with Star Wars decals and sound effects.

If you thought Sphero's original BB-8 app-enabled robot was a blast back in 2015, just wait'til you see their take on Star Wars' most beloved droid: R2-D2. MSRP; same price on Amazon and the Apple store) is here in advance of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which continues the sci-fi saga's main storyline, and it's just as immediately impressive as BB-8. It'll cruise around your home with ease using the iPhone/iPad companion app, the head rotates and reacts just like the real droid in the movie, and it even has movie-perfect sound effects and little animation routines. R2-D2 is not alone this time around, either, as the First Order BB-9E ($149.95 MSRP; same price on Amazon and the Apple store) droid from the new movie--essentially an evil version of BB-8, it seems--has joined the Sphero crew.

Androids are robots or artificial people that are meant to resemble humans. They are meant to look like us and behave like us and the technology is advancing every day. In the Star Wars galaxy Droids are a part of everyday life. They are mechanical beings that possess artificial intelligence and are used for all kinds of purposes from communicating with vaporators to waging galactic warfare. At the time the Death Star was attacking the Rebel Base on Yavin, Droids had been in use for over 5000 years.