Movies

Star Wars VR Droid Repair Bay just revealed Last Jedi models with ILMxLAB

By Chris Burns/

The folks at ILMxLAB revealed a new VR experience today with Lucasfilm and Nissan in tow. The application is Star Wars: DROID REPAIR BAY : Astro-Mechanic for The Resistance, and it includes a few odd droid models we've never seen before. As this is the post-Return of the Jedi era of Star Wars, this means we're seeing lots of BB-unit droids and a new mechanic droid well advanced beyond what's seen in the first three movies.

The app has users dropped into a Resistance-ran astromech repair bay onboard "General Leia's ship." According to the official release, "Participants will be completely enveloped in VR, using their own movements to interact with and repair BB-8 and his droid friends. Star Wars: Droid Repair Bay is the official VR experience connected to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and will see the debut of brand new astromechs, complete with their own unique personalities and original designs."

Based solely on what we're seeing in the preview images, we can safely assume the collection of BB-unit droids present in the rest of the film trilogy will be diverse. Thus far we'd only been made aware of two – BB-8 and the new First Order black-metal BB-unit, BB-9E.

Above and/or below you'll see a set of droids with rolling, spherical bodies and an array of different heads. You'll also get a glimpse of canon-friendly BB-8 innards. From our own exploration of rolling sphere robot insides with the Sphero SPRK, we know that the most excellent real rolling BB-8 is constructed just a tiny bit differently.

This app is "coming soon" The app is coming to Samsung Gear devices as well as the HTC Vive, first, but it'll likely spread elsewhere eventually. The first places most people will be able to experience this oddity will be inside Nissan dealerships. If that sounds like a strange pairing to you, you're not alone.

But remember how intertwined this car brand is with Lucasfilm – they've already cross-branded a real-deal vehicle. Remember the Nissan Rogue, Rogue One special edition? Not only did they make that vehicle for production, they sold them at dealerships, too!

The differences between the standard Rogue and the Rogue One edition are few. Have a peek at our Nissan Rogue One article from 2016 to learn more about this vehicle. And keep it tuned to your VR device's respective app store – this droid app is coming soon!



ALSO: Don't forget there's a "hyper reality" Star Wars experience coming to Disney parks soon. Have a peek at a preview above.

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