A few days in and there are hundreds of little Droids running (or rolling) around New Zealand + we expect many more will be part of an awesome Christmas Day!

Our first impression, the little guy sure is cute! Now that we've had a decent play with him though here's a bit more on what we've experienced.

• Water doesn't seem to phase him: it's been pretty grim outside the last few days and we have had him out in all the muck. This led us to a full blown swimming test and he's amazing! He totally keeps his little head above water and swims like a champion. It is possible that there is some metal in his head rollers that could rust later so we don't recommend doing this right now – if it turns out to be savvy though we can't wait for summer and pool patrol!

• Battery life is looking very solid: We left him on patrol and he was still roaming around until the phone battery ran dry (a good hour later) – we will start this test again with a fully changed BB8 + the phone plugged in to really know it what we can expect here. Sphero, if you're reading this it would be cool if he could keep patrolling even if the app gets turned off :)

We have discovered a little work around though. If you flick your device into airplane mode you can exit the app and still have him patrolling. :)

• Multiplayer fun: We have had three so far racing around together with no cross over like we sometimes get when testing RC cars – bluetooth for the win!

• He's also pretty durable: Our first table top accident had him plummeting a good 70cm onto the floor below (he bent his aerial but it did not snap!)

• He's more than just a collectible, make sure your device is compatible: We were pretty amazed when we heard a Galaxy Tab wasn't compatible with the app currently so it's best to start checking your devices now, to do this visit this blog from the device you are intending to use and click this app download link – it will automatically take you to the download page (Google Play or Apple App Store) so you can check.

• Connection via the app, we might have missed a step: First time we went to connect to BB-8 we had no problems at all, later on though we found we couldn't re-connect. We ending up re-activating him via the base then held him near the phone as before and we re-connected. The next time though we were able to re-activate him without the base. This presents an interesting dilemma when it comes to taking BB-8 out places with us – do we need to take the base and a portable smartphone battery pack along just in case or is this just day one jitters? We're not 100% sure yet but we will be testing this more!

What are we likely to see in the future for BB-8?

Being an Orbotix product we are pretty excited to see how BB-8 is going to evolve, looking at the app in its current state it's very reminiscent of our first test for the Sphero product when first had a play with it back in 2012 – and this is where things get exciting.

The shear number of updates and features the sphero app has had and where it is now is quite fantastic – we hope to see a similar path with a whole set of unlockable abilities and ‘special moves’ coming along with awesome augmented reality games and more that use BB-8 as the controller for the game itself but for now we will have to wait and see – with both devices our favourite thing is setting up obstacle courses and racing around them with our mates :)