Toy Fair 2017: Spin Master – Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Marvel, ZhuZhu Pets

If you haven’t heard the name Spin Master before, than you probably don’t have kids who were desperate for Hatchimals last Christmas. At Toy Fair 2017, they were one of the must-see booths for their innovative and creative toys, but our interest didn’t lie with hatching pets. We were there for the Disney-related products and we begin our coverage of Spin Master’s booth with one of the coolest toys we saw at Toy Fair, which might also be one of the coolest toys ever.

Star Wars

When The Force Awakens came out, Sphero released a miniature BB-8 remote control gyroscope that was a top seller with adult fans. Now Spin Master is applying that concept to a larger scale, more life-size droid with more interactivity. Hero Droid BB-8 will be hitting stores this fall and is shaping up to be one of the best toys of the year.

While visiting Spin Master, we got the chance to touch and interact with Hero Droid BB-8. He weighs about 8 pounds and is definitely aimed at an older audience, including adult Star Wars fans. There are also two play modes, the first uses a remote control where you can take full control over BB-8’s actions. But the best component is the fact that this droid features voice recognition and can be trained to follow you wherever you go. He also reacts as BB-8 should when you talk about characters he knows. Mention Rey and he gets excited, but say the name “Kylo Ren” and he will find a good place to hide. To see a better demonstration of Hero Droid BB-8, check out our video preview from Toy Fair.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The newest adventure in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise sets sail on May 26th and Spin Master has a treasure trove of adventure toys that will be available by the time the film hits theaters. Their collection includes individual action figures, which are stylized to appeal to kids and collectors, as well as ship play sets. Not much is known about the upcoming film, but one of the ships will be called the Silent Mary and it looks as if Captain Jack Sparrow may have a new ship as well.

Action figures will be sold in two packs, featuring a main character from the film and ghost crewman, which can be used to man the aforementioned ships. I believe one of these characters is Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), who makes a return to the franchise in this film.

A smaller, collectable figurine blind box series is also coming soon, which includes some cool translucent monster figures.

On the role play side, some of Captain Jack Sparrow’s gadgets will be available for kids to play with, including his broken compass and dagger.

But the coolest role play toy from Dead Men Tell No Tales is Jack Sparrow’s sword, which can break and spin around at the hilt with the press of a button.

To see more toys from Spin Master, including Marvel and Disney Channel’s Zhu Zhu Pets, continue to the next page.