Here’s Your First Look at Sphero’s Spider-Man Connected Toy

Sphero, makers of the pioneering app-enabled BB-8 Star Wars toy — remember the one that was sold out everywhere in the run-up to The Force Awakens — are creating a new connected toy sensation around the release of Spider-man: Homecoming this summer. What exactly does the new Sphero Spider-man toy do? Details are masked by a web of mystery. But we now know what it looks like thanks to a new teaser posted by the company.

We first reported on the mystery Spidey toy back in March when Internet of Things researcher Lee Ratliff uncovered a series of Sphero FCC filings and other interesting documentation related to the approval and testing required for these kinds of wireless products. Here’s what he found:

Yup, that’s definitely a Sphero Spider-man toy. Now, based on the photo reveal on the Sphero website, we know it’s a figure-style toy. And although we don’t really know anything else, it’s still pretty exciting. Sphero’s BB-8 is the coolest toy in the new generation of Star Wars toys, so it’s fun to imagine what Sphero may have in store for Spider-man.

Here’s what we know about the Sphero Spider-man toy so far:

• It’s described as an “interactive character” that connects to a smartphone via WiFi and/or Bluetooth with a dedicated iOS/Andriod app installed.

• It has sound and light during normal play.

• Inputs include infrared sensor, microphone for speech recognition, accelerometer, and a LED-lit power button the chest.

• It has an LCD on each eye for animation.

• It’s powered by a 3.7VDC rechargeable battery and can be charged via computer with a USB charging cable.

So, it’s interactive, it lights up, makes sounds, and is potentially voice-activated. And since this is Sphero, a company who have heretofore only dealt in rolling robots, it’s no surprise that it has an accelerometer for some sort of motion. So, the big question is: Does it crawl up walls?

Disney, who have a minority investment in Sphero, are obviously pleased with the success of their BB-8 toy and seem to have expanded their licensing arrangement with the Boulder-based company. It’s a safe bet that this isn’t the only inventive Disney product they’ve got in the pipeline. That’s great news for Sphero, and really great news for connected toy fans.

Fandom reached out to Sphero for comment, so if you feel your Spidey senses tingling, it’s because we’ve updated this post with the latest.