17-Year-Old Boy Genius Shows You How To Build Homemade 'Star Wars' BB8 Droid

Ever wonder how you could build your own DIY BB8 droid?

Well, a new viral video on Facebook made by a 17-year-old Filipino genius will show you how. Posted on January 22 by Angelo Casimiro, a Physics major student in the Philippines, the video tutorial has raked in almost 250,000 views and 10,000 shares.

Here’s a clearer version of the video on YouTube.

And here’s a progress update.

Angelo used pure household materials and Arduino circuitry to make the phone-controlled, fully-functional, life-sized BB8 droid.

On his Instructables page, the teenager listed in detail all the materials you’ll need to make the homemade BB8. He even included links of where these items can be bought and a PDF file of all the instructions.

Apparently, Angelo came up with the idea of making the homemade BB8 since his dad is a big Star Wars fan. His dad wanted the Sphero BB8 so bad and the toy costs a whopping $210 in the Philippines. since he’s experienced in making robots, Angelo made his own life-sized Sphero BB8 for less than $100. He and his dad built the robot over the holidays after buying a Sphero BB8 and using it as reference.

As seen on his Facebookand YouTube pages, Angelo likes sharing his knowledge of building stuff online.

Good thing we won’t have to buy the expensive one. Now we just have to find the time and patience to actually build the droid.

I’d say Angelo would be kind of like Anakin Skywalker if he were to become a Star Wars character, since he’s specially gifted at building robots. I just hope he won’t cross over to the Dark Side.