11 Star Wars activities to fill time until the new film

Stay on target! We're only a matter of days away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens - and we're still desperately seeking out ways to kill time until the Lucasfilm logo dissolves and the first crawl of a new generation begins.

Time is a funny thing, and as each second stretches out longer and longer you'd be forgiven for allowing your mind to drift into non-Star Wars things like life, food etc. But we're here to put a stop to that nonsense, and to help get you in the mood for the next era of one of the most beloved franchises we've compiled a list of Star Wars activities to help while away the minutes.

Play Star Wars Battlefront and get into the imperial mindset

Star Wars Battlefront

With the Jakku map now launched, Star Wars Battlefront represents a very real way in which you can run around shooting the irritating rebels and quell any uprising as you get it through your nerf herder's brain that the film is nearly here.

As we said in out Star Wars Battlefront review, we completely get that this is a game that is much more about the look and feel of Star Wars than about the intricacies of a modern day shooter, but park those annoyances aside for a bit, stick on your Star Wars Emperor dressing gown and zap some of those pesky Rebels.

See how many steps you can get your BB-8 down before its head falls off

BB-8 - don't try this at home

BB-8 got a hell of a reception when it rolled its way into the world at Star Wars' Anaheim conference, and then it managed it all over again when it made the jump to the top of just about every Star Wars fan's Christmas wish list.

We've had a BB-8 in the office for a fair time now and, although it was pretty much the most awesome thing in the room when we got it, it's not quite as exciting as it once was.

The dear old Sphero-made droid is pretty good at coping with most things, but steps are as bad for it as a Dalek. So we're going to try and navigate it down the office staircase and see if we can keep it fully capitated. But, to be entirely clear, we don't suggest that you do this at home as you may damage your very expensive toy and/or create the mother of all trip hazards.

Buy a toy lightsaber and perfect your swzzz noise

Lightsabers are awesome

We can explain what we mean here but we're tzzzz swzzzz too tsssh, bzzzz tsssh busy recreating Luke's amazing/retrospectively under-powered dual with his own father in The Empire Strikes Back.

And as everyone who ever painstakingly researched every little detail of Star Wars knows, the Ben Burtt-created sound was generated by the interlock motor of a film projector and a broken microphone cable that picked up the buzz from a TV CRT. Fact.

Put on every single Star Wars item of clothing that you already own.

Star Wars clothing

Yep - we definitely have the set of Star Wars socks and more Star Wars T-shirts than any grown adult should be allowed, but that doesn't stop us from seeing if it's possible to wear all of the clothing *at the same time*.

This is a tough one - not least because some of those shirts only really fitted us properly a long time ago (in a Galaxy far, far away)

Obsessively comb eBay for that Boba Fett action figure that you got for Christmas in the 80s

Boba Fett - awesomesauce

You're not going to get a boxed version unless you're on some kind of sports star's salary, but that doesn't mean your overwhelming nostalgia should be denied.

You can hunt down that amazing Boba Fett plastic action figure and hope that the constant checking of the price will allow you to forget that Boba fett's dad/clone was actually the base for all of the clones in the Clone Wars. Because Prequels.

Get out your dusty old lego and try to build a replica of the Mos Eisley cantina

Star Wars Lego

It may be a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but Mos Eisley does at least have a lovely cantina where everybody knows your… NO BLASTERS, NO BLASTERS!

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.