These Star Wars drones may be the best toys this year

The BB-8 droid isn't the only hi-tech bit of merchandise hitting toy stores in the run up to the release of The Force Awakens this Christmas: Disney has also unveiled a pair of authentic-looking drones to let you take to the skies.

The drones are manufactured by specialists Air Hog, and you can pick from the X-Wing famously piloted by Luke Skywalker or the Millennium Falcon that Han Solo and Chewbacca like to leap around the galaxy in.

Both drones come with authentic features and lights - the Millennium Falcon even has a special hyper-drive "stunt", but we're not sure exactly what that entails (presumably it doesn't disappear in a puff of rocket smoke).

The drones you're looking for

The two drones are part of a huge merchandising push on the part of Disney as the release date for JJ Abrams' movie draws closer, involving Lego spaceships, kids' costumes and full-size lightsaber toys you can use to battle the dark or light side of the Force as you wish.

A mammoth unboxing and unveiling session was streamed live over YouTube and various retail outlets are using the officially sanctioned Force Friday name to try and flog some Star Wars-related goodies - and we think these drones and BB-8 are the pick of the bunch.

Speaking of retail outlets, the X-Wing and Millennium Falcon drones are on sale now in the US for US$109.99 (roughly £72 and AUS$) and US$69.99 (roughly £46 and AUS$) respectively. We haven't seen them appear elsewhere yet but we would expect them to be available internationally very soon.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.