Lego Boost Star Wars Set Lets You Build Your Own R2-D2

After first stealing our hearts in 2017 with its fun approach to coding, the Lego Boost robot kits have finally come to the galaxy far, far away. Launching on Sept. 1 for $199, the Lego Boost Droid Commander set lets you build iconic Star Wars droids such as R2-D2 and use them in a variety of fun and educational missions.

For the uninitiated, Lego Boost is a techy take on the iconic building toys that allows kids to build robots and program them to do all kinds of neat stuff while learning some basic coding skills in the process.

That same gamified approach to coding comes to the Droid Commander set, which includes a whopping 1,177 pieces that you’ll use to build R2-D2 as well as the Gonk Droid and Mouse Droid -- two somewhat obscure but still lovable robots that fans of the original trilogy will recognize.

Using the Lego Boost Star Wars app, aspiring masters of the Force can complete more than 40 missions that teach simple drag-and-drop coding, from programming R2-D2 to plot a course or assist an X-Wing pilot to setting the mouse droid to clean up trash and hunt for Rebels. And once your padawan has mastered the included challenges, they can use their imagination to create all kinds of programs and sequences.

The original $159 Lego Boost set is our favorite robot kit for kids, thanks to its ability to marry the classic, satisfying Lego building experience with an intuitive app that makes programming easy. The tech seems like a perfect fit for the world of Star Wars, and with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker releasing this holiday, it couldn’t be arriving at a better time. We look forward to building our own droids and teaching them to take over the galaxy when the Droid Commander kit launches in September.

Credit: LEGO

Michael Andronico

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.