Droid Depot Review – Custom Astromech Droids – Galaxy’s Edge -Disneyland California

When Visiting Galaxy’s Edge guests have the opportunity to attend several additional paid attractions to further enhance their journey into the Star Wars Universe. One such attraction is the very popular Droid Depot. Giving visitors the chance to construct their very own Astormech Droid from the franchise.

The Droid Depot has certainly proved very popular, as can be seen from the hundreds of droids you see carried around Galaxy’s edge and the park in general. But does the Droid Depot represent good value and is it worth visiting with your party? Are the doids any good and what is the whole experience actually like? Find out everything you need to know in our Droid Depot Review.

What is The Droid Depot

The Droid Depot allows guests the chance to build their very own Custom Star Wars Astomech. Builders can tailor their droids to their own liking with a number of different colored body parts, Shapes, and styles along with custom accessories.

Builders choose from 3 differing types of droids, and then chose various subtypes and body colors from an endless conveyer belt, before piecing them together at the build station. The finished droids can then be further embellished with Custom accessories and personalities before heading off to the park and then home with you forever. You can even build an exact or near replica of the famous droids from the movies.

It’s a fun and unique experience, best described as Build A Bear…but with Droids.

How Much Is The Droid Depot?

$99.99 per Astromech droid unit, plus tax (This has risen to $119.99 over in Florida!)

For this, you get the experience, the finished droid, remote controller, and cardboard Carry Case.

Only one builder per purchase and it is recommended for 3-year-olds and up. Each Buklder can have 2 people with them and at least one party member must be 14+

Note – Prices rose from the original $99.99 up to $119.99 in both California and Florida, however, the price dropped back down to $99.99 recently in California, but not Florida. We guess demand slowed in CA, or maybe this is just the off-season pricing we will have to wait for the busier summer months to see if the new pricing sticks.

Booking

Booking can be done online, however, there is normally a lot of availability. On our last visit, there was 100% availability right up to the day we visited. We actually didn’t want to be contained with a time slot so opted to just visit via a walk-up. Keep an eye on availability, and if it remains plentiful, just consider walk-ups.

If you do book, there is a One-Day Cancellation policy. You need to cancel at least one day prior, and if you fail to show up you will be charged full price. A credit card is needed to confirm the reservation.

The Droid Depot Experience

The first thing to say about the experience is it is a far cry from Savi’s Workshop Custom Built Lightsaber Experience. You really are just grabbing a few pieces of a conveyer belt and then assembling them yourself. There is no magical ceremony, no interjection of the force, and no lights and music, you are just building a droid.

After the check-in process, where you will need to decide which Series you want to build (they are all the same price so we are not too sure why), you are given a tray to place your parts into. You then head on over to the Conveyer Belt.

Here seemingly endless parts pass in front of you and you simply pick out the various parts that appeal to you. We were building a BB-series so we needed 4 components. A Motor, all the same, a Large casing that comes in many colors, and a head base, again in a choice of colors, and a head top, which comes in various colors and styles. We had decided to just go for a BB-8 style, so just picked out the standard parts. But we even managed to get this wrong by choosing an orange head base, BB-8 is white, but the assistant pointed this out for us, but we stuck with our choice, it’s supposed to be custom right? (we can be so basic at times)

You then head over to the construction zone where you follow the instructions printed on the table to build your Droid. It’s a pretty simple process that requires almost no tools. Most parts just clip together. Although attraction the two parts of the head require a screwdriver, which is handily provided for you.

Once you have all the parts assembled, you call over the assistant who places the droid in the activation pod, and you press the button to fire it up. The droid slowly comes alive, first with movement, then beeps and whistles before being ready to head out unto the world.

After a quick test on the desk, which nearly ended in tears, and we imagine quite often does, the droid is placed in a carry box and the experience is over. You can check the droid in at the desk if you want to leave it here until later in the day. We were heading right back to our hotel for a mid-day refresh, so didn’t need this service but it’s overwise really handy.

Droid Interactions

The Droids are designed to interact with other Droids when they come into contact with them, along with a few select locations around Galaxy’s Edge. What this really means is if the Droid detects, via Bluetooth technology, another droid in its vicinity, it will beep at it. The same happens at select locations around Galaxy’s Edge.

This is most profound when you have a personality chip in, for example, a Resistance droid will sound almost nervous in First order areas, and Droids of different personalities will interact differently.

However, it is not the most spectacular of features and really all you are getting are a few random bleeps and bloops as you meet other droids or certain areas.

The Droid Depot Options

There are 3 main droid types and then several sub-types of each. You can choose to build a replica of certain well-known droids (R2D2 or BB8) or go completely off-pistes with your own style of droid. There are only limited customization options though and these are mainly color based.

BB-Series

BB-8 is one of Disney’s most accepted additions to the Star Wars universe. Even those largely unimpressed by Disney’s films and Tv additions, kind of like BB-8. He is a super cute and pretty funny little droid, and most people warm to him pretty well. So building your own BB-8 is pretty cool, and definitely, the most popular droid people build.

There are plenty of different options for the BB series droids, the heads come in three options, the standard dome, along with two more angular choices. They also come in lots of color variations, from simply orange and white (as opposed to white and orange), to purple, blue, red, and black. There are also clear, versions where you can see the insides working. There is a really cool silver and black version that we were really tempted by but we stuck with the classic BB-8.

We think most people will want to just build a pretty standard droid and maybe look at the customized options on future visits.

R- Series

The R-Series is one of the most famous droids in the universe, and obviously is the model that R2D2 is based on. Again, you can get an R-unit in the exact style of R2-D2 if you like or choose from 5 different head styles and multiple colors. There seemed less choice for the R-units, especially as you needed the legs to match.

The finished units look pretty cool but they are not as fun to drive as the BB units.

C-Series

This is not going to be a popular choice and is more suited to those looking for something unique and special. They are very similar to the R-units and pretty hard to pick out the correct parts.

Are the Finished Droids Any Good?

Yes and no really. There are some serious QC issues with the plastic components and we had to go through 3 outer casings until we go one without defects. The overall finish is a little weak as well. They have a very plastic feel to them, and the controllers are absolute garbage

The detailing all feels very cheap, these are just cast plastic units that look and feel every bit like they have come out of a Chinese Factory. In our Review of Savi’s Workshop, we mention that the Lightsabers are not toys, however here that is exactly how they feel. We kind of hoped for more of a collector’s item, but they are just too plastic. However, it is not all bad.

Compared to other Units on the market the ones available here are actually pretty good! They are larger and equally as detailed. We also find the BB units really good fun to play with. The action and movement is incredibly lifelike as he bobs and wheels across the floor. We donated our unit to our nephew at Christmas and he was over the moon with his own BB-8

We think some of the cheapness comes from keeping them durable. If the units were too detailed, then the constant wearing on the surfaces as they roll along would tarnish any intricate dealing pretty quickly.

The R series and C Series are a bit more detailed, but we find them a bit too small. They are not tiny and overall larger than the BB units but the Real Droids in the movie are almost Man sized. These are too large to be mini units but just don’t feel big enough to be replicas. But they are still really cool and make all the right noises. They are less fun to drive, but then R2D2 was never a particularly exciting Droid in the way he moved.

Extra Accessories

It simply wouldn’t be Disney if they didn’t offer additional items for you to buy to make the experience more personalized!

Backpacks

The first thing you “need” is a way to carry your droid. As we mentioned above the Droid interacts at various locations within the park and with other droids, you come across. Naturally, you don’t want to be carrying the droid, and stuffing it away in its carry case you would not get to see the interaction properly. So Dinsey will sell you these neat little bags that open up at the back and let your droid peek out.

At $49.99 they are not cheap, but they are pretty good quality and will give you a place to store the droid at home, or you could use it as an everyday bag. Anyone familiar with the Loungefly scene at Dinsey will know $49.99 is not overly expensive for a Disney Bag!

Personality Chips

We are a little less enamored with the Personality chips, priced at $14.99 the chips change the personality of your droid. There are six chips, two for each type. Resistance, First Order, or Smuggler.

On the face of it, the chips do not do a lot. They largely just change the tone and sound of the droid’s chirps and whistles. This really feels like spending money for the sake of it rather than for any real practical purpose.

The Chips do also change the way the Droids interact with both the park and other droids. Droids of a similar type are going to react much more readily with each other and react differently at certain parts of the park. But it’s just not a huge difference, and the standard personality still reacts well to most things.

Overall – Is The Droid Depot Worth It?

Unlike Savi’s, the experience is not really worth all that much. We would certainly not pay to just visit the Droid Depot, especially as you do not need to, anyone can wander in and have a look around, and you could even just buy a Droid off the shelf.

The actual build experience is not really that special either. You are just taking a few pre-fabbed pieces and clipping them together. There is no Magic or special effects, it’s almost like a production line job! In that way it is ultra-realistic and immersive, this is what life is really like in the Star Wars universe for most people, slaving away at a 9-5 for minimum wage.

However, the actual product is pretty good. So while we kind of balk at $99.99 for the experience, we don’t think that is too bad of a price for the Droid itself. They are not the finest droids in the world to look at, but they are pretty smart pieces of Tech, we especially love the BB units, the way they roll feels so futuristic and cool, it’s almost like Disney had the toy tech and decided to include it in the films just so they could use the rolling robot tech to sell toys!

When you compare the product with other Toy Robots it actually compares pretty well, even really poor quality cheap Chinese knock-offs around to $50-60 and official Star Wars products are usually really small and cost $80-100 or are really small toys with limited functionality. Even the off-the-shelf droids at the Depot start at $99. Sure you can get handcrafted custom units that are FAR better, but these require far deeper pockets too.

So really the actual question here is do you want a Star Wars Droid? Either as a fun toy or just a cool collector’s piece. If so the Droid depot is a great way to go about this, even if you want a total clone of BB-8 or R2-D2. We have also seen some really good custom finishes of Droid Depot Droids if you want to get past the slightly shoddy finish of the droid with a little DIY Handicrafts.

Finally, scratch almost everything we said above for those of you with younger kids. They absolutely love the experience. It’s like Build-A-Bear but for robots. We were in and out of the Depot in around 20mins, some kids spend hours in their agonizing (in a good way) over the tiniest detail of their droid, delighting in the fact that they are putting it together themselves, and really appreciating the end product because it was their own doing. Maybe Disney really did target this one at the kids, and hence why the Droids have a toy-like feel, and in this way, they really have got it spot on.

They also tend to be far less critical of the finished product as, well, they like toys.

Should We Visit Savi’s or the Droid Depot?

We hear this one a lot, as people are wanting to have the Savi’s experience but without the high cost. Honestly, the Droid Depot is no match. Savi’s is a really immersive Star Wars experience. It takes you on a journey through the magic of Lightsaber construction and offers a really moving experience. The Droid Depot is so much more about just building a droid.

It is just not a replacement. We get it’s so much less costly than the Lightsaber experience, but it’s with really good reason. You can’t just build a droid and expect it to replace the experience of the lightsaber ceremony. The only reason to visit the Drid Depot is if you want a custom droid as a keepsake, it’s really that simple… unless as we said, you have young kids who would actually far more enjoy the building experience, but it’s still not a replacement.

Our advice is if you really want that all-encompassing Star Wars experience, but just cannot justify $219 for a lightsaber, don’t spend $99 on a droid. The simple truth is the BEST Star Wars experiences at Galaxy’s Edge, are free (well assuming you are willing to queue!). We love Savi’s but it pales in comparison to Rise of the Resistance or Smugglers Run.

Our advice is not to focus on the material but to enjoy the actual experiences available in the Outpost, you don’t need to take something home. Savi’s and Droid Depot are both great parts of Galaxy’s Edge and are worth it in their own rights for what they offer, but they are not essential elements. We can happily visit the park without doing either, but the same cannot be said for Rise of the resistance or Smugglers run, they are the real headliners of the Outpost!

Have Your Say

Let us know your thoughts on the Droid Depot. Have you been to build a droid? What did you make of the experience? How did you find the finished article? And what style and color did you go for? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have any questions just fire away.