Sphero will stop producing Disney toy robots. This means that no new BB-8, R2D2, Lightning McQueen and Spiderman robots are made. The control app for the robots is still supported for at least two years.

Ceo Paul Beberian explains to The Verge that, despite the success of the BB8 robots, the interest in the Disney lines declines annually, especially after the release of the film on which the product is based. “When you release toys, the first year is the best, the second year less and the third year the least,” says Beberian.

The Disney robots cost, in part due to the license, more to produce than Sphero’s own robots. Deleting production is also a time and personnel issue, because Sphero employs only one hundred employees.

In addition, the CEO claims that “all Star Wars fans already have the robots” and that the company data shows that the robots are played to a limited extent before they end up on the shelf. The same applies to the Spiderman and Lightning McQueen robots. With the latter, the Sphero developers worked with Pixar animators to make McQueens facial expressions look as good as possible.

The partnership between Sphero and Disney lasted three years. It started with the development of the BB8 robot, which came out in 2015 with the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In addition to the toy lines, Sphero develops educational robots, such as the Sphero BOLT . Beberian says that the popularity of Sphero’s educational line is increasing annually, in contrast to that of the Disney lines.

Sphero BB-8